WD TV Live Streaming player getting super hot and having random errors - SOLVED?

Hi all,

I was getting all kinds of random errors from my player, and upon investigation, I found it to be extremely hot after using it for an hour or so.

I had some solid copper VGA RAM coolers that I use for other projects - so I popped them on all of the chips that were hot.

Now I rarely have a problem.  I also just leave the top off - those sinks are moving a lot of heat away from the chips.  I’m amazed that there were’t any vent holes or heatsinks on any of the chips.  The wireless chip could probably light a match if you held one on there.  And I’m thinking that the Sigma chip in there could even use a bigger sink on it…

See the pix, and let me know what you think! (Note that the before and after pictures are oriented differently - see the battery location in each pic)

Same hardware but people are experiencing this instead. Maybe it’s because they’re using wired instead?

Could be… I’m using it wirelessly, HDMI out to TV.  It was randomly resetting, going to main menu in the middle of playing a video, jumping out of youtube during playback, etc.

Now it’s a rare thing to happen when it was happening several times a day.

Most of the sinks are still too hot to touch - especially the wireless and the sigma (larger) chip.

The older WD units had heat sinks in them

@TheRealAnubis

my mistake (wish the OP on tomshardware was editied with corrections to provide accurate info)

Hmmm,

That may be why many of the CPU heatsinks have a solid copper core which is enclosed in an aluminum heatsink.  The best of both worlds!

I’ll try an aluminum one on there when I get a chance and see if there’s a temp difference.  I’m using one of the infrared temp sensors to check the temps.

Also, I may attach an aluminum one to the copper ones and see what that does as well…

Edit:

Ha ha - did you get to read to the bottom of his post?  He admits that he was mistaken (after a bunch of engineers chimed in) and then gave his NEW information:

There is no such physical phenomenon as how well a material “gives up heat” convection-wise (from what I have read).

  1. Aluminum radiates heat better than copper, but this is almost completely irrelivent to cooling your CPU (from the best information I can gather).

  2. Copper is far better as a heatsink material (thermodynamically). 

  3. Copper heatsinks are not as easy to manufacture as aluminum ones, are more expensive, and heavier (possibly causing tiny air gaps between the CPU and heatsink. Thus causing worse performance if not properly attached, and possible motherboard damage depending on the heatsink/fan weight).

  4. If all these problems are overcome, then copper is the best choice.

TheRealAnubis wrote:

  1. Copper heatsinks are not as easy to manufacture as aluminum ones, are more expensive, and heavier (possibly causing tiny air gaps between the CPU and heatsink.

Which should be alleviated by using heatsink paste, I guess?