Hi,
I love the Raspberry Pi, and would love to use it for a bunch of stuff, but unless someone can help me I think I am done with it.
I got my Pi about 1 year ago and played around with it initially, but only sparingly here and there after that. Last month I decided that I would get serious about it and set up XBMC on it to run on my main TV.
I installed Openelec, got everything setup and started using it. It was fine for a few days, and then I noticed that periodically it would just die. The screen would go blank, and all the lights except the red power LED would go off. I would have to physically turn the power off and on again in order to restart the Pi.
I wasn't too worried initially as I figured it would do this occasionally. But it just got worse and worse over time and eventually got to the point where I couldn't run XBMC for more than 10 minutes without this happening.
So I started doing some research and came up with all the information about inadequate power being supplied, and all the problems associated with it. I figured that was the issue so I went about solving it. I tried a bunch of different power supplies / chargers that I had lying around, but they all had the same effect.
I have quite a selection of power supplies / chargers both branded and not - including Blackberry Playbook, Samsung S4, Apple iPad & iPhone, different amperage - 1A, 1.5A, 2A, different voltage - 5V, 5.25V, etc.... But none of them seemed to solve the problem. Sure, some lasted longer, some shorter, but really, in the end didn`t make much difference.
I then read about the importance of a good USB cable, so I went and bought a number of different cables, including some 24AWG cables, but again, none seemed to make a difference.
I did all the testing between TP1 and TP2 for all the different combinations of cables and chargers, and for the most part, they fell well within the range, and most hovered just under the 5volt standard (ie 4.97, 4.95)
I also tested the F3 Polyfuse and it appears to be functioning properly with almost no loss of voltage at all.
I don`t understand what the problem would be. I am not overclocking, overvolting, etc...... my Pi. I am just using the standard / basic settings. The only things that I have plugged in to the Pi is the Ethernet cable, and a Logitech wireless mouse / keyboard combo dongle, and of course the HDMI cable.
I have tried running the system without the mouse / keyboard plugged in, but that didn't seem to make any difference either.
I finally broke down and figured that even though I have a large selection of cables and chargers, and that I tested the voltage of each combination, that maybe it still wasn't enough. So I ordered a specific Raspberry Pi charger from "Pi Supply". The chargers (I got two of them) finally came in last week so I enthusiastically hooked it up to my Pi and fired it up. It worked fine for awhile, but eventually blanked out.
I have spent a lot of time, and money trying to get this to work, but I just can't see to get it going.
Anyone have any last minute advice or suggestions before I permanently throw in the towel?
Thanks for any help!