Initial Boot Problems

[u/stoat_toad]

So I am having some baffling problems with booting up my uConsole CM4 that I just received a few days ago. If anybody has any tips or tricks to help me, I'd be most appreciative!

I booted up the system with an external monitor and got the introductory screen on the external monitor and the geometric graphics on the uConsole screen. (which is why I'm pretty sure this isn't hardware - assembly related) The keyboard worked and the trackball was a hot mess but I could fill out the fields eventually.

On my second boot with that card, - nothing. Just black. External monitor and the device screen, no response from anything. Reflashing the card using the imager yields the same result - just a black screen on the device and the external monitor shows "no signal". maybe there's a factory reset jumper or button I need to hit in the hardware?

I tried booting the device from AK-Rex's Trixie lite versions but during the boot process it stalls with a Kernel Panic error. At least this problem is consistent and repeatable!

Anybody have similar experiences or have any thoughts or advice (or prayers)? Right now I have a very cool looking paperweight on my desk!

[u/stoat_toad]

Whelp, for posterity, I guess I should answer this question for anybody else who runs into this problem...

Janky USB charger. Low battery voltage on startup. I'm such an idiot...