Pi 3b+ Retropie crashing, freezing and other shenanigans...

harv052

Good day all!

I am fairly new to the Pi scene but I've picked up tips and tricks fairly easily...But I have a problem that has me stumped...I've had the pi for about a month. RetroPie worked great the first week or two that I used it. But now it freezes everywhere! In the menus, in games, file manager and installing packages! The controllers and keyboard disconnecting, reconnecting then freeze, and sometimes when it freezes, it seems the usb ports no longer provide power as the lights on my controller all shut down. I can sometimes SSH out, sometimes not. Since I did a few updates to the packages, I thought maybe it's an issue with the software...So I formatted the sd card and restarted from scratch. Well lo and behold, it still freezes without updates or changes! I'm at a loss as to what could be causing this...at which point could it be a hardware issue more that a software one...I'm using a proper power supply, retropie 4.4, I do have heatsinks on it so it runs between 50 to 60 degrees...I really have no ideas, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

grant2258

I had problems when i first got mine they went away after i ran the update on retropie setup

mitu

You should give more details about your system, as requested in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.
Are you overclocking the PI ? Did you also update the OS on the Pi with the RetroPie update ? Are you using a 3B+ model ?

harv052

@mitu Apologies. I am using a 3b+ without overclocks of any kind...I did update the OS through retropie the first time. Not sure if it's what caused the problem, but even with a fresh install it's still acting up.....

grant2258

@harv052
any error from typing dmesg

rbaker

@harv052 said in Pi 3b+ Retropie crashing, freezing and other shenanigans...:

@mitu Apologies. I am using a 3b+ without overclocks of any kind...I did update the OS through retropie the first time. Not sure if it's what caused the problem, but even with a fresh install it's still acting up.....

What power supply are you using? What is it rated at? Is it even a power supply? or a charger? Please fill out the form in full.

harv052

@rbaker 5v 2.5a. Plugs straight into the wall with a micro usb connector on the other end...Never seen the lightning bolt because of poor power...definitely not a charger.

mitu

@harv052 Can you try a firmware upgrade through rpi-update and see if it fixes the crash ?

harv052

@grant2258 I do have the txt file with the results. Am I allowed to paste it right here or should I put the file somewhere else?

grant2258

https://pastebin.com paste it there

harv052

@grant2258 https://pastebin.com/gg8Q53Gc

harv052

@mitu I could definitely try it....Is it advised though? I know firmware upgrades can screw over a lot of things....Is it possible to revert back once it's done?

mitu

@harv052 You can revert it if the system is still working. However, you can upgrade safely to the latest kernel + firmware with the commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

The latest kernel is 4.14.52-v7+, you have 4.14.30-v7+. There have been some firmware update since the 3B+ was released that fixed some crashes related to new SOC. When I recommended the upgrade, I was thinking about a recent fix for the network adapter on the 3B+ model (https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/2608), but from the log you posted it doesn't seem your LAN (wired) network interface is connected. However the firmware you have is from March

[    0.070087] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Attached to firmware from 2018-03-23 16:31

and the latest - stable - firmware is from July. The log from my updated system shows:

[    0.070086] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Attached to firmware from 2018-07-03 14:15

About the dmesg output you posted: you should try running the command and capture the output after the lock-up - if you're able to log in via SSH at the time. As it is now, the log your posted shows only the messages immediately from after the system boot.

harv052

@mitu thanx for the great explaination! I will try to upgrade the firmware and see what happens! Will test it out and follow up later. Thanx again, really appreciated!

mitu

@harv052 OK, just use apt-get (not rpi-update) to update for now and let's see what happens afterwards.

harv052

@mitu I did the sudo apt-get update. which command do i use to install it? sudo apt-get install?

mitu

@harv052 I posted the commands a couple of posts above

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

It should take some time, so be patient.

harv052

@mitu Froze during the upgrade. Safe to unplug?

harv052

@mitu Ok. I unplugged it. I also took it out of it's case, thinking maybe it's too hot. I did the update/upgrade and it finished completely. Played a game for about 5 minutes, and froze. I monitored the temperature throughout and it climbed steadily to 58.5 degrees right before it froze. Is that kind of temperature too high? I've seen people on forums they go as high as 68 without any problems...So what could the next step be?

mitu

@harv052 said in Pi 3b+ Retropie crashing, freezing and other shenanigans...:

Is that kind of temperature too high?

For the 3B+, the temperature threshold is set at 60, so it will throttle down when reaching it (which might happen for you).

So what could the next step be?

I think you should try another power source, if possible a RPI genuine one. What is the model for the current power source you're using ?