Raspberry Pi 4 becoming unresponsive

Support Raspberry Pi
1

A little while back I noticed my RPi 4 8GB was very hot and had gone offline (I could not ping or ssh). It came back but kept becoming unresponsive.

I’ve bought a passive heatsink case for it and switched from ubuntu 64 to the latest raspberry os 64bit. I’ve run 30 min and 3hr long stress tests which show now that the CPU temp doesn’t get above 65 degrees even at full clock speed. But I still get the issue where it fails.

I’ve tried a new SD Card and finally when that didn’t seem to work I even went to the 32bit version of raspberry os. It seemed good for a couple of days but the issue is back. I get maybe 30mins before the system stops responding and I need to cycle the power.

I’m using an official usb power power supply.

I haven’t found any logs that tell me what’s happening. If anyone has ideas as to how I can diagnose and fix this I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks.

2

if you have another power supply try that at first…it may be the issue …i cannot remember the gpio pins exactly to test it with a dmm …look them up and monitor the voltage in real time keep an eye on it…

first thing i would do…

can you also disconnect any other usb devices that are not needed and also list what you do/did etc…etc.
what do you have it clocked to …?? both cpu and gpu…???

3

I’m watching it sit at 5.22 V +/1 0.01

I haven’t set cpu or gpu frequencies. The cpu is at 600Mhz with max being 1500Mhz. The core gpu freq is 200Mhz I think (using vcgencmd measure_clock core)

I’m accessing it via wifi and ssh with nothing plugged in put the power adapter.

4

I didn’t see the moment it locked up, but I’ve been checking the voltage and its been stable this last 20mins. But the Pi has become unresponsive again sitting at 5.22V

5

hmm that would leave the governor to be set at on demand i guess…depending on which opp system your using at the time

5.22v is interesting it may have just gone high…stock power should be 5.1 but they can run at higher

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq

that will give you cpu speed i use only ubuntu not shure what u use with debian though it may help to set it to one set freq rather than have it jump all over the place…
although also there is meter and voltage lead error to take into count…
its hard to know what hardware you have at hand …
my orig supply is 2 years old and i have used it for that long…

see if you can get another supply …try that first…at any pace…

6

gives 1500000

This is with raspberry os 32 bit but I’ve had the same issues with vanilla installs of the 64bit and ubuntu server 64bit.

7

exactly why i think it is a power problem…!

seems not software dependent weather the higher voltage is/has done any damage …??
or weather you measure it with a different meter…

cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp

for the cpu temp in a prompt hit it over and over it should show up the temp of the cpu…this is what i use under ubuntu

8

also if you look up any of my threads here for the rpi-4 and ubuntu may also give you code to help look at readings etc…ideas…etc

9

I’m running on an official micro usb supply at the moment hooked up with some jumpers. It showed 5.26V before hooking the pi up. Once I hooked it up and used other pins on the pi to measure voltage it was at 4.96v which is low. I’m seeing what happens running it without my mm hooked up.

10

official supply has a “usb type C” connector on it…
if its at 4.96volts then its low…
its better than high…
but it seems to be dropping it point 3 of a volt not uncommon.
but if you can get it to measure 5.1 on the pi then that should be sufficient enough… if you could list your case and heatsink part numbers/description…if they are core-e parts that would be good…
also what brand of media are you using min i use is sandisk ultra 16 gig sd`s…8 gig is ok but never really enough…after updates etc… also after flashing and installing are you running software updates…
i know not of your intell

apt update && apt full-upgrade && apt dist-upgrade

just checking…no diss …

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11

The other power supply I had was an official micro usb for a pi 3, I’ve got a board that breaks out the 5v onto pins that I connected to the my pi 4s 5v and gnd pins (leaving the usb c connecter empty. Same end result though. the pi has stopped responding.

I started with CE06432 and CE05645 case and heatsink, but I am now using CE06582 heatsink/case which is much more effective at keeping it cool.

I’ve tried 2 different A class sandisk sd cards and have been running update and upgrade but not dist-upgrade.

Like you said it doesn’t seem software given I’ve had the same issue on 3 distros.

