Pi 2B not producing picture on screen

Question

My Pi 2B will start, showing the rainbow startup picture. After that, nothing else happens. It looks like the Pi is reading the SD card, but it has been doing this for a while. What do I do?

Answer 1

I would suggest to reformat and reinstall the OS to your SD card by following these steps:

For Windows

• Download the SD formatting tool: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/eula_windows/
• Make sure you enable the Format size adjustment
• Check that the name of the SD matches with the ons in the SD formatting tool I.E.: "F"
• Click the format button

Mac

• Download the SD formatting tool: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/eula_mac/
• Install it.
• Select the overwrite format option.
• Check that the name of the SD matches with the on in the SD formatting tool
• Click the format button

Linux

• Open gparted (If not installed type in terminal: sudo apt-get install gparted
• Format as FAT

These steps are the same on ALL devices (Windows, Mac, Linux)

• Extract the files from the NOOBS zip:

• Select all these files and copy them over to the SD card (Can take a while)

• Insert SD into Pi and give it keyboard, mouse, LAN(internet), and last power.

If everything is done correct the Pi should boot into the NOOBS OS where you can select and download OS versions (Dual boot also works)

After installing: You will need to expand the filesystem by going to the terminal and type: sudo raspi-config and select the first option:"Expand filesystem": More info about raspi-config: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/raspi-config.md

Troubleshooting

If your screen keeps blank, you may need to select the correct display mode by pressing a number on the keyboard:

1. HDMI mode - this is the default display mode.
2. HDMI safe mode - select this mode if you are using the HDMI connector and cannot see anything on screen when the Pi has booted.
3. Composite PAL mode - select either this mode or composite NTSC mode if you are using the composite RCA video connector.
4. Composite NTSC mode

I got the information from the "INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt" file inside the NOOBS files. http://pastebin.com/d61ttv1F

Answer 2

Make sure you are using the correct image (pi2 not pi B).

Also check if your power supply is up to the task.

A lot of trouble can be traced back to low power beeing deliverd to your Pi (also due to USB extention cables etc)

Answer 3

Actually those blinking LEDs could be trying to tell you something - look up those Green LED flashes on the Elinux.org site's R-Pi Troubleshooting.