[SOLVED] Argon ONE V3 died suddenly and wont power on

[hmw]

UPDATE: to folks who are having issues with the V3 not powering on unless in ALWAYS ON mode or having issues with the power supply - try this:

• plug, unplug the PSU, press the power button and plug PSU back in - according to Argon40 that resets the RP2040 and the power button should now work

• if that doesn’t work, disassemble the case like you’re going to update the RP2040, with the top half removed and the USB-C connector exposed. Plug and unplug the power supply to this connector. And press the power button. Plug power supply back in. If the fan starts spinning, either immediately or after pressing the power button - the RP2040 has been reset

• if the fan doesn’t work or nothing happens, set the jumper to ALWAYS ON. If the fan doesn’t spin - chances are the board is dead or faulty or there’s some other issue.

Got one of the first batches of the Argon ONE V3 NVMe. It’s been fine so far, powered by the official Pi power supply with a Crucial P3 NVMe SSD- it’s not a power hog. The Argon ONE died suddenly two days ago. After testing NVMe SSDs and power supplies - disassembled the case and powered on the Pi 5 outside - it works fine. So the case power button or power supply just up and died?

Anyone else with this issue? How did you resolve it?

EDIT

• it works when the jumper is set to always on mode, but setting it back means the power button stops working

• also tested with Pi4 PSU, no luck

[rajivkumar1984]

Ok here are my similar observations…

1. I am also having issues with the V3 not powering on
2. I tried the 2nd step above using USB C cable connected with my PC. Result - Fan started moving and smoke started coming from the edge of the case.
   Used Raspberry Official Power Adpater 27w - No movement of the Fan nor any smoke coming out this time
3. powered on the Pi 5 outside - it works fine

Any suggestions as what might be the issue…

[dm210165]

I solved it by updating firmware - read last page of manual.

[edcolco]

Hello,
Your post has helped me a lot, thank you.
I followed all the recommendations, but I am still having issue to start my Pi5 with a 27W charger that I got from Amazon.
Previously I was using a phone charger that seems to work, but I got some unexpected reboots and shutdowns. I bought the new power source with the luck everything will go fine and smooth.

Surprisingly the power source is not working, I tested the power source with just the Pi5 and it worked. But when I connected the daughter board, it does not work.
I tested the power source using the USB in the case also, the fan started to spin.
If I use the cellphone charger, it works.

Is it possible that my power source is not compatible or if the firmware update is not working?

[HarryH]

Depends on the 27W PSU you chosen. Is that an official PSU or 3rd party? The RPi5 is very sensitive regarding this, because it needs to support 5.1V + 5.0A current negotiated via Power Delivery protocol. Additional it must very stable and switching fast enough to support the fast load switches of the RPi5. The Argon ONE V3 case is an additional load. Maybe the PMIC inside of the case is more restrictive.

But, because of some feedback from other users, its possible that you should try to assemble the daughterboard again.

Argon One v3 Not Powering On

I had a lot of trouble getting it to power up at first. Make sure you line up the USB C port on the daughter board with the RPI5, then make sure the micro HDMI are lined up, but apply most of the force on the side where the USB C port until you hear it click into place. There is a convenient notch on that side by which to push. It takes more force than expected but once you hear the “click”, you are good to go. It took me three tries to figure that out.

Or in the worst case there are some bad soldering points. Unfortunately it seems to happen more often. If you have the skills, use a multimeter and check for example if the jumper plug is properly solded:

Argon One V3 for Raspberry Pi 5 - not powering up

thank you for your tip, pin 2 was not soldered to the pcb at all. after fixing that, the PI started up immediately after i plugged in the power.

[edcolco]

Hi, thank you for your time and help.

I bought this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPWB84WT it is not official, but it has all the requirements described below.
I’m still finding a way to make this work.
The most strange thing here is that another PSU works, but that PSU does not have enough power to run the PI5 smoothly.

Regards.

[edcolco]

UPDATE:
Kind of strange, now I am using another cellphone charger that does not provide 5.1V/5A it outputs 5V/3A instead and the argon case and Pi5 are working smoothly.
I have not tested it with a high load to determine it works even when it requires more power, but definitely the daughter board of the argon case is the source of compatibility issues.

Hope I find the fix to use the dedicated PSU I bought for this.