SD-Card Problem on new RPi 3B+

I have a big problem with a couple of just bought RPis 3B+.

I bought a used RPi 3B+ some weeks ago, bought an MicroSD Card, setup Boot files and RISC OS Boot files.
Everything worked fine.

Now I bought five new RPis 3B+ and some MicroSD cards of the same type (Intenseo 4GB even I think that this information is meaningless as this is only a trade name and products behind may be entriely different). I set up one of them using SDCreate, copied content of the old SDCard started and yes nothing worked. The green activity LED of the RPi was permanently on. Screen was dark but cursor was flashing at top left edge.

I pressed Escape Key one time. No change. I pressed Escape Key a second time and RPi RISC OS graphics
popped up. “Supervisor”. Commando prompt.

I typed “Desktop”. After the information that the machine didn’t start properly I got the desktop.
I clicked on SDFS drive 0 symbol. System hang up. Escape gave somethign like disc drive empty.

After some tries I found out that it is helpful to remove the (unmounted :-( ) SD-Card and to replug it.
Aftwards everthing worked except that the machine wasn’t intitalized properly.

I put latest RISC OS beta ROM on th SD Card. Same effect but now it tells me where it blocks during start: At the SDIODriver and if pressing Escape at end of Init. At next attempt I removed the SD-Card during the endless loop at start up of SDIODriver and replugged it immediately afterwards. And surprise everything works as expected.

Any ideas how I can get around the problem?

I don’t know how new the RPis are really. I ordered them in February 2020. 3 weeks delivery time was expected but at the end they have been delivered last week :-(.

How can I find out the manufucturing date/series of the RPis?

Many thanks in advance to any useful hints.

Any ideas how I can get around the problem?

Hi Thomas.

Unfortunately, the problem is probably in the name: Intenso. Second round products. Can work well… or not. I use only Samsung and Kingston Endurance cards. No problem so far.

Any ideas how I can get around the problem?

My suggestion woould be to buy at least one card from the Rool store.
https://www.riscosopen.org/content/sales/risc-os-pi

The delivery is usually very quick and you will then have a good starting point.

I bought today a 16GB SanDisk MicroSD card. I checked various variants carefully. NOOBs Lite failed with same error on all cards. I placed a Pico distribution on the SanDisk SD whithout changing anything in the formating. That worked fine and at the end I copied the Pico installation from the SanDisk SD to RAM-Disc and from there onto 3 of the Intenseo cards:

1 4GB formatted by manufacturer
1 4GB reformatted by myself using Fat32FS
1 16GB reformatted by myself using Fat32FS

All failed. Flashing cursor came up and from time to time I got the RPI lightning which indicates low power, however my ditigal multimeter showed that voltage was constant over all the time.

At last I setup up the SanDisk SD with my RISC OS installation and yes it is working. So problem solved (except NOOBS lite). Many thanks for the hints!

What is still a bit confusing that I bought a 4GB Intenso Card at the same shop a few weeks ago and afterwards shop was closed due to Corona and reopened beginning of this week. The card I bought some weeks ago worked the others not however …

So it is not a RISC OS bug and the section where I placed it is wrong.
However the RPI lighting may be a consequence of a certain behaviour of the SDIODriver or underlaying HAL parts. Perhaps it sends a reset but this has unexpected consequences either due to cards or perhaps a slight change in the new RPis 3B+. It is difficult to access the working old RPi 3B+. If I have the occasion I shall swap the cards to see whether the new cards are behaving in the same way on the old RPI 3B+ and vice versa.

Corona? You should install VProtect :)

Corona? You should install VProtect :)

People in my generation will recall Corona being heavily promoted as something children would want.
Available in most corner shops (that availability statement may be true today but I suspect parents wouldn’t be too keen on this version)

and further items should meaner to Aldershot of course.

Corona? You should install VProtect :)

Ironically, I posted an updated VProtect in a Stardot thread recently which needs testing.