Does Raspberry Pi Zero show any screen if turned on without a SD Card?

Question

I have a Raspberry Pi Zero without a SD Card. I bought a HDMI to VGA cable and I am currently testing the cable but nothing displays on the screen. Does the Pi not display anything or does it have something to do with the cable?

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 11 '17 at 11:09

11

On Raspberry Pi there is no signal on HDMI unless the VideoCore IV Chip has been initialized. This is done by reading the special firmware (bootcode.bin/start.elf) from the boot partition. So unless you have an SD-Card present, you won't be able to see anything.

edited Jul 11 '17 at 11:09

flakeshake

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answered Jul 06 '17 at 10:42

kwasmich

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Thanks. I added a SD card with the OS installed and it worked. – Jul 07 '17 at 04:52

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 08 '17 at 20:48

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No ( from a poor experience of mine )

answered Jul 08 '17 at 20:48

guyd

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Does Raspberry Pi Zero show any screen if turned on without a SD Card?

2 Answers2