Rpi 3B+ running only pihole is super hot and locks up, anyone else?

Help
1

hardware:
Raspberry Pi 3B+ (the newest model) with no case
Adafruit PIOLED (so cute!) from Install PiOLED | Pi Hole Ad Blocker with Pi Zero W | Adafruit Learning System

pihole -v
Pi-hole version is v3.3.1 (Latest: v3.3.1)
AdminLTE version is v3.3 (Latest: v3.3)
FTL version is v3.0 (Latest: v3.0)

dnsmasq -v
Dnsmasq version 2.76 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 Simon Kelley
Compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt DBus i18n IDN DHCP DHCPv6 no-Lua TFTP conntrack ipset auth DNSSEC loop-detect inotify

uname -a
Linux pi-hole 4.14.30-v7+ #1102 SMP Mon Mar 26 16:45:49 BST 2018 armv7l GNU/Linux

Nothing else running except pihole, set as DNS server for my home network in router. Using wired (wi-fi is disabled) ethernet connection. Very low traffic, no more than 5 or 6 clients at any time. pihole admin webpage says temperature is about 140*F which seems a bit hot to me. I leave it running 24/7 except it is usually locked up when I get home from work and I have to power cycle it to restart. Is anyone else running into this kind of problem? How do I even begin to troubleshoot this? Maybe the new hardware design and higher clock rate is enough to make the new pi unstable? Suggestions please!

2

Quickly converting this to a unit I understand... 60°C :slight_smile:

Yeah, that's a bit warm but not unbelievably hot, either. My Pi B3 (not +) is running at only two degrees less, mounted in half or a case (no cover).

This really shouldn't happen!

Could you show up the output of the command

uptime

and maybe also a screenshot of

htop

?
(You may need to install the latter with sudo apt install htop)

3

Maybe it's just a bad sample of the new Pi with bad RAM for example ?!

My Raspberry Pi 3B which consumes a bit less power than the new 3B+ says 56,9 Celsius at the moment and is located in a original Raspberry Pi case on top of my DrayTek 2860 router for about a year now without any issues! :wink:

4

uptime
17:50:25 up 12 min, 2 users, load average: 0.23, 0.39, 0.26

htop

htop
htop1426Ă—717 36.9 KB

5

This indicates that your system is mostly idle which is also confirmed by htop. So, it seems that such a temperature is norm for this device. Take into account that you still have a multi-core CPU running at more than one GHz without any active cooling! Mind that, in contrast to "regular" CPUs, iARM CPUs can easily go to temperatures well above boiling water (100*C, no idea what it might be in Fahrenheit) without any problems.

6

Get a heatsink for the cpu

7

Actually the Raspberry Pi starts to thermal throttle at around 85 Celsius so there are some limits :wink:

8

Try lowering sdram frequency for diagnosing:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=208821&start=150

9

Appears to be a hardware issue that they are issuing a fix for in software: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=208821&start=175#p1304512

1 Like
10

Thanks for the informative link. We'll keep this in mind as people are reporting issues.

11

Just a quick update: after a few days the new raspian dist has appeared to fix the lockup problem, it hasn't stopped DNS services or prevented me from SSH'ing in since then! It appears they lowered the RAM frequency to 450 since I'm still running the processor at 1400:

pi@pi-hole:~ $ vcgencmd get_config int
aphy_params_current=819
arm_freq=1400
audio_pwm_mode=514
boot_delay=1
config_hdmi_boost=5
core_freq=400
desired_osc_freq=0x33e140
desired_osc_freq_boost=0x3c45b0
disable_commandline_tags=2
disable_l2cache=1
display_hdmi_rotate=-1
display_lcd_rotate=-1
dphy_params_current=547
force_eeprom_read=1
force_pwm_open=1
framebuffer_height=540
framebuffer_ignore_alpha=1
framebuffer_swap=1
framebuffer_width=960
gpu_freq=300
hdmi_force_cec_address=65535
init_uart_clock=0x2dc6c00
lcd_framerate=60
over_voltage_avs=31250
over_voltage_avs_boost=0x2191c
overscan_bottom=32
overscan_left=32
overscan_right=32
overscan_top=32
pause_burst_frames=1
program_serial_random=1
scaling_kernel=8
sdram_freq=450
pi@pi-hole:~ $
pi@pi-hole:~ $ for a in 1 2 ; do  vcgencmd read_ring_osc $a; done
read_ring_osc(1)=21.684MHz (@1.3375V)
read_ring_osc(2)=3.662MHz (@1.3375V)
pi@pi-hole:~ $
pi@pi-hole:~ $ vcgencmd get_throttled
throttled=0x0
pi@pi-hole:~ $
2 Likes
12

I read some are adviced to go as low as 400 :smiley:

13

This topic was automatically closed 21 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.