Featured post not working if there is no image

Thumbnail Placeholder : OFF
Thumbnail Comment Count : OFF

@iavinash – it appears that’s how the theme is designed. If Featured post count > 1 then the page script runs to create the slider. If none of the featured posts have a Featured Image, and Thumbnail Placeholder is Off, then the slider has nothing to display so it’s not loaded. The posts are generated in the page and ready to go; there’s just nothing to display them. If you set Thumbnail Placeholder On, or if at least one of the posts has a Featured Image, then all the featured posts will be displayed in the slider.

If you want to force the slider to load without featured images or thumbnail placeholders:
1. Copy the /inc/featured.php file from the parent theme to your child theme /inc folder.
2. Edit the child theme file and either comment out the two additional lines using // as shown here, or just replace the entire <script> block of code:

<script type="text/javascript">
  // Check if first slider image is loaded, and load flexslider on document ready
  jQuery(document).ready(function(){
    var firstImage = jQuery('#flexslider-featured').find('img').filter(':first'),
    checkforloaded = setInterval(function() {
      var image = firstImage.get(0);

//    if (image.complete || image.readyState == 'complete' || image.readyState == 4) {

        clearInterval(checkforloaded);

        jQuery('#flexslider-featured').flexslider({
          animation: "slide",
          useCSS: false, // Fix iPad flickering issue
          slideshow: false,
          directionNav: true,
          controlNav: true,
          pauseOnHover: true,
          slideshowSpeed: 7000,
          animationSpeed: 400,
          smoothHeight: true,
          touch: false
        });

//	  }

    }, 20);
  });
</script>

Thanks bdbrown,

As always your reply was helpful and was able to fix the issue.

Thanks,
Avinash