question

xbmcnut avatar image
xbmcnut asked

Raspberry Pi3 display is blank (backlight on, no data)

Hi there,

I have a followed the instructions here and I'm not getting an boot loading data on the screen after copying the tft35a-overlay.dtb file and editing the config file as stated.

The screen initially lights white then goes dark but never with any text. I've tested the LCD by installing the pre-built image on this page and it's working fine. I also notice that the link provided above for the method differs from the WiKi here so not quite sure which one is the right one.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

FYI, version is 2.72 on Pi3 connected to VRM. I also have SSH access if that helps with debugging.

Raspberry Pi
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3 Answers
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bigbadbob76 answered ·

A few hints that have helped me with my similar setup....

Can you try an hdmi screen as well as the 3.5"tft?

You should see the boot text on there and it may give you an indication of what has failed.

Double check your config.txt for typo's

it might be that you have backlight control active but set to 0.

good luck.

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xbmcnut answered ·

@Bigbadbob76 Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. I'm pretty sure I tested it with a HDMI screen and it worked fine. I'll take another look at some point in the very near future as it would be good to ge this working. Which config did you use?

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bigbadbob76 answered ·

My setup is a 2.2" tftf display which uses a different overlay and therefore different config file edits.

the 3.5" should be easier as many folk have used it.

things to check-

Is your backlight still on when the screen goes dark?

Does the hdmi screen show any boot errors?

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