Possible bad display on a week old unit

jmatonis · December 20, 2022, 8:53pm

Hello to the group,

I received a pi-top 3 last week and I am having issues with the display. After about 15 minutes with it, the display faded to white and then displays as if it’s like a tube type display, where the outer edges are dark and the inner circle is whitish. It seems to be an intermittent issue. Some days it works fine and others it happens. I’ve swapped out raspberry pi’s, reseated the video cable to the hub. I’ve reached out to support and am waiting on a reply. I’ve sent 2 requests per the website and one through email. Anyone run into this issue? Thanks for any advice.

Tom-B · January 10, 2023, 8:15pm

@jmatonis - Welcome to the pi-top forum!

I’ve been messing with a couple of the pi-top[3]s that I purchased from the Summer Sale. One of them are exhibiting a similar issue you describe that just started today.

Not sure if it has anything to do with it, but for the last week or so, the pi-top[3] worked fine with the pi-topOS but when I flashed a microSD with the latest Raspberry Pi OS, it started upon reboot in that OS.

I’ve since returned the microSD previously flashed with pi-topOS and the “halo” on the screen continues and the screen is also flickering on mine as well.

UPDATE: I went back to the pitopOS and issues dissipated and all is ok. Extra steps are necessary to use a different OS.

jmatonis · December 21, 2022, 11:33pm

I run the support packages on all the OS’s I’ve used, so I don’t think it’s a drive issue. It’s just an odd thing with this unit. I’ve used it a few more time without any problems.This is my second unit, the first one was purchased a year or so ago on eBay and outside of the battery failing twice it’s worked good.

bernie · January 9, 2023, 7:54am

I just received a pi-top[3] ordered last summer. The screen flickers. Most, but not all, of the screen is affected–a small margin around the edges does not flicker. Flickering occurs regardless whether the pi-top uses battery power or has the supplied power-supply connected. The pi itself is alright, for it boots and displays fine when I remove it from the pi-top and connect to external peripherals. I have emailed support@pi-top for advice.

bernie · January 10, 2023, 12:02am

Today, day 2 of using the pi-top[3], the screen flickers very little. However, the performance is truly sluggish, worse than yesterday. Impossible to use.

Jacq · January 14, 2023, 4:21am

I’m having exactly this same screen flicker. First the battery indicator went away. Then it started having random reboots if I move the device while using it. Tonight this flicker, making it painful to use.

All I’ve done with it is install updates and use vim to write text files. Hoping someone posts some solutions.

bernie · January 14, 2023, 11:12pm

Over a period of 3-4 days my pi-top[3] screen flickering “went away” gradually. The only thing I did was remove the cooling bridge long enough to apply a small drop of thermal compound where the bridge touches the heat-sink.

Of course, I have no idea whether the thermal compound is what helped.

(Aside from a newly stable screen, overall pi-top performance with PiTopOS remains unacceptably slow, especially if I launch the Chromium browser, to the point of becoming unresponsive and requiring a reboot. I wrote the pi-top people and they offered to send a new hub and new cooling bridge. Meanwhile I learned of DietPi which doesn’t freeze the pi-top.)

tzott · November 15, 2023, 4:19am

Not sure if this is same problem but it sounds like it. Please see my video and photos.
https://youtu.be/9yvTKoWJnD4 <— Video

zliudr · December 4, 2023, 5:48am

I had the same issue with one unit I got from the summer sale and had to return it. pi top OS was too slow.

Which raspberry pi OS version and bit-width? I was trying to run the latest 64-bit pi OS bookworm from an SD card that I took from my Pi4 but after seeing the OS splash screen appear and disappear, I couldn’t get into the GUI. I also couldn’t see the pi on my router so RPI must have not reached the proper run level. I then read about what the latest version of pi OS I should run. It turned out to be 32-bit pi OS bullseye (under legacy) and it worked.

Also this link @jmatonis posted worked to get the battery indicator. I bet it also made it possible to power down after I select shut down. Screen brightness works but I don’t know if that’s integrated into the screen controller or through OS.