Overheating !

[Mujus]

Hi there !

First post. I'm French so my english will not be perfect, sorry

I have a Tomato-like square M8 with the right pcb and Samsung RAMs. So everything is okay for now and i'm using right now Finless 1.8 which is great.
I noticed while playing the cpu consuming Riptide 2 a lot of freezings.

That said, while playing, the box becomes very hot and then suddenly, freezes to death. I have to disconnect and connect back the power jack to get it to work again.

It happens very easily with Riptide 2, because this game uses all the 8 cores of the Mali 450 to substain a good framerate, even in 1080p, and all the 4 cpu cores to display video effects and so on.

We could say that's the perfect stress test for the square M8 and its tiny heatsink radiator.

I noticed with the original firmware that i could play around 10/15 minutes before the hangons.
Then with Finless its more about 10 minutes max. Why that ? Because Finless gives us more power than the original firmware. Even the original launcher is faster in Finless !! Antutu score is better. 3D GPU Bench is better as well in Finless than with the original firmware.

So, what are we dealing with ? very good firmware with Finless, very good computing power, but a lot of heat that the original heatsink cannot substain, that's all !

So, i have a sollution for you. With this, i ran Riptide 2 for 2 hours without a problem !!

Pictures in next post

Best regards,
Philippe

[Mujus]

Fist pict is the original motherboard and heatsink.

Second pict the heatsink released displaying the size of the CPU.

Third pict, first test to replace the original heatsink with a PC chipset fan and heatsink, connected to the power plug in 5 volts only. This fan is small and would have been perfect. But as far it is for PC, it runs on 12 volts, and 5 are not enough. It have been tested under Riptide 2 and with its too low rotation speed, did not make the thing cool enough. Next !

Fourth picture is the one ! Its a PC CPU fan that i did place directly over the original heatsink. The fan is bigger than in picture 3 and runs very nicely at 5 volts, very quietly. I had to remove some plastic from the case so the fan could rotate nicely and have some fresh air ! But like it is under the case, its not visible and totally quiet

Like i said, now under Finless 1.8 i can run for at least 2 hours Riptide 2. The box is still hot, the fan blows some hot air, that's incredible, but everything is fine ! It costed me a free CPU fan from an old system and 20 minutes of work to do so

Oh, and i replaced the small rubber feet with new ones, slightly bigger so the space between the table and the M8 is a bit more spacy, so the fan could have more easily fresh air

Have a nice day !

Philippe

[jeffben]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7817[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]7818[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]7819[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]7820[/ATTACH]

Fist pict is the original motherboard and heatsink.

Second pict the heatsink released displaying the size of the CPU.

Third pict, first test to replace the original heatsink with a PC chipset fan and heatsink, connected to the power plug in 5 volts only. This fan is small and would have been perfect. But as far it is for PC, it runs on 12 volts, and 5 are not enough. It have been tested under Riptide 2 and with its too low rotation speed, did not make the thing cool enough. Next !

Fourth picture is the one ! Its a PC CPU fan that i did place directly over the original heatsink. The fan is bigger than in picture 3 and runs very nicely at 5 volts, very quietly. I had to remove some plastic from the case so the fan could rotate nicely and have some fresh air ! But like it is under the case, its not visible and totally quiet

Like i said, now under Finless 1.8 i can run for at least 2 hours Riptide 2. The box is still hot, the fan blows some hot air, that's incredible, but everything is fine ! It costed me a free CPU fan from an old system and 20 minutes of work to do so

Oh, and i replaced the small rubber feet with new ones, slightly bigger so the space between the table and the M8 is a bit more spacy, so the fan could have more easily fresh air

Have a nice day !

Philippe

Well Done Philippe.

[Danielv561]

PHILLIPE THAT SO AWESOME!!! I don't play games BUT this is this is the thread every1 should learn from end of story, thank you for knowledgable post my friend

[JustMe]

Hi there !

First post. I'm French so my english will not be perfect, sorry

I have a Tomato-like square M8 with the right pcb and Samsung RAMs. So everything is okay for now and i'm using right now Finless 1.8 which is great.
I noticed while playing the cpu consuming Riptide 2 a lot of freezings.

That said, while playing, the box becomes very hot and then suddenly, freezes to death. I have to disconnect and connect back the power jack to get it to work again.

It happens very easily with Riptide 2, because this game uses all the 8 cores of the Mali 450 to substain a good framerate, even in 1080p, and all the 4 cpu cores to display video effects and so on.

We could say that's the perfect stress test for the square M8 and its tiny heatsink radiator.

I noticed with the original firmware that i could play around 10/15 minutes before the hangons.
Then with Finless its more about 10 minutes max. Why that ? Because Finless gives us more power than the original firmware. Even the original launcher is faster in Finless !! Antutu score is better. 3D GPU Bench is better as well in Finless than with the original firmware.

