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UPDATE 2: IT IS MY TV. The Pi boots perfectly fine, always, when connected to my monitor. My TV is a Toshiba 32SL733.

UPDATE: I can confirm. My Pi2 does not boots if the HDMI is connected. It does not matter the OS, the USB cable or the power supply, it just does not boot with the HDMI connected. To be fair, 1 in 20 times it does boot with the HDMI connected. It must be a defect in my device because I cannot see any other question related to this issue.

My RPi2 does not boots when the HDMI cable is connected.

I have the RPi2 connected via HDMI to the TV and using a good short USB cable to an USB port also in the TV.

When I turn on the TV the red LED turn on and the the green lights up for about a second and that's it, it does nothing else, no boot, no screen output, nothing.

The Pi only boots if I unplug the HDMI, turn on the TV and it starts booting like normal and I plug the HDMI back in during boot. I set hdmi_force_hotplug=1 to get hdmi even when is not plug in during boot.

I tried with different power supplies with no difference and the Pi does not complains about power when running (no rainbow square at all)

Any ideas? it is very annoying.

I am running DietPi just for Kodi and the Pi has a D-link USB Stick (also no different behaviour without the USB stick)

Everything works great except that it has to have the HDMI unplug when power up to start booting, after that I plug it and everything is great.

2 Answers 2

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Usually a Pi draws too much power to be powered from a TV usb-port. (mine seems to draw a lot during boot)

Seems you are in luck, with a properly powered USB port in your TV. However this could also be the OS you run just not displaying the rainbow square or having issues with HDMI.

Have you kept your Pi up-to-date with software and firmware upgrades?

Have you tried to flash your SD cart with OSMC/OpenElec instead? These are well maintained projects build specifically for running Kodi.

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  • I do not think it is related to the OS because I cannot see the rainbow screen before boot the OS. DietPi is updated. If another PSU does not work I will try OpenElec just in case too. Jan 12, 2016 at 20:47
  • have you tried with the recommended power req (1.8A) check here: raspberrypi.org/help/faqs/#power
    – Havnar
    Jan 13, 2016 at 8:48
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You're not getting enough power to boot the RPi when you plug in the HDMI cord. Without the strain of the HDMI cord, you probably have enough to boot the RPi, but if you increase the load on the device, you'll probably run into problems like SD card corruption.

Compared to the RPi's internals, the USB and HDMI interfaces are very power hungry. On boot, the RPi detects that a TV is connected and tries to send the TV a signal. That signal ends up pulling more power than the TV is able to provide and crashes your RPi.

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  • All of yours explanations makes a lot of sense but they do not fit quite well with the fact that I already tested with a 2A good quality power supply with a good USB cable and it still does not boot. Indeed, sometimes, it does boot just when I turn on the TV.Just to be sure I will try with a differente power and cable. Also the Pi was showing the rainbow square perfectly before I change the USB cable to a better one. I still think as you do, it is a power issue, but I am confused. Jan 12, 2016 at 20:49
  • @JoseMaría: Interesting, I thought you were trying to power it from the TV's USB port. Have you tried a different HDMI cable/port? Something may be wrong with that cable.
    – Jacobm001
    Jan 12, 2016 at 20:51
  • Yes indeed. Firstly I was powering it from the TV, then I though it could be a power problem and I tried with an external PSU, same result. I have tried a couple HDMI cables, one 1£ cable and one Amazon basics, same behaviour. Also differents HDMI ports, same behaviour. I will make some time and try in a PC monitor instead of the TV. Jan 13, 2016 at 8:18
  • I tried in my monitor and it works perfectly. It must be something wrong in my TV. Jan 14, 2016 at 19:50

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