All Raspberry Pis are tested before they leave the factory in Wales, so a faulty Raspberry Pi is quite rare!
Below are the most common reasons for a Raspberry Pi 3/3B+ not to work as expected:
- Operating System (OS) - Only the latest OS release will work on the new Raspberry Pi 3. You can either grab a pre-installed MicroSD card from our store or download it from the Raspberry Pi website
- Power Supply (PSU) - The new Raspberry Pi 3 uses more juice than previous models - it is recommended to use the official 5.1V 2.5A power supply
- Re-seat your SD card: If your SD card isn't quite pushed in properly, the Raspberry Pi may show some lights but it won't be working properly. Remove power, take the SD card out, push it back in and try again.
- SD Card quality - Unfortunately cheap and 'No name' SD cards are a false economy. The Raspberry Pi forums show many posts with troubled users having issues with their poor quality SD cards. We recommend Panasonic/Sandisk micro-SD cards for the Raspberry Pi - other cards can cause endless issues.
- Check the Indication LEDs - the Raspberry Pi indication LEDs can tell you a lot about what is happening with your Raspberry Pi. There's a comprehensive Raspberry Pi forum post on this subject which will assist you