So, what are we dealing with ? very good firmware with Finless, very good computing power, but a lot of heat that the original heatsink cannot substain, that's all !

So, i have a sollution for you. With this, i ran Riptide 2 for 2 hours without a problem !!

Pictures in next post

Best regards,
Philippe

hmm could be the batch of soc's maybe it needs finless cpu fixer patch

JustMe

[polys]

I have a couple of M8 boxes with the same date 2014/03/12 which shut down after 10-20 minutes of playback. Maybe overheating issue as well. Then again I live in a country that averages 30-35 degrees Celcius in August.

Any idea why they have that big metal piece on the bottom part of the case? Is it just for added weight? I don't think it does anything to help heat absorption (or maybe i'm wrong?)

[JustMe]

I have a couple of M8 boxes with the same date 2014/03/12 which shut down after 10-20 minutes of playback. Maybe overheating issue as well. Then again I live in a country that averages 30-35 degrees Celcius in August.

Any idea why they have that big metal piece on the bottom part of the case? Is it just for added weight? I don't think it does anything to help heat absorption (or maybe i'm wrong?)

to add weight to the bottom and to aid as heat transfer you could alway try some artic silver compund to reduce heat

Just Me

[polys]

But there is already a thermal pad between the CPU and the heat sink. Isn't that better?

[JustMe]

But there is already a thermal pad between the CPU and the heat sink. Isn't that better?

talking about cpu and heatshink.

you can also get same heatsink as is on the square m8 with ultraslim fan on it which some of the older generation video cards used not sure how effecient they would be

will post picture tomorrow but it would also mean you need to get rid of that flat steel brass or alloy would of been a better choice

Justme

[polys]

talking about cpu and heatshink.

you can also get same heatsink as is on the square m8 with ultraslim fan on it which some of the older generation video cards used not sure how effecient they would be

will post picture tomorrow but it would also mean you need to get rid of that flat steel brass or alloy would of been a better choice

Justme

Ok for now i've removed the thermal pad and added some Arctic cooling MX4 paste instead. Will check how it goes.

[JustMe]

Ok for now i've removed the thermal pad and added some Arctic cooling MX4 paste instead. Will check how it goes.

how did the paste go have your temps dropped?

Justme

[polys]

Re: Overheating !

how did the paste go have your temps dropped?

Justme

Not really. The box still shuts down after a while. I think they're going back to China.

[JustMe]

Not really. The box still shuts down after a while. I think they're going back to China.

water cool it just kidding almost done just running some test before i post cooler circuit

JustMe

[Phrozin]

Had exactly the same problems with my M8 and can say it's definitely heat.
I live in South Africa(summer temps 35-40deg Celc.) My initial solutions would've been to add a 120mm fan below the box with external power supply(box dimensions is roughly the same) , but I decided against it because how do you sell that to customers(if you play games). The heatsink mods would be a more correct permanent solution

Normally I got 10min with gaming in Asphalt8 Airbourne in HD without cooling. Normal 1080p movies played fine for hours on end, so it only happened in high end games.

My solution that I utilize now is a $9.15 (+-R100.00) laptop cooling pad and I play games over 2 hours and no freeze
Here is link of an example and it needs no alteration of box(keeps warranty) and customer can use easily.

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/138382951/ASTRUM_BIG_LAPTOP_COOLING_PAD_FOR_SIZE_UPTO_17_3_BRAND_NEW.html

Mine is usb and could be plugged into M8 box,tv or cellphone usb charger. Can be plugged in only when gaming.

Later on if I have time, I will mod with better heatsink, ram heatsinks, but for now this is easy solution for those that don't want to tinker etc.
Hope it helps

[Mujus]

Had exactly the same problems with my M8 and can say it's definitely heat.
I live in South Africa(summer temps 35-40deg Celc.) My initial solutions would've been to add a 120mm fan below the box with external power supply(box dimensions is roughly the same) , but I decided against it because how do you sell that to customers(if you play games). The heatsink mods would be a more correct permanent solution

Normally I got 10min with gaming in Asphalt8 Airbourne in HD without cooling. Normal 1080p movies played fine for hours on end, so it only happened in high end games.

My solution that I utilize now is a $9.15 (+-R100.00) laptop cooling pad and I play games over 2 hours and no freeze
Here is link of an example and it needs no alteration of box(keeps warranty) and customer can use easily.

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/138382951/ASTRUM_BIG_LAPTOP_COOLING_PAD_FOR_SIZE_UPTO_17_3_BRAND_NEW.html

Mine is usb and could be plugged into M8 box,tv or cellphone usb charger. Can be plugged in only when gaming.

Later on if I have time, I will mod with better heatsink, ram heatsinks, but for now this is easy solution for those that don't want to tinker etc.
Hope it helps

Thanks for your feedback !