new Raspberry Pi board - heat issues?

[bgimbel]

I just received a new Raspberry Pi board (Made in China) as part of the starter pack and it is exhibiting what I would classify as heat issues. The short of it is that the issues exhibit faster when the supplied case's top is on, and take longer to exhibit with the cases's top off.

What I see:

I can boot the Pi into the desktop and use it as normal until there is an instant stop (screen black, and all LEDs on the Pi out except for one - PWR). The only recovery is to remove the mini-USB and re-insert it which then proceeds with a normal startup again. While it is functional all other LEDs on the Pi appear to be working as expected.

With the case top on the issue occurs within 1-2 minutes after power on, with the case off somewhere between 5-20 minutes depending on what I am doing. Just sitting idly at the desktop more like 20 minutes, opening Midori and maybe a terminal window, more like 5-10 minutes. I am not doing any thing GPU intensive here at any time (playing a 3D game or such...) and really nothing CPU intensive either.

What I initially did to rule out a bad power supply:

Switched from the supplied 5.25VDC 1A wall wart to an Apple iPad one I use all the time (more amps available with that). Saw no change in behavior.

Switched from the supplied micro-USB cord to others I have lying around. Saw no change in behavior.

Thoughts anyone?

I think I will need a replacement Raspberry Pi board.

-- Bill

[adafruit]

try a new SD card - this is not a heat issue, you would notice that its burning hot if it were

[bgimbel]

I have tried two other SD cards and all act the same way - showing the same symptoms described in my original post.

It may not be heat, but I appear to have a bad board which needs replacement. Please advise on how to proceed with an exchange.

Thanks.

-- Bill

[mrpaul]

I appear to be having the same issue. I just ordered a bunch of Raspberry Pi starter packs for myself and colleagues. As far as I know, the others are working are fine. Of the two I kept for myself, one works fine, one has nearly identical symptoms (and has since the first time I powered it up). Because I have two, I have been able to swap all the parts and rule out the USB power supply, the SD card, and my equipment (keyboard, mouse, HDMI connection, ethernet connection). All the components work fine on the one board. With the other board, it frequently powers off after a few minutes, and as Bill notes, the only solution is to remove power. I have tried it with mouse, keyboard, and hdmi (no ethernet) and with ethernet only (ssh in, no mouse, keyboard, hdmi) and I get the same results. I have let the board sit for over 24 hours to see if it is just the fuse, but that doesn't help. I currently have my oscilloscope hooked up to both boards on TP1 and TP2. I see consistent values for both boards for all the scenarios I have tried:
* 4.86-4.93V when running with ethernet only,
* 4.46-4.54V while running with mouse, keyboard, HDMI, & ethernet (same values without ethernet too)

When the flakey board fails, the voltage jumps up to 4.93-5.01V, so I don't believe it is the fuse.

On previous nights, the flakey board has failed even when running with only ethernet (no mouse, keyboard, or HDMI). Tonight, it seems to run okay with just ethernet, but fail within a minute if I hook up mouse, keyboard, and hdmi.

I won't claim the flakey board has heat issues, but it seems to have some sort of problem.

Thanks,

Paul

[bgimbel]

Paul,

Thanks for joining in on this discussion with the similar issues you are experiencing with one of your Pi boards (and for the excellent data provided). I need to add an oscilloscope to my toolkit soon... Sorry for my focus on a likely red herring (case top on or off / heat) as all I can really say is that my board is flakey.

adafruit,

Please advise on how I may arrange for an exchange on my flakey Pi board.

Thanks.

-- Bill

[adafruit]

Paul,

Thanks for joining in on this discussion with the similar issues you are experiencing with one of your Pi boards (and for the excellent data provided). I need to add an oscilloscope to my toolkit soon... Sorry for my focus on a likely red herring (case top on or off / heat) as all I can really say is that my board is flakey.

adafruit,

Please advise on how I may arrange for an exchange on my flakey Pi board.

Thanks.

-- Bill

you can email support@adafruit and they'll help you

in general, if your voltage dips below 4.7 or 4.8V, the pi is fine, the power supply is not good enough for what you're connecting to

in general, rpi support is handled at the raspberrypi.org forums and theres tons of information there including debugging tips and tricks

[bgimbel]

I doubt I have a bad power supply since I have used a few different ones (including the one you shipped me in the Starter Pack) and all exhibit the same symptoms. As Paul noted, he experienced a voltage increase not a decrease when seeing similar symptoms to mine. Per my email discussions with support@adafruit.com, my Pi board has been returned to you for analysis - which is hopefully already underway.

In any case, if you decide it was a bad power supply, then the one supplied in the Starter Pack is bad or otherwise insufficient. Like-wise if you decide it was a bad SD card, then the one supplied in my Starter Pack is like-wise bad.

I will be surprised if you do not find the board I returned to be defective and in need of replacement.

Looking forward to hearing the results.

-- Bill

[bgimbel]

I received my replacement pi board today and it works well using the same power supply and SD card(s) as with the prior board.

Thanks for finally doing an exchange as the new board is great!

-- Bill