The RPi 5 seems to be getting power, but I suspect not enough to successfully run it. My router sees the RPi briefly, but I can’t access it with Putty and after about a minute, the listing disappears. My color vision isn’t good enough to tell what color the RPi LED is for sure - I think yellow and when I asked my wife, she said yellow-green, which was no help. I’ve tried two different 45W RPi power supplies and tried setting the PiPower5 switches to several settings with no success.
The RPi has the both the RPi Active Cooler and the RTC battery. There is also an offset to the GPIO header due to the Active Cooler. The OS is up-to-date and the RPi functions normally without the PiPower5.
If you have any suggestions of what I might do, or things to test (I have a multimeter), I would appreciate it.
Thank you for providing such detailed information – it is very helpful.From your description, the Raspberry Pi 5 itself appears to be fine, since it boots and runs fine without the PiPower5 connected.
Here is a summary of the current situation:PiPower5 connected: The Pi 5 starts briefly and is visible on your router for a short period.After about one minute: The device goes offline.SSH (PuTTY) connection: Not possible.
This indicates that the Pi 5 at least begins the boot process, but an issue occurs during startup.
To help us further diagnose the issue, could you please check the following items?
Check the PiPower5 status LEDs
Please observe the LEDs on the PiPower5 (a photo would be very helpful). Specifically:Is the PWR LED solid on?Is the BAT LED lit?How many battery level indicator bars are showing?This information will help us determine whether the PiPower5 is currently being powered by the external power supply or the battery.
Check boot messages via HDMI monitor
If possible, please connect an HDMI monitor to the Raspberry Pi 5. Compared to just watching the router list, the monitor can directly show:Whether an undervoltage warning appears,Whether a Kernel Panic occurs,Whether the boot process gets stuck at a particular stage
This would provide very valuable information.
Check the SDSIG jumper setting
Please confirm that the SDSIG jumper is connected to the PI3V3 position as required for the Raspberry Pi 5. If convenient, please also take a photo of the current jumper settings on your PiPower5.
You mentioned trying different “switch settings.” Could you please clarify whether you are referring to:The Charge Power DIP switch settings?Or the Default ON / SDSIG jumper settings?
We want to confirm exactly which part you adjusted.
Check the influence of the Active Cooler on GPIO connection
You mentioned that you have the Raspberry Pi Active Cooler installed and that the GPIO header is offset in height. We suggest a simple test:Temporarily remove the Active Cooler,Connect the PiPower5 directly to the Raspberry Pi 5,Try to boot again
Poor GPIO contact can sometimes cause intermittent startup issues like this. (This is only for a short test and will not harm the Pi.)
Measure the 5V voltage with a multimeter
If you have a multimeter handy, please measure the voltage between:GPIO Pin 2 (5V) and Pin 6 (GND) Or GPIO Pin 4 (5V) and Pin 6 (GND)
Observe the voltage during the boot process. Under normal conditions, it should stay between approximately 5.0V and 5.3V. If the voltage drops significantly below 4.8V during startup, please let us know the measured value.
We look forward to your findings so we can continue troubleshooting.
Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll pursue these as I can – it should be fairly soon.
A couple of additional notes. The PiPower5 looks like it is functioning properly. The status lights are consistent with it working properly. I’ll provide additional info once I am able.
Using the monitor is a good idea. I usually run headless, but any info I can get from watching the monitor would be useful. I can look at the RPi 5 logs too, to see if there’s something useful there.
The SDSIG is set to PI3V3. The DIP switches I mentioned were the Charge Power DIP switches. I tried several settings with no success.
It is recommended to not remove the Active Cooler once installed as the risk of damage to the RPi exists. I would do that last, if at all. The RPi 5 would be too expensive to replace at current prices. I have some RPi 4s that I can check the PiPower5 with – that might be a most valuable next step. I am suspicious of the GPIO contact on the RPi 5, but the GPIO extender is really on tight. I’ll check the pins to see what voltage they are reporting.
I’ve gathered a lot of info, but perhaps the solution is very simple. I thought I was using a 45 W RPi power supply, and it turns out it’s the 27 W version. I think I have a 45 W supply around somewhere, but haven’t located it yet. Before we get much deeper, I’ll try a beefier power supply.
The OS does complain about lacking 5V at 5A. If the better supply doesn’t work, I’ll provide more info. If it does, I’ll check in to close this out.
Thank you for your update.Regarding the OS warning about missing 5V/5A power:If you insert the PiPower 5 directly into the Raspberry Pi 5 (via the GPIO header), you should NOT see this warning.
If you are using the PiPower 5’s USB‑A port to power the Raspberry Pi 5’s USB‑C port, the warning is normal and can be safely ignored. Our documentation clearly states this:
“USB Type‑A Output Port – Provides regulated 5V output, suitable for powering peripherals or other devices. When powering a Raspberry Pi, you may encounter a non‑PD power supply warning, which can be safely ignored.”
