Solving playback issues

[rokszurk]

Hi- Thanks for your detailed questions. Our Roku Premier, Model No 3920 X, was bought just under two years ago. It sits on the top of a cupboard which also has our TV set on it, about 20cms to the right of the edge of the set. There's a central heating radiator about 1.5 metres to the left of the Roku box, and there's at ground level an enclosed gas fire about a metre diagonally from the box. However, neither of these sources of heat was on last night when the warning about the Roku overheating appeared on our TV screen, and no such warning has ever appeared in the past two years, including times when both those sources of heat were fully on. You may well be right that, if the warning keeps reappearing, I'd need to replace the Roku box but if that's the case after just two years of intermittent use then, call me old-fashioned, this would seem to me a piece of **bleep**.

[Z06]

@rokszurk  Nothing lasts forever anymore. A Roku model such as yours is the base model. Rather inexpensive. About $30. My $1000 dishwasher kicked the bucket after only 3 years. Luckily I had an extended warranty. My $60,000 Audi had the transmission replaced at 40,000 miles. So things could be worse. Life span of a Roku is about 3-5 years. Oh my wife’s $1200 iPhone became defective only after 1 month. Get my point? But since your Roku has been exposed to having heat blowing on it all these past years that could’ve caused premature failure. It might have not had heat blowing on it last night but what about all during the winter it could’ve caused an internal failure

[rokszurk]

I certainly get your point, and it's clear should call myself lucky that our fridge-freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer have all lasted the twelve years since we moved into our house, with just one pump replacement on the washer, my Mac fusion desktop has been going trouble-free for seven, my iPhone for five with just one battery change, and my SAAB 900, bought in 1991, is still running fine. Sad to hear that our Roku - which, by the way, has not had heat blowing on it in our always moderately heated sitting room - is set to prove so much more fragile.

[Z06]

@rokszurk  All the items you listed are way more expensive then your Roku. If you spent $1000 on your Roku and it lasted 2 years I could understand your point. My $100 Roku Ultra lasted about 3 years. I went and bought a Roku Stick to replace it. Should your 3920 last longer then 2 years? Sure. But nothing lasts forever and your Roku is only 4” from a heater. Hot air blowing on your Roku for the past 2 years on and off could cause premature failure. Unfortunately like most electronic devices are only warranted for 12 months. You can buy a $1000 TV and it’s only covered for 12 months. So you paid $30 for your Roku. That’s $15/year. And how much streaming hours did you get out of it? I’m sure about 1000 hours a year. How much money did your Roku save you over going to the movies? If you weigh it all out you got your moneys worth. Just re read what you wrote. Your Roku is near your heater and a fireplace. Not good 

[AvsGunnar]

@rokszurk 

Generally, when you start getting the overheating message, it is an indicator that the processor temp is exceeding a recommended operating level.  With your Premiere being beyond the 1-year replacement warranty window, limited to DIY remedies or replacing the device.

The Premiere 3920 does seem to have a bit of overheating history in various postings throughout the Community.  My 3921 was running extremely warm (highest 86 celcius) so I experimented and replaced the thermal paste on the processor under the can enclosure and it now operates around 78-82 so certainly reduced the temps.  Unfortunately, just not much room for heat dissipation and transfer in that little box and the older processors.  Others found success by adding some sort of heat sink (small piece of metal) to absorb heat or placing near fan or adding small auxillary fan to device.  These remedies are more for those that tinker.

You can also try using longer HDMI cables and replacing the power supply cord with a longer one in order to get a little more distance from the TV's heat. (The power supply cord is just a micro-USB connector on the device side, so can get 5ft, 10ft, etc cords.)  Essentially, any cell phone charging cable with this micro-usb end will work.

For the average user, it may be easier to purchase one of the newer Roku devices with the newer processors.  They run a little cooler (not much though).  Of the Roku devices I own, the Ultra certainly runs the coolest but also more room in the enclosure and the board components have a little distance from each other. (of course, a bit more expensive unless you can wait for sales on these - sometime can get for $69). 

[Z06]

@AvsGunnar  Good read. Unfortunately the Roku is sitting next to a gas fireplace and near a central air heater duct. It’s not mounted to the tv so the heat from the tv isn’t a factory. 

[AvsGunnar]

@Z06 

Probably time for you to come up with a new username again.

If a user says his/her device is far enough from an external heat source, I tend to believe the user and not argue and belabor a point.

[Z06]

@AvsGunnar  4’ from a heater duct and a fireplace isn’t exactly far away. Read what they wrote. The heat from the gas fireplace rises right into the Roku. The Central air duct is also blowing heat directly onto the Roku. Both of those can prematurely cause a failure in any electronic device. 4’ is the length of my legs. So that’s awful close

[rokszurk]

I only mentioned how long our household machinery, my car and my iPhone have lasted because you'd told me what a lot you'd spent on yours and still found they'd broken down in short order, all by way of arguing, in defence of the device that this was just how things were these days.  Also, the heat from the radiator under the window some distance away rises vertically to spread in the room, rather than "blows" horizontally at our Roku Premiere as you seem to imagine, and the same is true of the heat from the glassed-in fireplace, flush with the wall under the mantelpiece, itself some distance from the shelf on which the Roku box rests. All told, yes, I do expect a piece of equipment from a major supplier, whether it cost £29.99 as my Roku Premiere did or a lot more, and whether it is within or beyond its warranty period, to be well enough designed not to overheat in normal operating conditions (and used, as ours has been by the way, only on the odd occasions when we need to use Roku to access a channel) instead of having to be replaced in two years, as you advise. Technological advance leading to obsolescence of equipment is one thing, design that leads to waste is something else.

[rokszurk]

Thank you very much for your advice, which I'll put to good use, and for your reference to other users experiencing the same problem, reassuring in view of some other reflections I've seen here.