Reports of Google Stadia overheating and killing Chromecast Ultras

[Arika]

The fun doesn't stop for the cloud gaming program being run by Google. This time it's not related to latency. Two versions of Stadia, the Premier and Founders editions both come with the ChromeCast Ultra as the client for the service, however after only 2 days multiple users on the Stadia Subreddit and across various forums are reporting overheating of the ChromeCast, that came packaged with the service, some even reporting that the Ultra will no longer work at all.

 

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With the service’s Founders Edition and Premiere Edition packages coming bundled with Chromecast Ultra devices,  many are attempting to enjoy the service on their TV sets. Unfortunately, Stadia’s intensive streaming is causing issues.

 

“I was in the middle of a fight in Destiny 2 when suddenly my Chromecast died and lost connectivity to the network,” one user posted on the Stadia subreddit. “I went to unplug it from the power and it was extremely hot.”

 

The redditor stated that they had only been playing “about 3-4 hours into my session at that point” before the death of their device.

 

Other users are reporting similar issues with Google Stadia overheating and killing their Chromecast Ultra during standard gameplay.

One would assume that a package deal would have been tested to some extent to confirm that everything would run on it correctly. If it's only taking 3 hours for overheating too manifest doesn't bode well for the quality control over at Google. For a streaming service to be killing the streaming hardware seems like a pretty massive oversight

 

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“Mine has overheated and shut off twice now,” one user said. “I thought once I got my code and package I could stop worrying,” said another. “Now the f***ing” Chromecast is actually overheating??? I’m installing a raspberry pi heatsink and moving on I guess.”

 

As far as Chromecast Ultra heat dissipation goes, the system has always suffered from poor cooling. However, while the device’s usually run rather hot, actual overheating and temperature related shut down is not a typical issue.

 

With the service advertising a “no hassles” plug-and-play service, Chromecast Ultras overheating and dying is a huge issue for Google.

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Some Reddit users say that the device has been known to overheat just by streaming Netflix movies for a few hours. Movie streaming usually needs 24 / 25 fps processing, but the 60 fps streaming enforced by Stadia appears to require too much processing power and the cooling system is not yet optimized for such loads.

 

What's maybe more worrisome than this is that Google seems to not be taking responsibility despite a number of users reporting that same problem with the Ultra, even before stadia was released. On the original Reddit post from the response was lack luster at best and a "it's not our problem" type of deflection

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Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We know any sort of heat on a device can be worrisome, but we can confirm there is no thermal overheating issue with Chromecast Ultra. During normal usage (like watching cat videos on YouTube), the surface of the device may get warm to the touch, but this is working as designed.

The team has done extensive testing on the hardware, services and games—this includes tests of long Stadia play and video sessions—and have not seen thermal shutdown problems.

 

We'll have to wait for an official response as this gets more traction and more users weigh in on the conversation. Overall not a great start for Stadia that was heralded as the next generation of gaming.

 

https://mspoweruser.com/gamers-report-google-stadia-overheating-and-killing-chromecast-ultras/

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Google-Stadia-users-are-reporting-overheating-issues-with-the-Chromecast-Ultra.443858.0.html

[Guest]

 

Meanwhile in the Google cafeteria.

[Murasaki]

problem solved?

 

edit:stop reactin plz

[HarryNyquist]

Come on Google.

 

come on.

[Vishera]

That's a wild party of failures,

Cheap design at premium price,nice.

But with $130 i can do a real party with tons of games,drinks and pizza.

[Vishera]

29 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

problem solved?

And warranty to void

[rcmaehl]

34 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

problem solved?

OOOOOOh where is my hair brush?

Is google doing all the negative latency calculations on the chromecast itself? 

[Vishera]

Just now, rcmaehl said:

Is google doing all the negative latency calculations on the chromecast itself? 

No,look up,it's in the cloud up there,

The chromecast can't handle the divine power of the cloud so it collapse.

[RejZoR]

Google Stadia, a parody no one asked for that just keeps on giving.

[Master Disaster]

Now AMD finally have CPUs & GPUs that aren't space heaters looks like Google are moving in on the territory.

 

Whats worrying is if the device is getting that hot its literally killing itself then Google have a big job in fixing it. They either mess with power delivery or throttle, possibly even both. Neither will help the devices performance.

 

Its possible there's an oversight somewhere, for example the Ras Pi 4 was renowned for overheating. Turns out it was the USB 3 ports doing it. They recently released a patch and the device now runs amazingly well.

[TechyBen]

3 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Now AMD finally have CPUs & GPUs that aren't space heaters looks like Google are moving in on the territory.

 

Whats worrying is if the device is getting that hot its literally killing itself then Google have a big job in fixing it. They either mess with power delivery or throttle, possibly even both. Neither will help the devices performance.

 

Its possible there's an oversight somewhere, for example the Ras Pi 4 was renowned for overheating. Turns out it was the USB 3 ports doing it. They recently released a patch and the device now runs amazingly well.

Yeah, but to be fair to the Raspi Pi, it's set to run at different configs with or without cooling...

 

The Chrome? Less so (I've known a few sticks/converters kill themselves, because the chips are not cooled).

[Zodiark1593]

32 minutes ago, TechyBen said:

Yeah, but to be fair to the Raspi Pi, it's set to run at different configs with or without cooling...

 

The Chrome? Less so (I've known a few sticks/converters kill themselves, because the chips are not cooled).

Considering many modern phones (and even those a few years old) can decode h.264 and even 10-bit h.265 at 60 fps with very minimal heat (my SD821 device is cool to the touch under such load), I have to wonder what's going wrong here. Would it be difficult to imagine Google using an old 40 nm SoC to do the job?

[The King of the Undead]

raspberry pi 4 would do better at this point.

[amdorintel]

please dont use anything related to google or its subsiduaries 

[Teddy07]

2 minutes ago, amdorintel said:

please dont use anything related to google or its subsiduaries 

Google is awesome

[Unixsystem]

Coming soon: Stadia ships with an included 280mm AIO. 

[Fnige]

4 hours ago, Teddy07 said:

Google is awesome

10 things said before world war 3

[PlayStation 2]

Meanwhile, Google is touting the Stadia controller as being gender-neutral, as if almost every other controller on the fucking planet isn’t. 

I’m glad Stadia is tanking.

[Liljuan56]

35 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

Meanwhile, Google is touting the Stadia controller as being gender-neutral, as if almost every other controller on the fucking planet isn’t. 

I’m glad Stadia is tanking.

I HATE masculine controllers.

[Liljuan56]

6 hours ago, Teddy07 said:

Google is awesome

Google has some pretty good stuff but a lot of their services need some extra work.

[amdorintel]

1 hour ago, Liljuan56 said:

Google has some pretty good stuff but a lot of their services need some extra work.

they need more of your info to be sent back to them, thats the extra work

[SliceT]

Mine already runs hot just streaming Youtube, I guess it's not Ultra HD gaming ready

[amdorintel]

5 minutes ago, SliceT said:

Mine already runs hot just streaming Youtube, I guess it's not Ultra HD gaming ready

or a patatoe

 

[Praesi]

80% missing Features, Garbage Hardware, pay extra for Games. Sounds so awesome. Nothing like the usual streaming crap.

[Trik'Stari]

It's almost as if chrome based devices are cheaper than usual garbage?

 

At least that's the sense I get from working on them in bulk.