Almond 3 locks up with blank white screen

[anwar.shiekh]

I replaced the main poly fuse with a bigger one.  No more lookups or white screens since then.

Any details?

[tvpccr]

Its been summer where I live and my main router was in our upstairs which gets warmer than the rest of the house. This problem had been on going and annoying- I did the PC case fan to USB, and plugged it in to the USB port on the A3, placing the fan under. I have had 100% success. Not a single white screen or lock up since, and we are going on 2 months.

I used this as the guide:
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Convert-A-Case-Fan-To-USB/

I have one other A3 downstairs that is next to a PS4 and ChromeBox that does this once in a blue moon- It was such a simple solution that I am probably going to put another one there. 

[punkorambo]

I replaced the main poly fuse with a bigger one.  No more lookups or white screens since then.

@pabpoo. Any details on this would be great. Had a hot day today and my main A3 locked up twice three times so far.

[anwar.shiekh]

First warm day of Spring and my Almond 3 also went 'white screen of death'; Summer is going to be MUCH hotter.

[anwar.shiekh]

Here is a picture of the fuse in question.

[punkorambo]

Could you please take a picture of what it looks like after your replaced the fuse?

[anwar.shiekh]

Even though I have some PTC fuses on the way, I have decided for now to just short across the fuse on the board.

I am now running with the fuse bridged and await the Summer to see if the Almond 3 can now take the heat.

[anwar.shiekh]

Room again reached 73F, white screen of death with the PTC fuse bridged; so it is not the fuse.

[punkorambo]

I decided to start with the easy USB fan approach. I have it plugged right into the A3 and blowing on it. So far so good.

[anwar.shiekh]

Got the solution from Securifi, a bad capacitor (0805, X5R, 10μF, 6.3V) see attached picture for placement (need to login to see it); the problem is that the capacitor is just 2 mm long and so quite challenging to replace. The 'white screen of death' seems related to the hot boot problem whereby the unit needs to cool down before it starts to reboot and the delay can be as long as 5 minutes.

After replacing the capacitor the reboot delay is gone and so far no 'white screen of death'

I recommend against trying this repair and take no responsibility for work gone wrong.

The hot boot delay is the fastest way to test to see if there is an issue; get up to heat (wait half an hour), disconnect and reconnect, the boot process should start right away.


P.S. Had a repaired black Almond 3 unit in direct sunlight and running very hot; no white screen.

[anwar.shiekh]

Found a practice kit on ebay for those who might want to do the repair themselves (login to see the picture)

The 0805 size means .08" x .05" (2012 metric: 2mm x 1.2mm)

[joltdude]

Iv actually shelved my Almond 3 units due to this issue..  Though that SMD component.... Eugh.. I got tired of them white screening or rebooting on me...  if this would fix it.... Need to find someone who can do the board level repair for me..

-J

[anwar.shiekh]

It is finally hot out here and not one crash; the fix is a good one.

You just need to find someone local who is good with a soldering iron; be sure not to cheap out when getting the replacement capacitor.

[Cali9dub]

Just curious where you got the capacitor?  All I see is 10 packs (at the least)

[anwar.shiekh]

I got a 25 pack on ebay for $7.70 with postage; was happy to get Panasonic and not generic.

I used a low temperature solder alloy (based on bismuth) to help with removal, copper braid with lots of flux (Kester 186) to clean up the pads and leaded solder for the new component to keep installation temperatures down; then a cleanup with isopropyl alcohol to make it look clean as if no work had been done at all. It helps to have a small magnifying glass to check the work.

This is not for everyone, and I don't intend to do any more (have fixed four so far).