If you see the warning even when the PiPower 5 is directly plugged into the GPIO header, please make sure you have installed our PiPower5 tool. You can find the installation guide here (copy the link into your browser if it doesn’t open directly):
Regarding the 27W power supply you are using – it is completely sufficient. You do not need to try a different power supply. The 27W rating is for the AC adapter input; the PiPower 5 itself can deliver proper power to the Pi 5.
I still have a problem though - it can’t boot from USB and I don’t have headless access. I did see 5.27 V on the GPIO header, although that was a static reading - not through the entire boot process.
I have a few ideas to pursue, so I’ll post my results when I can get back to working with the PiPower 5.
After reading through your descriptions, we would like to clarify a few points, as we are currently a bit confused about the situation.
Earlier, you mentioned that the OS prompted a warning about needing 5V/5A power. This led us to believe that the Raspberry Pi had actually booted successfully, and that you saw this warning on a connected monitor.Therefore, could you please help us confirm the following:
Do you currently have a monitor connected to the Raspberry Pi 5?If yes, what exactly is displayed on the screen when the PiPower 5 is connected?
When you mentioned “can’t boot from USB”, please clarify:Does this mean the Raspberry Pi 5 cannot start when powered via the PiPower 5’s USB‑A port?Or does it mean the Raspberry Pi 5 cannot boot from a USB storage device (e.g., USB drive or SSD)?
Regarding headless access:In your router’s device list, do you see the Raspberry Pi 5 being assigned an IP address at any point (even briefly)?
At this point, we are still unable to determine whether the issue is related to power delivery, system boot, or network connectivity. Your answers to the above will help us narrow down the root cause.Thank you for your patience and cooperation.
Sorry, I realize I haven’t provided you with all the information I have gathered. I have some photos that need to be reduced in size that will clarify the situation. The next few days will be busy, but I’ll try to provide more information as soon as I can.
More info. One thing I hadn’t tried is booting the RPi5 with the power supply unconnected, using a microSD card. It booted just fine and I can access it remotely. I installed the pipower5 tool and accessed it. It works fine also.
Then I plugged in the power supply (I hope hot-plugging isn’t dangerous) and the unit continued to work.
Up to now, my efforts have been rather scatter-shot, which makes it hard for me to document, and hard for you to assist. I’m going to be more systematic from this point, trying to add back in the USB drive (a SanDisk UltraFit) and, if that works, the SSD and take good notes about how it all comes out.
I did order a 45 W power supply. I figured I didn’t need it for this, but it will be a good future-proofing item to have anyway.
The info you’ve provide thus far has been very helpful. I’ll let you know how the experiments progress. It may be a few days before I can run through them all.
I think it’s academic now, at least until I replace my RPi5. If I do.
I thought the solution might have been to alter /boot/firmware/config.txt to add usb_max_current_enable=1. Having done this, I attached the PiPower5 to the RPi5, but offset the pins. Having been warned that powering via GPIO pins bypassed power protection, especially with this setting, I checked to make sure that I did it right, but in the low light, I fooled myself, aligning the odd GPIO numbers on the PiPower5 with the even GPIO numbers on the RPi5. It isn’t obvious to me that this would cause a problem, but I’m getting a red LED from the RPi no matter what I do. Unless I’m making some other correctible mistake, the RPi is toast. No smell or smoke, though.
So this probably ends with the oft repeated lesson that Raspberry Pi hardware needs to be treated carefully.
Thank you for your update, and thank you for sharing the results of your further troubleshooting.
If the GPIO header was offset by one row during installation, it is indeed possible that power pins and signal pins became misaligned. In that case, even without any visible smoke or unusual smell, hardware abnormalities or even damage could occur.
Based on your description, the Raspberry Pi 5 currently only shows a solid red power LED and does not boot properly. This situation does not look optimistic. However, without further testing, we cannot confirm the exact extent of the damage with 100% certainty.
Thank you as well for documenting the entire process so carefully. I believe this experience will be very valuable for other users – especially as a reminder to double‑check the pin alignment before powering on, particularly when installing GPIO devices in low‑light conditions.
If you later replace your Raspberry Pi 5, or if you wish to continue testing the PiPower 5, please feel free to come back and update us. We will be very happy to continue helping you troubleshoot.
I did find another possibility that the bootloader might have been corrupted, but it turned out that the 3V3 supply is dead, so the unit is almost certainly dead.
At current prices, I’ll probably not replace it (it was an 8 GB unit), but if the prices drop, I likely will.
It’s not the first Pi that I’ve nerfed, but I hope it’s the last.