LIME2-4GB dead or not?

[philderv]

Hello everybody,

This is my first message on this forum, I'm a French user. So, English is not my first language, sorry if I don't express myself very well.

Ok, here is the issue.
11 years ago, I bought an A20-OLinuXino-LIME2-4GB (Hardware Rev. C) and until yesterday, I used it to host an Debian/Yunohost Mail Server. No problem with that.
Also, I used it with a battery, this model: BATTERY-LIPO6600mAh

Yesterday, I noticed that server crashed, it seems: no display in HDMI (LCD screen Asus VE228H).
I stopped everything.
Brutally. I mean, unplugged power cable.


But, when I tried to start again the Debian OS on my SDCard, nothing happened.
Power LED was fix red, with LED orange for battery, fix too.
No HDMI display, no activity on ETH LED, and, of course, nothing on USB Keyboard (standard).

What I tried
- boot the LIME2 with only: battery + HDMI cable to LCD Screen Assus VE228H (no SDCard, no USB, no ETH cable) = nothing - no display - fail

-boot the LIME2 with same config as previous, but:
=> push POWER button: battery LED blinking 1 time only after 5 seconds of pushing button;
=> push RESET button: battery LED go dark during 3 - 4 seconds, then become again orange fix, if I release button;
=> push RECOVERY button: nothing.

Yesterday, I tried with another power supply adapter, with Output 12V / 1A / 12 W, and only with HDMI plugged and with/without SDCard: LED power was red fix / battery LED was orange blinking.
But no avail, no display, no boot.

Tee board seems, visibly, no damaged.

What do you think?
So, what I can do now to test if my LIME2 is alive or dead?

I know it was old, and I can admit it was completely dead.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

[LubOlimex]

Try with freshly written SD card if you haven't already. I think that maybe the file system on the SD card got corrupted. Maybe just for the test (just to see if it boots) try with the latest image, refer to this document: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO/master/DOCUMENTS/OLIMAGE/Olimage-guide.pdf

[philderv]

Hello LubOlimex,

Thanks for your answer!

I don't add a new post because my post wasn't validated at this time, but here is what I tried too:

- flash this image https://sd-card-images.johang.se/boards/olinuxino_lime2.html on a 32 Go SD Card,
- try to boot it on the Lime 2 (ETH card and USB Keyboard plugged in, HDMI to my screen)
- same thing: no signal with only power LED Red fix,
- try this:
1 - push power button: ETH Led light on one time briefly;
2 - push Reset button: ETH Led light on one time briefly when I released button;
3 - push Recovery button: nothing.

Today, I will reflash the 32 SD Card with this image:
https://images.olimex.com/release/a20/ # Debian Bookworm Base
and see what happen.

But I have a few little hope on this matter!

Tchuss! later for news!

[LubOlimex]

Maybe also test with another SD card or maybe validate the one you have with something like f3(fight flash fraud) or H2testW. SD card die often.

By the way also use Balena Etcher or USBImager to prepare the card, since I've had experiences in the past where something wrote some strange bits at the start of a card and preparing it manually without low-level formatting led to failure to boot.

[philderv]

Here is the result,

I used Gnome Disk to write the Olimex Image:
nothing happen - No HDMI Signal

So, I did a an advanced format (is it equal to LLF??) with Gnome Disk.
I'm testing right now the 32 Go SDCard with f3 tool.
It'll take a while I guess.

PS: another thing, I noticed: there was 2 partitions on my SDCard when I used https://sd-card-images.johang.se/boards/olinuxino_lime2.html, one named 'rootfs' and another one I didn't remember the name, but seems to be an EFI partition.
The LIME2 is EFI compatible/capable?

PS: when I flash the Olimex Image with Gnome Disk, there is only one partition.

So, is there a problem/issue here?