12

the official rpi-3 psu unit is only 2.5 amp where the rpi-4 is 3 amp…
this changes not much if you are shure that your now directly powering the board from the gpio pins…and delivering it with 5.1 volts at the pin and 3 amps…however there should also be a 3.3 volt rail from mem check this as well see if it is the correct voltage on it…
i dont know how long your board has been running before this issue happened …
i have this heatsink SKU: CE06512 its a tight fit though it works very well i also have the argon1 fan hat
and the 40 pinn straight header to rise it up with to give some space between the sink and the fan.really 2 headers would be better i think but i only have 1…

i was going to go with the black full caged thermal heatsink at first…but i had also that set of alloy silver sinks like yours…

so back to the problem…how long have you owned or how long ago did you purchase it…??

i`m guessing it just started to fail today or in the last few… the rpi-4 8 gig boards have not been out all that long and as far as i know there is only the one revision of it…

also you seem to be running it headless are you using it to do bitcoin or algorithms /number crunching etc…not shure just a guess there

what is your purpose for the board in general and how hard have you been driving the cpu…

apt dist-upgrade
will upgrade the kernel if a new one has been released…also there is ubuntu desktop 20.10 iot released as well…last month i think and you can also re-flash the boot loader to boot from usb stick or drive etc…

the locking up is still there i`m wondering if your sink is not working or fitted correctly…?? it could be shutting down thermally…since its shut off time seems the same all the time approx 20 mins…i have mine clocked at 2.0 or 2.3 on the cpu and my gpu is always at 750…
my over voltage is “8” and i do all this on a standard supply… which is quite a freak board i guess is the first rev rpi-4 4 gig board … it freezes at 2.4 though…

still your issue could be thermal…i gave you code to check it earlier…

cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp

in a command line just hit the up arrow and hit enter again after your fist time entering the code… like doskey…you will see different values.anything over 60-70 and i would be bothered. meaning that the sink is not good enough i guess…

there is only really one constant the fact that it dies in approx 20 to 30 mins …i would get an argon one fan hat the 4pinn riser and a heatsink like mine some spacers and some 2.5 mm nuts and bolts and fit the argon one fan hat …

check that the surfaces on your bulky heatsink are matting and flush with the chips
you could just mount the argon one fan hat above it i think the gpio pins are exposed but not much else with your heat sink …i have never seen my cpu over 55 deg`s ever…i really think you need some air cooling added into it… it may solve a lot of issues your having…
ok what you can do in the meantime get one of those small like hair dryers the ones that can blow cold non heat cycle as well ad set it up above it to blow over the rpi-4… this could prove to be an advantage to your learning curve if it is shutting down thermally…

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13

Heat seems fine, The pads for the heatsink are flush with the chip and heatsink. I’ve run the pi stress tests and didn’t get over about 55 degrees. Idle with that command I get 38 I haven’t tried pushing the voltage but everything is stock in terms of the config.txt.

I’m planning on it being a server for IoT stuff and it’s about 6 months old.

14

Hey Lyall,

That’s interesting, if you’re still running into issues with the Pi you’ve ordered you can send through some pictures with the order number to support@coreelectronics.com.au we can run you through some brief troubleshooting there to see whether we can identify the issues and sort out a return and/or replacement if required. Please let us know if there’s anything else that we can do for you.

Bryce
Core Electronics | Support

15

this is late but seems to be the correct command line code to test cpu current speed on all 4 cores under ubuntu…most likely will work with other distros…

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq

this seems specific to Ubuntu the above code…but it works when i pull down the core value in bunt desktop not command line and change the cpu value it reads correct …that is to sy if i use the gui to set the CPU clock at a diff freq…the code tells the same

in all honesty i would love to put my counter on it…if anybody can tell me where i can read this with my counter that would be great,phase…

16

It seems that gets the current setting not the actual current clock speed as is doesn’t agree with
vcgencmd measure_clock arm

Yesterday I flashed back to raspberry os 64. I’ve now got the highest uptime that I"ve had in weeks on this. Will keep monitoring for a bit. The last time things looked promising it just took a couple of days to go back to the old behaviour. If it drops out again I’ll send the pics etc to support and see what we can figure out.

Thanks,

17

Heat problem most likely, I think it’s thermally shutting off.
I have this heat sink SKU: CE06512. It’s a tight fit though it works very well. I also have the Argon ONE fan hat and the 40-pin straight header to rise it up with to give some space between the sink and the fan. Really 2 headers would be better I think, but I only have 1. If you do have the same as I have then I can assist you with the Argon ONE fan.

