In what “physical way” is N2 not stable?
Yeah I can’t agree either. The N2 is super Stable. I don’t have a C4 to compare.
I guess “physically unstable” adresses the N2 increased rate of HDMI port failures, where rootcause is still unknown
If so, that is a HARDWARE fault not a stability issue 
I think all the latest chips had this issue but Mostgo unreported. I think the issue is mostly gone now.
Shoog
Ohh I didn’t know that. I had that with one of my C2’s. It hold up maybe 3 yrs. But everyday I plugged and unplugged it like 5 days for development purposes.
any evidence for this really happening? I own a GT-King and compared to the H96 max x3 and X96Air that I also run it stays nice and cool.
This issue is discussed here, since the first batch of kings they have throttled the CPU to prevent overheating. Nice work.
My X96Air runs at a faster speed of 1.9ghz constantly which is faster than the choked king. Its untenable to say that the king has adequate thermal design and the reason why the GT-King_Pro was fitted with a metal case.
There is a simple test for this, put the GT-King into performance Governor and then use the information panel to monitor the speed, it should remain constant and high no matter what you throw at the king - but if it jumps about then it is thermally throttling. I guarantee that it will not remain stable.
What the GT-King has over boxes like the X96-Air is a better processor, but since CE doesn’t need that extra power it is money wasted.
Shoog
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My T95MAX+ seems to be playing up and it’s always the way that you get though all the hassle of setting it up and then the real fun starts, err, I mean troubles start!!! Now I should be able to revert the dual boot back to just Android so I may send it back but I’m toying with the idea of running it without the case to see if temps are the problem? Problems seems to start when it gets over 50c which seems pretty low and the box is often idol! 
Maybe the box is just crap or faulty but for the record here’s the main issues:
Playback has a long pause at the start like 2 secs and even longer at the end 3/4 secs which only happens when it’s going tits up! Think of that robot laying on his back! 
Then Wifi stops working and if I check the CE control panel, addon, it’s says it’s connected so I disconnect and try and reconnect. The CE control panel vanishes so I try again and same loopy story!
While al this is happening the temps start to rise fast above 56/7c.
So is it the box, temperature or buggy CE release? I think it’s the box but will consider running it without the case, perhaps?! 
Taking an overall look at your experiences with boxes that you have purchased recently, you would, on the surface, appear to be the unluckiest CE user out there.
So whilst this could be the very case (after all somebody has to win the lottery despite the odds) could it be that there is some path that you are following that is causing the same type of issues?
I noted that you had earlier spoken of restoring backups from another OS version of *ELEC, which for me is always a potential recipe for issues.
Have you tried setting up a box from scratch with CE, adding and changing things a little at a time, thoroughly testing in between each stage to see if there is anything that immediately jumps out as a possible cause for issue?
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Tell me about it! I think some of the issues are because my flat gets very hot and there’s not much I can do about it in the summer months. Add to this the large number of files which because I can’t use an old backup have to be rescanned by information providers heating the box up even further. Hey the Beelink from the other week seems to work fine now it’s cool. That box was a breath away from being in the bin!!!
So temps are likely to be part of the equation and I have a bunch of mini fans and heat sinks arriving in dribs and drabs over the next few days. The T95Max+ is fine when it’s cool but certainly needs moding if I keep it hence why I’m think of running it without the case to confirm that temps are the issue.
I almost bought a Minix Neo U9-H earlier as I thought just buy something expensive should work but I held my self back. I also nearly bought a Beelink GT King but:
- They’re not in stock via the official Beelink shop on Amazon.
- Comments here suggest that they have temp problems which is perhaps why they’re not selling any at the mo?!
I’m beginning to think the S905x3 could be a problem CPU because of it’s thermals? Hey with quality thermal solutions maybe it’ll run great but not many manufacturers are going to figure that out. Hey even Beelink seem to be having problems so what does that suggest?
I’ll just plod on and worst case scenario I have my Beelink Mini MX and NEXBOX A95X which have the odd glitch, again probably heat related, but are pretty good. These boxes can also be moded as they cost me pennies. The Beelink already has a bunch of holes drilled in the top and bottom and I plan on doing some more work on cooling it dowm. The A95X might be OK but tempted to get some holes in the top of the case. As said my flat gets pretty warm.
Not really, he does everything wrong that can be done wrong.
Some have shown him the right way - buy a supported box like N2, C4, VIM and install from scratch.
