I am currently seeing an issue where when I boot up my pi 5 I see a solid red light with 3 long green flashes followed by 3 green bursts. I am using the standard raspberry pi 5V power source while booting. I have tried to also run the bootloader recovery image which ran successfully but then when I try to boot up bookworm on the pi I get the same issue. According to the raspberry pi website this is an I2C error but I’m not sure how to resolve it. I would appreciate any help on this issue.
I’ve found chatGPT to be pretty good at troubleshooting these kinds of issues now, here’s what responded with (I edited it a bit for clarity):
A solid red light with 3 long green flashes followed by 3 short green bursts on the Raspberry Pi 5 does correspond to an I2C error, specifically related to issues communicating with the onboard hardware via the I2C bus during early boot (firmware-level issue).
This is usually not related to the SD card image being corrupt, but rather an issue with hardware configuration or the hardware itself.
Raspberry Pi 5 Specific I2C Error Explanation
According to Raspberry Pi boot diagnostics:
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3 long green flashes, followed by 3 short green flashes = I2C error on the system EEPROM, often when:
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The Pi cannot detect or communicate with key onboard components like the power management chip (e.g., RP1 or PMIC).
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Something is shorting or pulling down I2C lines (GPIO2/3 — physical pins 3 & 5), especially likely if you have something connected to those pins.
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Checklist to Resolve I2C Error (Raspberry Pi 5)
1. Check for connected devices
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Are you using HATs, GPIO accessories, or anything connected to the 40-pin GPIO header?
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Unplug everything from the GPIO header.
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Try booting with just the SD card inserted and no external devices attached.
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A faulty or incompatible I2C device (or just a misconnection) can cause this exact boot failure.
2. Check power supply & USB devices
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Although you are using the official Pi 5V PSU (good), verify:
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No brownouts or USB devices drawing excessive power.
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Try booting with no USB devices attached.
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3. Try a different SD card image
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Redownload Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm using the official Raspberry Pi Imager.
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Choose Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit).
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Reflash your SD card, then try booting again.
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Prefer a known-good SD card.
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4. Try booting from USB (if possible)
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If your Pi 5 has updated bootloader EEPROM (sounds like you already did), try booting from a USB SSD or flash drive instead of SD card.
- This can rule out SD card slot or SD card issues.
5. Re-run EEPROM Recovery
Since you’ve already run the EEPROM recovery image, ensure you’re using the latest version:
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Download Raspberry Pi 5 EEPROM recovery image.
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Use the official Raspberry Pi Imager to create the EEPROM recovery SD card.
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Let it run fully and make sure the green LED flashes rapidly, confirming success.
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Then try booting your OS image again.
6. Hardware fault?
If you’ve verified:
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No GPIO pins are used
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No peripherals are attached
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Power supply is good
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EEPROM recovery completed
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Fresh image used
…and you still get the I2C error, it’s possible there’s a hardware issue with the board (e.g., defective PMIC, broken I2C bus, or RP1 chip fault).
Advanced: Check Boot Logs (if accessible)
If you have access to the UART serial debug output, you could attach a USB-to-serial adapter to the Pi 5’s UART pins (GPIO14/15) and check the boot ROM messages — they often provide more details about the failure.
Summary
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Disconnect all GPIO and USB devices |
| 2 | Use only official PSU |
| 3 | Try freshly flashed SD card (Bookworm) |
| 4 | Try USB boot instead of SD |
| 5 | Re-run EEPROM recovery with latest image |
| 6 | Check via UART serial logs (if you can) |
| 7 | Suspect hardware fault if all else fails |
Would you be able to confirm if you’re using anything on the GPIO pins? That’s the most common cause for I2C errors on boot.
If nothing works after trying the aboive, it is very likely a hardware fault. The pi5 comes with a 1-year warranty
I have disconnected everything from the GPIO pins and tried with a fresh image after EEPROM recovery and I still see the same issue.
Alrighty - was it purchased from us? If so, head over to Return Policy - SparkFun Electronics (contact vendor similarly if purchased elsewhere) and we’ll get ya fixed up