1.6 Thermal Issue

[egrath]

Hi,

i just finished rescuing and polishing up a almost dead 1.6 (dead HDD, dead Fan, 5 leaked capacitors and a burned power supply fuse) which now almost works - except for the following issue:

As soon as the system has been booted, the CPU / GPU temperatures are rising to 64 °C almost immediatly and coherently. Then, it turns off after a few minutes.

What i already tried:

1. Fully cleaned and removed the old thermal paste and replaced it (holy crap, the one on the GPU felt like tarred road)
2. Hard-tweaked the BIOS to run the Fan at 40% instead of the default 20%

Both actions did not had any impact on the issue.

System configuration:

Alladin Modchip, EvoX M8+ 1.6 BIOS, UnleashX Dashboard (grabbed the version from the OGXBox Installer Disc), Noctua 60 mm 12 V Fan, Noname PATA-SATA Adaptor with 256 GB SATA SSD, new 80 Pin PATA Cable.

Any ideas what else i could try? I don't want to flash the BIOS in the current situation because of the general system instability but would perform it with a external programmer if necessary.

Edited January 31, 2022 by egrath

[KaosEngineer]

 

The 60mm Noctua fan doesn't move as much air as the original fan did. Run it at full speed.

Using EVTool v1.0.9, set the fan speed to 100% then reflash the new BIOS to the modchip. 

 

Edit: To reflash the modchip, reinstall the original fan or open the case, remove the DVD and hard drive carriers to expose the CPU/GPU heatsinks.  Then, use a desk fan to blow air across the heatsinks to cool the chips.

[egrath]

Hi, it worked - after tweaking around with various fan speeds, i left it at 80%, which keeps the device at around 56°. Do the 1.6's in general run hotter than the other revisions? Main main Box is a 1.1, also with a 60 mm Noctua and a setting of 40%, idling around at about 40° in UnleashX.

[Bowlsnapper]

On 1/31/2022 at 10:52 AM, egrath said:

Hi,

i just finished rescuing and polishing up a almost dead 1.6 (dead HDD, dead Fan, 5 leaked capacitors and a burned power supply fuse) which now almost works - except for the following issue:

As soon as the system has been booted, the CPU / GPU temperatures are rising to 64 °C almost immediatly and coherently. Then, it turns off after a few minutes.

What i already tried:

1. Fully cleaned and removed the old thermal paste and replaced it (holy crap, the one on the GPU felt like tarred road)
2. Hard-tweaked the BIOS to run the Fan at 40% instead of the default 20%

Both actions did not had any impact on the issue.

System configuration:

Alladin Modchip, EvoX M8+ 1.6 BIOS, UnleashX Dashboard (grabbed the version from the OGXBox Installer Disc), Noctua 60 mm 12 V Fan, Noname PATA-SATA Adaptor with 256 GB SATA SSD, new 80 Pin PATA Cable.

Any ideas what else i could try? I don't want to flash the BIOS in the current situation because of the general system instability but would perform it with a external programmer if necessary.

I respect the fact that you were able to identify all those issues and rectify them. Nice work. Were the caps causing any functional issues, or was it just a proactive measure?

[egrath]

The Box was totally dead on arrival, no sign of life. After opening up the box it was obvious that those little electrolyte bastards were gone - see for yourself in the attached photo. After replacing them with new ones, the box still didn't even power on ... a little more investigation and it turned out that the fuse on the PSU was faulty too.

Now it works, but the thermal issue still is there in some way. It doesn't turn off that often, but after leaving it for about an hour on the Dashboard it still rises to 60° and powers off, even with 100% on the Fan which should give more than enough airflow to cool the system. Will have to do more investigation, because i simply don't want to throw away this little box.

[Bowlsnapper]

Jesus Ethylene Glycol Christ. You weren't kidding. The thumbnail alone made my jaw drop. I didn't know those CPU caps failed in such a spectacular fashion. What are those caps for, anyway?