How to make sure my PI4 has the firmware that fixes hot cpu?

Help and Support
1

Raspberry PI4 is known for having heat issues in the early days. A firmware update was released to fix this. How can one obtain/make sure one has it, when you run Volumio? Is the best solution to install Raspberry OS and run upgrade through terminal, then reinstall Volumio? Will the firmware upgrade be kept when you switch os?

2

firmware is baked in to your pi even if you clean your sd so beware if you switch to a 64bit version
you wil be on that till you downgrade your firmware…

3

So should I go for raspberry is 64 or 32? I’ll switch straight back to Volumio.

4

64 bit is still beta i’m testiing it but volumio will not switch soon to 64bit
so i would recommend the 32bit for now that is already good …
and the 64bit is still very buggy you have to do a lot by hand …

5

Why doesn’t Volumio support firmware update?

6

the 32bit is normal but all the changes in volumio are not made for a stable 64bit version but only
tested on the 32bit version …

7

Yes, I understand, but why do I have to switch OS to update firmware? Doesn’t Volumio 32bit update firmware?

8

no if you want it you could use commands for it via ssh we don’t make the OS
it wil need codes via ssh to upgrade and update … and that’s controlled by raspbian …

9

I’ve gone in using putty do check the firmware version. Not sure what I actually found. However, there’s a plugin within Volumio (under Plugins/Search Plugins/Miscellanea/System Information) that will show the last firmware version (mine shows Apr 27 2020). Checking GitHub, there have been a number of tweaks since then. Myself, I’ve tried adding rpi-eeprom but can’t get it to install.

If I start to obsess, I’ll flash back to Raspberry OS and try to update the firmware that way and then flash back to Volumio. But, that’s at least a day or two away. :slight_smile:

10

if you got fear of overheating on aliexpress 52Pi Low-Profile Ice Tower Cooling Fan Metal Case 7 Colors RGB Changing LED Light with Bracket for Raspberry Pi 4 B / 3B+ / 3B works great

11

I took a spare SD-card to install RaspiOs and update the firmware to the latest version, it’s definitely easier than doing the same on Volumio

After updating the firmware just put back Volumio, firmware update is saved in the embedded memory and will be kept

12

@volumio Can you help us here? I want to make sure I have the firmware updates related to this, as my cpu is running at 67 celcius at the time. Using Allo Digione in their official case.

Checked the temp with
:~$ nano /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp

13

@volumio will the solution be to install official Raspbery os and run a update, then go back to Volumio, or does Volumio already have the Pi 4 hot cpu fixes?

14

I bought another microsd card and did a apt full upgrade on Pi OS. Unfortunately, as soon as I went back to the volumio card, the firmware also went back. @volumio, what can we do here? My pi4 is too hot!

1 Like
15

What I can tell is that 67 is a perfectly fine temperature…
You want to be below 80…

17

It’s actually running at 61-63 after I did sudo apt full upgrade on pi OS, but I can’t understand how that can affect anything if volumio brings back the firmware?

18

My RPI 4 running Volumio, usb DAC, touchscreen, DSP (brutefir) :slight_smile:
System Information

OS info

Version of Volumio: 2.835
Hostname: volumio-rpi4
Kernel: 4.19.118-v7l+
Governor: performance
Uptime: 0 days, 0 Hrs, 4 Minutes, 38 Seconds

Audio info

Hw audio configured: USB AUDIO
Mixer type: Hardware
Number of channels:
Supported sample rate:

Board info

Manufacturer: Raspberry Pi Foundation
Model: BCM2835 - Pi 4 Model B
Version: b03111 - Rev. 1.1
Firmware Version: Apr 27 2020 14:33:37 - 3a8f1793b758d6fb7f375edaa260e069ecd34c88

CPU info

Brand: Processor rev 3 (v7l)
Speed: 1.50Mhz
Number of cores: 4
Physical cores: 4
Average load: 27%
Temperature: 57°C

Memory info

Memory: 2031152 Ko
Free: 877604 Ko
Used: 1153548 Ko

Storage info

INTERNAL storage - Size: 27379Mo Used: 1637Mo Available: 24324Mo (89%)
19

Yes, that’s almost the same case, except I have a digione.

Why not implement a sleep mode where the unit will have a chance to stay cool when not in use? It can be awaken when the user access volumio.local

20

You can still try to change the governor
To see available

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

then, you have to be root

sudo su

and

cd /sys/devices/system/cpu
echo ondemand > cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

gives

System Information

OS info

    Version of Volumio: 2.835
    Hostname: volumio-rpi4
    Kernel: 4.19.118-v7l+
    Governor: ondemand
    Uptime: 0 days, 0 Hrs, 32 Minutes, 48 Seconds


Audio info

    Hw audio configured: USB AUDIO
    Mixer type: Hardware
    Number of channels:
    Supported sample rate: 


Board info

    Manufacturer: Raspberry Pi Foundation
    Model: BCM2835 - Pi 4 Model B
    Version: b03111 - Rev. 1.1
    Firmware Version: Apr 27 2020 14:33:37 - 3a8f1793b758d6fb7f375edaa260e069ecd34c88


CPU info

    Brand: Processor rev 3 (v7l)
    Speed: 1.50Mhz
    Number of cores: 4
    Physical cores: 4
    Average load: 28%
    Temperature: 52°C


Memory info

    Memory: 2031152 Ko
    Free: 849844 Ko
    Used: 1181308 Ko


Storage info

    INTERNAL storage - Size: 27379Mo Used: 1637Mo Available: 24324Mo (89%)
21

Actually the difference might be the governor. Volumio uses performances while Raspbian uses ondemand.
We did use performance because it’s helping with USB glitches on older PI models

I repeat myself: 67 is fine as a temp

1 Like