We had a customer with three dead Pi3B+ devices. They randomly died after rebooting and only show a red LED when started. Linux/info-beamer doesn’t start any more.
Upon researching, this seems like a known issue. See https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=58151:
If you have a PI3B+ , that, after some days or weeks of working, suddenly has stopped booting, then please check if there is still 3V3 on the system. There have been some reports of the 3V3 supply suddenly stopping working, often after shorting the 3V3 to GND, but in a few cases also spontaneously. The issue is under investigation. To check for the absence of 3V3 measure on the 3V3 GPIO pin, (pin 1, see https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/gpio/README.md, the left most pin on the bottom row, indicated with an orange dot) with the red lead of your meter and with the minus lead touching the metal shield of either the USB ports, the Ethernet port, or even the HDMI port, as all of these are connected to GND. Set you meter to DC Volt. Make sure the probe you are measuring with does not slip, and simultaneously touches any of the other GPIO pins, as that might instantly destroy your PI, especially shorting the 3V3 pin to the 5V pin will prove to be fatal. If the 3V3 supply has disappeared, then return the PI to the reseller.
I’ve received the Pi and measured the voltage like this and got 0V.
This is of course a bit troubling and there’s no way to solve this except for replacing the Pi once it died. So far info-beamer hasn’t observed problems other than the 3 Pis mentioned but it seems the older Pi3 or Pi3A+ are the better choice unless you really need any of the Pi3B+ features.