I have the program running t has both a GUI and command-line ways to function under Raspbian. Official media to set and adjust the fan hat speeds. But under Ubuntu, it is different atm because there is not an official Ubuntu fan program. I can only get the command line fan controls to work…this is ok once you under stand how to manage it under Ubuntu. it’s really straight forward…you just edit the config program it is found in the " /etc" directory .I can sympathize with the man`s problem because really they should not need a heat sink at all just sitting there idle…
it does however seem to be leading my thinking that it still yet could be a faulty board. but I am not sure of this fact as yet to be 100%. He can always give us feed back which will help us to help him.

I am pretty sure if he uses Ubuntu and follows my advice he will have a working board.i still don’t know whether he is running bitcoin on or something heavy …my op is that he should lose the heat sink and go with my hardware suggestions earlier I posted above… using “Ubuntu 20-10 desktop”
here is the direct download link.

It will give a direct download link to the image and please use the following:

etcher

to flash the media.
if you like you can overclock the CPU at 2.0 GHz clock and the GPU at 750 if you want.

These are my settings in the “/boot/firmware/config.txt” file "

arm_freq=2250
gpu_freq=750
over_voltage=6 (or 8 your choice..)

I listed the hardware I use in am earlier post in this thread,
here in this thread…above…and mine is maxed out to 2.3 gig and I don’t have any issues like he is having, I also told him to put a fan on his bulky sink…he can choose is over volt for himself. matters not but I want to get the board to be running at a set stable CPU speed. if you using Ubuntu it is simple to implement this.

arm_freq=2000
over_volt=6-8
gpu_freq=600-750..

this will and should hold it at the desired freq etc, and should BE Put into config.txt file

/boot/firmware/config.txt

OK.that done you should be able to adjust the CPU speed manually via the CPU-freq control" in the ubuntu mate GUI after you have installed the argon software you will need the board connected to the internet as it pulls data from their server to do this.

near the end of the mate install you will be prompted to choose a display manager I use “lightdm”…there are only two options to choose from…

…i may need to give you more input on selecting the apps on the Ubuntu panel…i will post a few links at the bottom of this post you should have a look at them they are by the author “nico D” you may or may not have heard of him…they are YouTube format …and this is what got me started to use Ubuntu on my rpi-4…its a very good tutorial …here is some more help…

when you’re using CPU frequency control ap[p you install it after the argon has been installed…then you can just add the app to the mate GUI it will put it into the panel up the top…of the screen GUI…

when you using the mate desktop…I don’t know how to do in Raspbian as I only use Ubuntu at this moment … I have plans to use Raspbian one day but exactly when I`m m not sure exactly…
but it is only 20-04…no problem i give you a wiki guide…to upgrade it to 20-10…later or put a request if your in a hurry i did
not look right the page as i am quite busy…but i will post one later…
https://ubuntu-mate.org/ports/raspberry-pi/
here above …

don’t worry about it is for 19-10…it is still ubuntu driven, and …

any questions then please post back…sorry it to me some time to write and edit this and I fell asleep in the middle of this , matters not the codes work for 20-10…as well…

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18

I don’t think there is a tutorial that core have for setting up Ubuntu I`m old and going blind sorry if you don’t understand all I have written…thank you
this for the server version.

this page for desktop rpi-4 and more…

when you using the mate desktop…I don’t know how to do in Raspbian as I only use Ubuntu at this moment … I have plans to use Raspbian one day but exactly when I`m m not sure exactly…
but it is only 20-04…no problem i give you a wiki guide…to upgrade it to 20-10…later or put a request if your in a hurry i did
not look right the page as i am quite busy…but i will post one later…


here above …

next you can install the mate desktop…there is a version just put out with the mate desktop,but
have not tried it out …its on my list …to do …i will post an upgrade if it is only 20-04…of how to do it via terminal
you wont lose any data.so chill…have a look here…

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19

: i ran those commands your using and they differ to what Ubuntu is telling me i dont know if there is a clock out pin that i could connect to my counter on …so i guess there Debian commands most likely
have as look here please…


and this may be handy…

https://mega.nz/file/Xc8ClACQ#6knpKl2n8nZ2t_S2H7ySifszWAFUU3bdxXTNyIxSkCs

2 Likes
20

So I’ve been watching the pi4 this last little while as it stopped crashing so quickly. Today it has crashed again. This most recent version was using raspberry pi os 64bit and the only thing I was doing was pinging it and logging in via ssh every now and then. I hadn’t set up any other software to run on it.

It was keeping a steady 38 degrees and responding well until today.

I’ll email support.

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