Raspberry Pi Machine Not Registering ... No Signal

[jabbamonkey]

So, I purchased a MAME arcade machine that uses Raspberry Pi a few years back...  It worked great for two years, but now it doesn't.  Before I continue, let me warn you that my knowledge is VERY limited when related to raspberry pi ... so please be gentle and keep any advice simple.

So, when I turn on the TV, I get the typical startup screen  (See #1 here: https://ibb.co/2W37Ys1 )  ... but when I choose the "Arcade" (which should point to the HDMI port, where the Raspberry Pi board is connected), I get a "no signal" warning (See #2 here: https://ibb.co/2W37Ys1 ).  You can see the setup in #3 here: https://ibb.co/2W37Ys1 . Here are things that I have tried....

1. I have tried a different HDMI cable, in case that was the issue. That didn't work.
2. Instead of using my TV, I tried plugging the HDMI cable into my tablet (to see if it registered anything), but that didn't work...
3. I even purchased a new Raspberry Pi board, plugged everything in, and inserted my storage chip... but that did work... (See #4 here: https://ibb.co/2W37Ys1 )

Anyone have any ideas were to start? I would really like to get this working again....

[processedmeat]

1. Do you get a red led lighting up and then some green flashing lights?  Red means the pi is getting power and the flashing green means that the os is loading up.  If no green that means the sd card is corrupted or that the pi is bricked.

2. If you got a new Raspberry Pi, was it the same model as the original?  I don't think you can switch the sd cards from one pi to another if they are different models as the OS is model dependent.

[jabbamonkey]

It's got a steady RED light (so it looks like it's powered). No green lights at all.

I think the old one is a Raspberry Pi 3 ...
https://i.postimg.cc/MTryqCYy/board.jpg
(that's a Raspberry Pi 3 board, correct?)

I believe the "new" one I got is a 2. I didn't think that would be an issue (and honestly thought they were the same when I ordered it). Let me know if that is the correct model? Or if there is something specific to buy (I'm not familiar with shopping for circuit boards ... and not sure how many different Raspberry 3 boards there are ... and want to avoid buying the wrong one again.)

[processedmeat]

Yeah so it doesn't seem like it's booting the OS if only the red light stays on.  Sometimes the sd card may not be plugged in correctly.  Make sure it's pushed in all the way.  On some pi's it has to be clicked in.

It looks like a Rasp Pi 3B+.  Yeah if you got a Rasp Pi 2, the OS install probably won't work when you stick in the sd card.

Do you have a way to connect the sd card to your computer?  You might need to see if the sd card didn't get corrupted.  When you plug it in, if it ask you to format, make sure you don't click on that, as there is a partition (section) of it that your computer should be able to read.  If it loads up, see if you can click on the sd card and read any of the files.

If you can't access the card, it probably means that the install got corrupted and you'll have to reimage the sd card again.

[jabbamonkey]

So, the SD card isn't corrupted (https://ibb.co/0tQLtp0). Contents look fine when plugged into my computer.  I've tried making sure it was "plugged in" (so it didn't seem like an issue).

 I'm going to purchase a new Raspberry Pi 3B+ board (they aren't expensive). Hopefully that works...

[jabbamonkey]

So, the new Raspberry Pi 3B+ board doesn't work either... Running out of options.  Ug.

[processedmeat]

If you have an extra sd card, you can follow the directions on this page to do a fresh install of the raspberry pi os https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

If you can the boot up the pi and you can see it on the TV, then there is something wrong with the arcade os on the sd card and you'll have to find an alternative arcade setup.   You can find some arcade raspberry pi images online that you can put on an SD card.

[jabbamonkey]

Ok ... I bought a new SD card. In the midst of downloading an image... (taking a long time). Hopefully when I add them to the SD card, it will work...

[jabbamonkey]

Alright... so, I used the Raspberry Pi imager to place the batocera image (that I got from batocera) onto my SD card. And, when I booted the arcade machine using the NEW Raspberry Pi 3B+ board and the NEW SD card with the burned image .... it loaded!  But, the image I downloaded had only about 5 roms, and wasn't configured for my machine.  I am in the midst of downloaded a "fully loaded" batocera image (hopefully that's better, and will save me time uploading roms and images). 

So, my old SD card just showed a red light on the RaspPi board when I turned it on. This new card showed the red light, with a flashing green light (which I assume shows activity). I checked the old SD card, and it doesn't appear to be corrupted (I see file contents when I check the SD card on my PC). Any idea why it isn't working, or what could be wrong? (Ideally, I'd like to get this SD card working ... since it already has the roms and the controller settings configured). Like... maybe its the SD card itself, and the Raspberry Pi board isn't reading it for some reason ... so is there a way to "rip" the image from the SD card, and burn it to another SD card?

And, in case I need to access the roms from my old SD card ... is there a way to do this? I checked the folders on the old SD card, but there were no roms or rom folders (my knowledge of this stuff is VERY limited ... I have raspberry pi running the game on an "arcade" TV monitor, and use a Windows machine for other stuff ... and assume this is a "linux" thing).

[processedmeat]

I believe there are usually multiple partitions for a pi image, some that can't be viewed on Windows.  So those might be the ones that have been corrupted.  I just mentioned reading the sd card as a quick way to see if the sd card was working at all. 

Also did you try using the new sd card setup on your old pi?  This would confirm that some part of it got corrupted.

Usually the roms are tied to a certain version of the emulators so they might not be compatible with your newer batocera setup especially if the old sd card setup was gotten awhile ago..  So accessing the old roms may not help you anyways.  I'm not a linux pro as well so I'm not sure the roms are located as well.  I also think you might need to search the sd card using a linux computer.   I would just hope your "fully loaded" image meets all your usage requirements even though you'll have to reconfigure everything on it.

[jabbamonkey]

Well, I TRIED to create an image from the old SD card ... and burn it to a new SD card. That didn't work. Same issue with the old one (just the red light on the NEW raspberry pi 3b+ board). But, the other batocera SD card worked on the NEW board. So, I don't think it's the board at all ... it's the SD card.

I just need to wait for this huge "fully loaded" file to download...  Hopefully that solves everything... I'll let you know what happens.