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Cooling fan needed to run TF330

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 00:20
by matt020
Hi all,

Has anyone had the need to run a cooling fan in order for the TF330 to be stable?

Just sharing my experience recently, where a TF330 arrived, and I couldn't get it stable for anymore than 1-2 minutes. Screen glitches, random resets, all sorted. A second TF330 was supplied and it too had similar results. I added some heatsinks to the CPU, CPLD, and ram chips, and found the board would be stable for 20 to 30 minutes, but then problems repeat.

Lastky, I mounted a 12v cooling fan to the inside of the lid, mounted with hot glue, directly above the TF330, and connected it to the 5V line. I used 5V line so it would run slower and be quiet, and it is enough air movement to have the system run stable for hours (longest test has been 6 hours).

I am located in West Australia, and we have had 30+ degree days since early December.

Re: Cooling fan needed to run TF330

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 00:23
by alenppc
Hi Matt, I have not experienced anything like that, but to be fair over here it's more likely that we are at -30C than +30C, never had that kind of temperature inside my home.

Re: Cooling fan needed to run TF330

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 00:25
by terriblefire
matt020 wrote: 19 Jan 2020 00:20 Hi all,

Has anyone had the need to run a cooling fan in order for the TF330 to be stable?

Just sharing my experience recently, where a TF330 arrived, and I couldn't get it stable for anymore than 1-2 minutes. Screen glitches, random resets, all sorted. A second TF330 was supplied and it too had similar results. I added some heatsinks to the CPU, CPLD, and ram chips, and found the board would be stable for 20 to 30 minutes, but then problems repeat.

Lastky, I mounted a 12v cooling fan to the inside of the lid, mounted with hot glue, directly above the TF330, and connected it to the 5V line. I used 5V line so it would run slower and be quiet, and it is enough air movement to have the system run stable for hours (longest test has been 6 hours).

I am located in West Australia, and we have had 30+ degree days since early December.
Do you have the disabled jumper in place?

Re: Cooling fan needed to run TF330

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 00:33
by matt020
terriblefire wrote: 19 Jan 2020 00:25 Do you have the disabled jumper in place?
Yes.

With heat sinks and cooling fan, the system is wonderful! Six hours and it didn't fault. And I have done tests of similar duration and its good.
(But switch off the fan.... and 30 mins or so, and the problem repeats)

Re: Cooling fan needed to run TF330

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 00:49
by terriblefire
Well to be fair +30C is not something we see in the UK much and pretty much never in Scotland.

Re: Cooling fan needed to run TF330

Posted: 19 Jan 2020 01:14
by matt020
terriblefire wrote: 19 Jan 2020 00:49 Well to be fair +30C is not something we see in the UK much and pretty much never in Scotland.
I guess I posted this just for people to be aware that if glitches or resets are encountered, and the user is in a warmer part of the world, to try some cooling.

Re: Cooling fan needed to run TF330

Posted: 20 Feb 2020 08:59
by wairnair
Here in Hungary it does go up to 30C at times and my TF330 works fine.
The solution for me was a full 68030RC50 cpu (with MMU, running at 50mhz stock) in place of an EC40 which was overclocked to 50Mhz in the TF330.

I even bought a heatsink to go with it but never needed it!