Processor cooling

We’re talking about a $35 device with significantly less processing power than even a cell phone, much less a laptop or other traditional computer. 15% is completely acceptable.

I was referring to the temp, not the CPU%, i understand what the device is, just concerned about the warnings.

Hope you installed the heatsinks correctly.
Too often I saw people gluing them on with superglue what may even worsen heatdissipation.

Also check your powersupply… If it is insufficient, the regulators might be screaming for power and work inefficiently.

As far as i know, heatsinks are ok, they´ve come with their own self adhesive and i just put them on the correspondant chip.
As for the power supply, i´m running the official raspberry 5v 2.5 ma.

I am having the same problems. Original raspberry pi power adapter, overheating while going through the menu’s. The menu’s feel light and fast.

Never had the problem during video playback!? (1080p)

Only using one usb port for my remote via flirc. Also using a bluetooth keyboard. No heatsinks installed but come on…

What do you consider overheating? The device is not overheating until it reaches 85c and suffers a failsafe shutdown.

Sorry for not being clear. I am fairly new to this but I have a yellow (sometimes red) square in the corner and my understanding is that the system is telling me the temperature is too high. Correct me if I’m wrong. It’s a pi 3 model B by the way.

That could be an indication that you may be getting dangerously close to that threshold. Are sure it’s yellow or red? Are you certain it is not a rainbow color similar to what you see on the fullscreen splash at boot time?

What services do you also have running? Describe the environment and ambient temp around your pi.

I’m sure it is yellow, and yes, it turned red twice. Two weeks a go it was the rainbow so I switched to a original raspberry power supply, 5v 2.5a. That solved that problem.

I am running samba and ssh. No overclock.

Case is see through. In an open tv cabinet. Everything around it feels cool.

Earlier I was using my keyboard all afternoon and I didn’t see the square once. Just now I was using the flirc usb with my Apple tv remote and it was there again. Probably not the problem I assume?

When you see the yellow is the device noticeably hotter than when you dont? Is there any venting on the plastic case? You still didn’t state what your local ambient temp is.

Local ambient temp is 72,5.
The device doesn’t feel hotter. There are three holes on top of the case. I assume for connecting different parts (like a touchscreen).

(I tried to reproduce. With bluetooth keyboard no luck, with remote, within seconds. I don’t want to waste your time because I can use the keyboard of course. But it’s a waste of money on the flirc…)

I can’t imagine that simply using the flirc device would result in an overheat.

I know it sounds ridiculous. It’s what I observe. I’m probably too much of a noob to come up with a better cause.

Where do you live?
If the chip isn’t hitting 85C I wouldn’t worry about it. The life may be reduced by a bit but that is hard to quantify

I live in Holland.

Tried without the case?
Both of you reported they have the pi in the see through acrylic case.

Yeah case ventilation is main problem. My case only had ventilation at the back and even with a heatsink would hit over 80c sometimes. Removing the top of case never went to 80c.

A stick on heatsink inside a (virtually) sealed case doesn’t really help much - the heat is still trapped.
A well ventilated case is better, and best of all is a “heatsink case” like the flirc case,
which conducts heat through the case. You’ll never have overheating issues with that case.
The is a Kodi branded version of the flirc case. See here.

Guess I’m going to try that then. I still find it very strange that this happens when I’m not doing anything significant. Never happens during video playback for example.

Even if you are not doing anything, the processor and other chips will still produce heat that will add up if it cannot leave the case.