Now we have summer, the temperatur from my N2 is <40°C
Pls send back the cheap crap, buy a better box, do a fresh install from scratch → be happy
Please outline the price of your recommendations including any drives, cases, power supply and cooling that might be needed. I’m happy to spend up to £100 for something that works but if it doesn’t you won’t hear the end of it! So please give me links and tell me what I need to do and I can order it today! Please note the box may be run 24/7!
One possible cause of my last overheating session was I did have triple buffering on for the GPU although that may not actually have any effect but it’s now back to the default double buffering.
I have not responded to the earlier comment on the GT-King as I worried it would lead to a pointless discussion… however, on the current (throttled) GT-King version I have NO temp problems whatsoever with very nice performance.
You have roughly three options:
buy a cheap x3 for 40EUR and deal with the temp issue - can be hit an miss as you just learned;
buy an SBC (N2, C4, VIM) incl all the extras needed (roughly 3-4x the price of an x3) and do some DIY getting it together; or
buy a GT-King for the same price as the SBC with plug&play but somewhat worse specs/quality than the SBC.
I do a mix of 1 (kids rooms) and 3 (main TV) and am happy with it.
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N2 + eMMc + remote → 130€(N2 bundle 95€ + 35€ Minix A2 remote) → £116
Box is running 24/7
There was nothing to do like themal modding etc.
I paid a lot of money for tv and avr - it makes no sense to save a few euros
Just my 5cent
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Patrick, if I remember correctly you’re in Thailand so the temperature will be higher than for me in Penistone (Google it). It’s been painfull to read of all your problems.
For my two cents (or tuppence in the local vernacular), I’d have an N2 in your position. I have one and it rocks and it runs cool without drilling holes or spraying liquid nitrogen. It even handles transcoding by the Plex server I have on it so my S805 relegated to bedroom duty can view eveything. You can use the remote from your S805 with it by dropping in a remote.conf and it can be set to power the box on off. No WiFi admittedly but it’s no match for ethernet. If you really need WiFi, usb dongles are cheap.
Tim is brutally right. You get what you pay for.
Edit to say I run off SD card and am perfectly happy. It’s also cheaper!
Thanks and as I suspected the Beelink if throttled runs OK. So I may persist with my cheap box as a kinda project but I’m on the verge of buying a GT King or a MINIX NEO U9-H both which should be supported here. The MINIX isn’t ‘ng’ but should still provide fluent playback at 1080p with the added quality. The bonus with the MINIX is rock solid internet so it can act as a hub/server/NAS.
My current cheap box, T95MAX+ seems to be running OK now I’ve returned the settings to double buffering for the GPU. Currently no pauses at the start and end of playback. The proble with the internet still persists and may just be my crappy ADSL, no fibre where I live! It could also be a bug in CE or possible hardware such as the wifi chip overheating but it’s not being used so that doesn’t make sense.
So will keep testing the T95MAX+ and decide which other box to go for. No rush, well things to consider, Like if I get the MINIX and my T95MAX+ is proven to have a crap Wifi chip then it won’t run well playing remote files. And perhaps the Beelink Wifi capabilities are as good as the MNIX?
The reason I started this process is 10bit playback so no more S805’s for me unfortunately! Hey great boxes in their day but now verging on the obsolete as even certain X254 file don’t play correctly on the S805. The image quality from the ‘ng’ is also very good. I wasn’t convinced about the benefits of these ‘ng’ chips to begin with but the processing is much cleaner and less glitchy. Decoding isn’t absolute and less powerful chips will skip processes if overrun meaning errors or non optimal playback.
I would like to have an SD/M.2 but unfortunately prices have rising due to the plague. I do have a 240GB SSD I could use repurpose but not the ideal situation but even $20 for a 120GB SSD is pennies really. Thanks for your input, all good food for thought.
I don’t think I have ever seen my Odroid N2 at temps above 35C, typically its down at 30C or lower. My fan assisted X96Air runs at 45C and peaks out at 65C when working hard, without the fan it throttles badly all of the time and sits up at 70C. This is fairly typical for all the cheap Android boxes running S905x3.
You can get a King to run smoothly without modification if you set the Govenor to Ondemand, but the temp will hover at over 60C and this in the end isn’t good for long term stability. For me in the use case of CE its just not the best choice in terms of cost to performance. if I was running one as my main system I would definitely hack that lovely case to bits.
In conclusion I repeat my assertion that Odroid are the only company that take cooling seriously.
Shoog