I've been trying to usse etcher, Apple Pi and, OI tried "baking" the .img file which was Zipeg extracted from .7z file, I tried baking the .7z file directly. I've tried pressing the Noobs button for partition, and tried not.
I've tried every combination I can think of, but the Pi video output registers as an input on my HDMI switcher, which means the proper light lights up, but it's a totally black screen. I even tried staring the pi with no SD card inside, seeing if anything happens with nothing. Every time I get a pure black screen with nothing to type. Basically it's sending a video signal of pure zeroes. i even tried the Composite Port and THAT is totally blank too.
I got the Unix command line prompt once when I first got it shipped to me with Dreampi built-in on the SD card. Then I was trying the dremacast modem with Planet Web web browser, and before I updated it worked. Every time since I tried updating it, it failed.
I know this is not a frequent question, because most people use PCs, but the only PC I've ever used was a neighbors in the 90s, mainly working on GW-BASIC and the basic MS-DOS prompt to start GWBASIC. Before then all i ever used was an Apple IIe and an Atari 800 XL. I never got a computer until the Internet became big in 1999 and realized those relics con't get online. Ever since 1999 we exclusively had Macintoshes. Is there something you assume everyone who regularly deals in Pis knows, but an outsider would just hit a wall every time trying to figure out? Do I need a secret handshake or something? Do i say the secret word and win $100? What?
Also Raspberry Pi fits the PC mentality better than the Mac mentality. So it seems there are a lot more preliminary steps i don't understand.
Someone said a Pi 1B is compatible with 1.7, butI don't want to push my luck with a sometimes-working slight improvement. 1.6 is the last guaranteed stable version. it's also more likely to work with a Pi 1B. Also this 1B has a hand soldered wire running from the USB mini port through the inside, with 2 wires coming out of the small space in the HDMI port, and is hard wired to a 2-eded telephone cable. So I know none of this is regular. this was a 1B specifically modded to be a Dreampi.
Fianllly, can 1.6 do ALL DC games, or are the Visual Concepts Games (NFL, NBA, WSB, Ooga Booga) only a 1.7 exclusive? Better some Pi than no Pi, right?