RoboRIO 2.0 Amber Flashing Status Light

[mrs-smith-rocks]

On January 23rd, we received a new NI RoboRIO 2.0.

We used it on our robot for one month and now it doesn't work.  The status light is flashing an amber color and we have completed the steps found in these forums to try to resolve this issue.  The diagnosis we have received from the troubleshooting is an "unrecoverable error".

We removed the SD card from the non-responsive RIO and moved it to the backup from last year and the old unit powered right up with our image.

[mshafer · Accepted solution]

Hi mrs-smith-rocks, thank you for posting on the forums. I'm Matthew with NI.

A flashing status light means the device is not able to read the software and boot, but we've had some teams report that this can be caused by metal slivers getting into the unit and causing shorts.

So, the two things to check here are:

- Image a fresh SD card using either BalenaEtcher or the Raspberry Pi imager as described here: https://docs.wpilib.org/en/stable/docs/zero-to-robot/step-3/roborio2-imaging.html

- Open the device using the four screws on the back and the two screws at the port port and clean the unit off using compressed air. (Maybe also use a flashlight to inspect the board closely for any remaining metal shards and remove them as well.)