Trying to setup RetroPie on RPi3 B 1.2, and I can't anything to display on my screen! Please help

[Crimson0verlord]

I'm using a 16gb microsd card with my Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V1.2 to try to setup RetroPie for the N64 classic tutorial by Nintendrew. My Pi is old and the original SD card used with it then, is missing...
When i plug in the Micro USB cable to turn it on, it shows a red light, and nothing else. on my monitor it all it displays for HDMI is No Signal.

What do i format the SD card as? (exFAT, FAT32, NTFS?)
files i need?

 

[bananapi761]

I'm using a 16gb microsd card with my Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V1.2 to try to setup RetroPie for the N64 classic tutorial by Nintendrew. My Pi is old and the original SD card used with it then, is missing...
When i plug in the Micro USB cable to turn it on, it shows a red light, and nothing else. on my monitor it all it displays for HDMI is No Signal.

What do i format the SD card as? (exFAT, FAT32, NTFS?)
files i need?

First, format the drive using SDFormatter with format size adjustment turned ON, and check your card is at it's full capacity after. Then try downloading a known working distro, such as NOOBS and flash it with Win32DiskImager. If that works, format again and start the guide you used again.

 

[Crimson0verlord]

First, format the drive using SDFormatter with format size adjustment turned ON, and check your card is at it's full capacity after. Then try downloading a known working distro, such as NOOBS and flash it with Win32DiskImager. If that works, format again and start the guide you used again.

NOOBS didn't work, but ubuntu did?...

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NOOBS didn't work, but ubuntu did?...

but the NOOBS file i downloaded from the raspberry pi website came as a large zip file with a bunch of files, and not an img file

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so all i did was just copy the files to the sd root

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i'm using the hdmi cable from my switch dock, is that the problem?

 

[bananapi761]

NOOBS didn't work, but ubuntu did?...

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but the NOOBS file i downloaded from the raspberry pi website came as a large zip file with a bunch of files, and not an img file

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so all i did was just copy the files to the sd root

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i'm using the hdmi cable from my switch dock, is that the problem?

If Ubuntu worked as an .IMG, that's fine, we know the Pi isn't broken, I'm assuming NOOBS has changed from the last time I used it. Now you should go to the retropie website, grab and flash the latest suitable IMG. AFAIK you can add ROMs either over Wi-fi or from a flash drive once you have it set up, and your HDMI cable shouldn't matter.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

What do i format the SD card as? (exFAT, FAT32, NTFS?)
files i need?

FAT32 for NOOBS. Inside the NOOBS_v3_0_0.zip (or the NOOBS_lite_v3_0.zip for network only install) is a file named INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt

Unpacking the content of the zip file to the root of a freshly FAT32 formatted microSD should be sufficient to start NOOBS. Depending on how many operating systems you want to install with NOOBS this will take a while. There is something similar to RetroPie in the list, but as @bananapi761 said, you should try now flashing the .IMG from the RetroPie site.
The easiest method of adding ROMs is using a USB flash drive:

USB

• (ensure that your USB is formatted to FAT32 or NTFS)
• first create a folder called retropie on your USB stick
• plug it into the pi and wait for it to finish blinking
• pull the USB out and plug it into a computer
• add the roms to their respective folders (in the retropie/roms folder)
• plug it back into the raspberry pi
• wait for it to finish blinking
• refresh emulationstation by choosing restart emulationstation from the start menu

Source: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/#transferring-roms

 

[Crimson0verlord]

okay,

FAT32 for NOOBS. Inside the NOOBS_v3_0_0.zip (or the NOOBS_lite_v3_0.zip for network only install) is a file named INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt

Unpacking the content of the zip file to the root of a freshly FAT32 formatted microSD should be sufficient to start NOOBS. Depending on how many operating systems you want to install with NOOBS this will take a while. There is something similar to RetroPie in the list, but as @bananapi761 said, you should try now flashing the .IMG from the RetroPie site.
The easiest method of adding ROMs is using a USB flash drive:

Source: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/#transferring-roms

wait...i can install multiple OSes on my pi board??
really?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

okay,

wait...i can install multiple OSes on my pi board??
really?

Of course. Why not? NOOBS makes installing multiple OS on one SD even trivial. Just select what you want and go away for an hour or so (depending on your selection and internet connection speed).

If you want to experiment, just buy two of the cheapest microSDs you can find to flash random OS onto them without touching your main SD.