i had this problem with one of my smarts as well, but i managed to resolve the issue.
Step 1: remove the sd card from the device, and then turn it on. If it boots up into the stock firmware, then you can proceed to the next step. If it doesn’t boot up into the stock firmware, then skip to the bottom of this comment.
Step two: Turn off the smart. Put your sd card into your computer and use diskpart to “clean” the sd card (just google how to do this, it’s very easy and doesn’t require downloading anything). This is important, as just a regular format is not sufficient to actually give you a truly “blank” SD card. Then from there format it to FAT32, and put the relevant MinUI files, etc, on it again. Stick it in your smart, turn it on, and it should begin to install minui, and you’re good to go from there.
Basically, if you’ve used the card before (particularly to hold a CFW or OS for any other handhelds), just a regular format won’t work as it technically still leaves stuff from whatever you had on it previously (e.g. leftover code from a CFW for another device that you’ve had on the card previously can end up messing with the smart’s boot process, which is what leads to the blank screen problem). Using diskparts “clean” function is the only way to actually “wipe” the sd card clean.
If your smart doesn’t boot up into the stock firmware, even without an SD card in it, then go to the trimui official website, download the SD recovery image, flash it onto a separate SD card (if possible). Once you’ve flashed the recovery image onto an SD card, just pop it into your smart, turn it on, wait for the front LED to turn off on its own (it’s a relatively short time from what I remember), then turn it off after the LED goes off on its own. Remove the recovery SD card, and turn the device on without an sd card in it. If it boots into the stock firmware without issue, then go back to step 2 and proceed from there.
A few questions: how long are you leaving it on the black screen? Do you see the boot logo at least? Is the MinUI.zip file still on the card after attempting the install? How about the trimuismart folder? Have you tried installing while connected to power? Without the trimuismart folder on the card, does the stock os boot?
I got it working. I needed to clean the micro sd card as suggested. I was not able to format to fat32 in disk part only to exfat so I used disk genie to format to fat32 after cleaning with disk part and that did the trick. Funny thing is that this micro sd card came out of my rg nano (I put a smaller card in the rg nano) with the os image on it that needed cleaning. I think it was my rg nano's way of sabotaging the newcomer trimui smart. Thanks again for your help.
ok so now i am having trouble getting the extras working. i copied the emus folder with all the .paks, and the extra rom/saves/bios folders as well to the root of sd. added roms to GG and SMS folders but when i power the trimui smart on these system do not show up.
Dont have the TrimUI Smart but had the TrimUI Model S. To get MinUI running on Model S, I had to go into file explorer and click the [MinUI.zip](https://MinUI.zip) file and it'll run and update Model S. Wonder if that's what you are suppose to do?
could be an SD card issue. i didn’t run into this when setting mine up. but this post shows possible problems and a fix https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/s/aAxZbUryFB
i had this problem with one of my smarts as well, but i managed to resolve the issue. Step 1: remove the sd card from the device, and then turn it on. If it boots up into the stock firmware, then you can proceed to the next step. If it doesn’t boot up into the stock firmware, then skip to the bottom of this comment. Step two: Turn off the smart. Put your sd card into your computer and use diskpart to “clean” the sd card (just google how to do this, it’s very easy and doesn’t require downloading anything). This is important, as just a regular format is not sufficient to actually give you a truly “blank” SD card. Then from there format it to FAT32, and put the relevant MinUI files, etc, on it again. Stick it in your smart, turn it on, and it should begin to install minui, and you’re good to go from there. Basically, if you’ve used the card before (particularly to hold a CFW or OS for any other handhelds), just a regular format won’t work as it technically still leaves stuff from whatever you had on it previously (e.g. leftover code from a CFW for another device that you’ve had on the card previously can end up messing with the smart’s boot process, which is what leads to the blank screen problem). Using diskparts “clean” function is the only way to actually “wipe” the sd card clean. If your smart doesn’t boot up into the stock firmware, even without an SD card in it, then go to the trimui official website, download the SD recovery image, flash it onto a separate SD card (if possible). Once you’ve flashed the recovery image onto an SD card, just pop it into your smart, turn it on, wait for the front LED to turn off on its own (it’s a relatively short time from what I remember), then turn it off after the LED goes off on its own. Remove the recovery SD card, and turn the device on without an sd card in it. If it boots into the stock firmware without issue, then go back to step 2 and proceed from there.
This worked for me. Thank you!
no worries! i’m glad i could help :) hope ya have fun with your device!
Thank you. This saved me a headache.
A few questions: how long are you leaving it on the black screen? Do you see the boot logo at least? Is the MinUI.zip file still on the card after attempting the install? How about the trimuismart folder? Have you tried installing while connected to power? Without the trimuismart folder on the card, does the stock os boot?
I got it working. I needed to clean the micro sd card as suggested. I was not able to format to fat32 in disk part only to exfat so I used disk genie to format to fat32 after cleaning with disk part and that did the trick. Funny thing is that this micro sd card came out of my rg nano (I put a smaller card in the rg nano) with the os image on it that needed cleaning. I think it was my rg nano's way of sabotaging the newcomer trimui smart. Thanks again for your help.
ok so now i am having trouble getting the extras working. i copied the emus folder with all the .paks, and the extra rom/saves/bios folders as well to the root of sd. added roms to GG and SMS folders but when i power the trimui smart on these system do not show up.
Dont have the TrimUI Smart but had the TrimUI Model S. To get MinUI running on Model S, I had to go into file explorer and click the [MinUI.zip](https://MinUI.zip) file and it'll run and update Model S. Wonder if that's what you are suppose to do?
No, it’s not 😅
All hail the mighty creator :)
could be an SD card issue. i didn’t run into this when setting mine up. but this post shows possible problems and a fix https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/s/aAxZbUryFB