Wi-Fi disconnects under high CPU load. Doesn't Reconnect until reboot

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
1

Hi

Love my 2 x 4K+. Big step up from Pi, thanks to Sam et al.

One thing I have noticed is that my 4K+ it tends to lose wi-fi connectivity when under high load. It’ll quite happily stay connected indefinitely with media player duties, it’ll even stay connected under a modest load (FTP x’fer) , however when under a continuous high load load it’ll lose connection within seconds / minutes. This happens all the time, not just once. This scenario can be easily replicated.

My OSMC>Network says it has a IP address and is status: connected. System>Info>Network>Internet says ‘Not Connected. Check Network Settings’ then flicks to ‘Busy’ then back to Check Network Settings. I cannot ping its IP address from network and web interfaces to Transmission / Web Interface unresponsive. Rest of the wi-fi connected devices in household still connected, so not router. Vero reconnects after reboot.

In fairness I put the device under quite some load. I use Resilio-Sync which maxes out CPU…it gets so much of a work out unless I pop the pop the lid and run some air across CPU temp >80C!. With fan circa 40-50C, without fan I don’t know how high it might go, but it sure creeps up steadily. (I know from my Pi days Resilio-Sync = more cooling, so from day one with big LAN syncs and Vero I always use fan.Internet sync or just a few small files are OK. The multiple LAN host syncs are very CPU intensive).

Is it possible that with fewer CPU resources available to the OS it loses Wi Fi ? When it does then Resilio-Sync would not use much CPU as no network to sync from, and I would expect Vero to reconnect, stay up for a few minutes the disconnect and so on, but it doesn’t. It just loses connection forever.

my log file ID is vojeboziba. You should get 2 logs (I hope). The ‘old’ one is the one where the wi-fi dropped out; the not ‘old’ one is the one created when I rebooted (without disabling logging) to get a network connection (I quickly log via CLI and stop Resilio-Sync before I grabs the CPU) then I can use wi fi to upload logs. Unless i start Resilio-sync the Vero will stay connected forever. As soon as a start Resilio-Sync (with some good syncs to complete) it’ll drop off sure as night follows day.

I know my use-case is very different from most users who will never in a 100 years get close to the kind of CPU load I do and that I might be using the Vero outside its design spec.

Any suggestions would be awesome, I can use wired if required which works well; its just slightly easier for my to use Wi Fi if I can get it nice and stable.

I’m off to bed now, I’ll check back in 8 hours. Happy to provide more info then.

Love my Vero and even got another one en route, thanks again.

Cheers, Geoff.

vero%20under%20load
vero%20under%20load2015×1511 1.99 MB

2

Not sure about your Wifi problem but regarding the temperature - 80C (reported by Kodi ?) is absolutely fine for the Vero4k / Vero4k+. The SoC is capable of running much hotter than that without issues.

The thermal limiter is configured to start throttling back the CPU speed at 105C, so under extreme loads you may see the temperature rise as high as 105C but it should never go past 110C. The 105C trip point for the thermal limiter was chosen after a lot of testing to ensure stability on multiple devices.

My own Vero4k (which sits inside a closed AV cabinet with many other heat producing devices) sometimes sees a temperature of about 100C under heavy load but is completely stable.

I’d also comment on the removal of the case to point a fan at it - by removing the case you’re removing the heatsink plate from the SoC, this will actually cause it to get even hotter as you’re running it with no heatsink. A fan will not be nearly as effective blowing air across the naked chip as it would be blowing it across the heatsink.

4

First thing should indeed be to reapply the heat sink and case

5

thanks, I did try with default configuration, and believe it or not the fan is far more effective at cooling than conductive arrangement … by about 30C. Noted on the max temp; I was under impression that 80C was max desirable, I think from Pi days. I use the fan out of an abundance of caution, and I also have a Pi below it which is one of my Sync peers and the fan cooled both. The Vero is of course a far superior beast. I’ll try again with cover back on. Were those logs informative? Cheers, Geoff.

6

The heatsink is designed to spread heat across the board. It’s important not to just put a directional fan on one spot of the board.

7

Logs don’t show much. Does the device drop from the network, or does the transfer just get interrupted?

8

the device disappears from the network.

Your suggestion of putting lid back on raised temps to 110C, and appeared, with a limited but probably representative test, to resolve the wifi issue. Maybe the lid does some RF shielding, but so far so good. I’ll try some more tests over the next few weeks. Cheers, Geoff.

9

Have you ever contacted the company about why it causes such a heavy load? I personally can’t see using software that simply syncs files that uses 100% CPU. Seems to me that it would cause many systems problems.

That said, with the lid on, did you keep the fan on it? Or maybe a better fan than a USB fan?

12

@geoff_noob How many data we’re talking about you want to share with resilio?
If you look in the resilio web GUI, is it still indexing data when you see this extreme CPU load?

15

hi Jim

Quite a bit of data. Indexing over when most high CPU activity kicks off.
cheers, Geoff.

16

all good, hits 110C but this is within design spec. With lid on for some reason wi fi doesn’t seem to drop out. Maybe offers some shielding to sensitive part of circuitry.

17

The heat sink dissipates heat across the board. With the lid off you may be causing the WiFi chip to overheat.