Cooling S905X4

[bululu]

Hi,

While videoplaying from network via SMB (AVC, opus) my HK1 Rockbox 4 randomly freezes.
I tried alot to solve the problem (tried USB-LAN adapter, Coreelec 19.5 Matrix, 20 Nexus new era, new generation, various dtb) but still same behaviour.
There are still 2 possibilities I see:
Powersupply and Heat.
One thing i cannot verify is temperature/overheating as the device has to visually disappear in a box (wife dont want to see it).

I opened the device and saw a tiny heatsink on the mainchip and i am willed to exchange it to a bigger one, but it seems its glued so i do not want to risk to break the pcb or chips.

Another thing I noted that at least in the last new era 20 the cpu governor is “performance”. Is there a way to let the cpu cooldown during idle or low cpuload?

Powersupply
currently the device is powered by an custom cable from TVs USB3 - Port to the device. I assume the USBport provides enough energy and the cables I used are thick enough. But how can I be certain about that? I cant find the original powersupply anymore.

So reducing powerconsumption by changing the cpu-governor should show improvements on both remaining frontlines (heat and powersupply).
But how can I supposingly do that?

[noggin]

I definitely wouldn’t rely on a TV’s USB port to power an AMLogic media player.

If cooling is an issue - I’ve seen quite a few people have modified their boxes to allow for fan cooling (cutting a hole in the case and mounting a fan that way)

[borygo]

X4 need 2amps power supply. Heat shouldn’t be a problem but it will defo reduce life of your device.
My x4 didn’t even boot from tv usb.
Thats how my 905x still running couple years now.

[kris007]

check out this topic

DIY Thermal Modifications

…still perform at it’s best even handling HDR10+ HEVC bitrate 50Mb/s at… 35-37°C Yep, no other device with so low chipset’s temperature. In comparison: I have Odroid-C2 located next to Odroid-N2 and in the idle mode it’s temperature is around 48°C jumping to 50-55°C when performing cron’s tasks: syncing files using proftpd, rclone, syncthing. When I was using C2 as my primary Kodi device (before I bought N2) I don’t remember what typical temperature was when playing HEVC with bitrate around 10…

[avin]

OpenVFD add-on can let your box’s little front screen to display real time CPU temperature so you can better observe if it’s related, read threads in the forum for guide.

Settings-CoreELEC has options to change scheduler from performance to demand if needed.

If not then turn to the power supply, just secure a mobile charger of yours with 5V2A output and a USB-A to 3.5mm barrel jack cable will do.