Streaming sticks overheat
I have streaming sticks on 2 tvs. Both systems are out in the open, both have extenders, both continually overheat within minutes of turning tv on. What’s the solution? Turning equipment off a...
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Over the years I've had 3 successive models of Streaming Sticks and have never had an overheating problem, so I can't share any direct experience.
But since Streaming Sticks can only connect to their remotes and to your home network over WiFi, one thing that I suspect could lead to overheating is connecting to an over-crowded WiFi channel that causes the Roku to have to work too hard separating out the data packets addressed to it from all the other stuff crowding the channel. You may find you can improve things by setting your WiFi router to use a different less crowded WiFi channel.
Check Settings > Network > About to see what Wireless channel your Roku is connecting to. Channels 1-11 are in the 2.4 GHz WiFi band, channels 36 and up are in the 5 GHz WiFi band.
The 2.4 GHz WiFi band is shared between WiFi, Bluetooth, and lots of other things like home "smart" control devices, microwave ovens, baby monitors, security cameras, and garage door openers. As a result it can get pretty crowded, especially if you have nearby neighbors who are adding their own traffic to yours. In the 2.4 GHz band, Rokus all use channels 1-11 as are used in North America. The preferred channels are 1, 6, and 11 as these do not overlap each other in frequency, so I'd start by trying these, although depending on which channels your neighbors are using you may find one of the other channels gives better results. If your router has a setting that automatically selects the channel you may have better results by turning this off and setting the channel directly. You also may be able to reduce congestion by setting your router to use 20 MHz channel bandwidth rather than 40 to reduce channel overlap.
The 5 GHz band has come into use more recently and is not supported by some older routers and devices. Consequently this band tends to be less crowded than the older 2.4 GHz band. It is capable of higher data transfer speeds, but doesn't reach as far nor penetrate walls as well, so it is less susceptible to outside interference. But still, if you have a neighbor using the same 5 GHz channel, you might benefit by switching your router to a different channel.
I use a wifi app on my phone that can show me the congestion on each wifi channel, allowing me to choose a less congested one. I check this periodically as this situation can change when neighbors come and go and/or reconfigure their routers.
