Pi 3 overheating

  • My Pi 3 hanged because of overheating. It happened for the first time. I am on LibreElec 8.0.1. The Pi is located in a case with heatsinks as well as ventilation holes. The temperature around Pi 3 is about 21C.

    As it happened for the first time I don't know how much it is connected to LE.

    Did you experience this?

  • No.
    What is your processor temperature when Pi is idle?
    At what percentage run your processor cores when Pi is idle?
    What are your overclock settings, if any?

    Edited once, last by Sholander (April 19, 2017 at 2:11 PM).

  • Did you get an icon in the top right corner of the screen?
    If not, it's not overheating.

    Ventilation holes and heatsinks does not equal to ventilation. You will need some form of active airflow via a (small) fan.
    Same as with external HDDs overheating in their cases.

  • I always thought the icon in the top right, be it a rainbow square or a lightening bolt related to low voltage from the psu?

    Paul

    Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk


  • Did you get an icon in the top right corner of the screen?
    If not, it's not overheating.

    Ventilation holes and heatsinks does not equal to ventilation. You will need some form of active airflow via a (small) fan.
    Same as with external HDDs overheating in their cases.

    Yes, the icon is there.
    [hr]


    No.
    What is your processor temperature when Pi is idle?
    At what percentage run your processor cores when Pi is idle?
    What are your overclock settings, if any?

    When it's idle it's 45-47C.
    Cpu utilization is about 12-14%.
    It's not overclocked.

    Edited once, last by Wozik (April 20, 2017 at 10:22 AM).


  • AFAIK...

    rainbow square = not enough power (Amps)
    lightning bolt = not enough volts
    full red square = overheating

    This is different from the rainbow square which always appears in the center of the screen when (cold?) booting, correct?

    I run my Pi 3 in a Flirc case - the entire case is basically the heatsink as there is a finger molded into the case which thermally couples the FPGA/CPU with the case. Mine typically runs around 40-41 C when idle.

    - Phil

  • Current pi firmwares show a thermometer in the top-right corner when thermal protection kicks in, and even then the pi is capable of running at very high temperatures for an extended period. In other words, if you didn't see the thermometer and it wasn't insanely hot (which is unlikely in a case with heatsinks etc.) the hang was probably software induced and not related to heat.

  • This is different from the rainbow square which always appears in the center of the screen when (cold?) booting, correct?

    I run my Pi 3 in a Flirc case - the entire case is basically the heatsink as there is a finger molded into the case which thermally couples the FPGA/CPU with the case. Mine typically runs around 40-41 C when idle.

    - Phil

    Could you share the link showing this case?