Fire! SD card melted! [solved]

[boarsblood]

Just got my RPi in the post.

Connected usb keyboard, video cable (no hdmi in the house), put SD card in (original 2GB SanDisk micro SD in original SanDisk adaptor.), connected to PC's USB port as power supply.

Nothing appeared on the screen but the LED lit on the RPi and stayed on. I picked it up to check the connections and the micro SD card was so hot it had started melting the adaptor. The RPi was on a wooden surface so no risk of a short.

I have recently used the micro SD in my HTC HD2 phone, and copied data from it to my PC using the adaptor to fit it to a full sized SD-USB adaptor so I know all parts work. Does anyone have any idea what happened.

I'm now going to get another SD card but will be buying something cheap in case that gets fried too. (I really don't want to have to wait 8 weeks to get a replacement from Farnell if this RPi is knackered)

[boarsblood]

I've just done a destructive test on the microSD-SD adaptor and there were no shorts in there either. The micro SD card is now dead.

[jamesh]

If the Raspi is dead you won't wait that long for a replacement.

The fault sounds very odd, never heard anything like that before. Check the solder joints on the SD card connector to see if there is anything bridged.

[boarsblood]

That was the first thing I checked. I actually gave the board a good look over before I connected anything and made sure there were no bits of wire or foil in any connectors. Everything is visually fine.

I'll have to assume a catastrophic failure inside the micro SD card and try another one, when I find one.

[boarsblood]

From another source - "If you have software constantly swapping data on and off the card then it will generate more heat."

If the card was corrupt, i.e. the image didn't write properly. What happens during boot? Will the hardware routines looking for the image on the card keep searching again and again thousands of times a second, causing the card to heat up? Would this affect the micro SD package more than a standard sized SD card?

[jamesh]

boarsblood said:


From another source - "If you have software constantly swapping data on and off the card then it will generate more heat."

If the card was corrupt, i.e. the image didn't write properly. What happens during boot? Will the hardware routines looking for the image on the card keep searching again and again thousands of times a second, causing the card to heat up? Would this affect the micro SD package more than a standard sized SD card?


Constant use does heat them up, but I think from the OP that this happened very fast - which implies a short rather than just usage. It takes some time to heat them enough to notice, and they should never heat up enough to melt.

[dom]

boarsblood said:

If the card was corrupt, i.e. the image didn't write properly. What happens during boot? Will the hardware routines looking for the image on the card keep searching again and again thousands of times a second, causing the card to heat up? Would this affect the micro SD package more than a standard sized SD card?
Copying a large file will cause the sdcard to be accessed just as fast. It's not that.

You have a hardware fault. Either the R-Pi board, the micro sdcard adaptor or the micro sdcard.

Ideally test it next with a full size sdcard. If that dies, then the Pi is faulty (probably a short).

If that works try the adaptor with a different micro sdcard. If that fails it's the adaptor (again, probably a short).

If that works, then it was just the initial micro sdcard which expired in a bad way.

[Steady_Bear]

I couldn't help but wonder if the BBC had seen this one and decided to jump on the 'electronics getting hot and melting' news band-wagon. I know, it's normally batteries that takes the news, but I had to check. And, I know I'm not helping matters here.

Amusingly, I did find this in the Science section on the side (it would work a bit better if I had access to my webspace I'm paying my ISP for so you could see the screenshot with piccies and all):

Up in smoke
Counting the ecological costs of raging fires in Nepal
Heritage crops
Do strawberries taste as good as they used to?

Close, but not there yet.

[jbeale]

In a few minutes I was able to find quite a few cases of hot or melting MicroSD cards, none of them on RasPi hardware, so it does sometimes happen.

http://samsunggalaxysforums.co.....g-Very-Hot
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....334AAuPiXh
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....431AAZmn0b
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....337AAPo6ri
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....650AA1Hd1X
http://www.evo4gforum.net/htc-.....-warning!/

[jbeale]

jbeale said:


In a few minutes I was able to find quite a few cases of hot or melting MicroSD cards, none of them on RasPi hardware, so it does sometimes happen.  One possibility is an internal short on the chip caused by ESD (static discharge).

http://samsunggalaxysforums.co.....g-Very-Hot
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....334AAuPiXh
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....431AAZmn0b
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....337AAPo6ri
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....650AA1Hd1X
http://www.evo4gforum.net/htc-.....-warning!/

[boarsblood]

It was a failure of the SD card. Posting this from my RPi

[Vindicator]

That great news for you and your PI.

[liz]

Oh, thank heavens for that. Eben and I were talking about your melty card over dinner this evening, wondering what the hell could be causing it (neither of us had ever come across that happening either) - VERY glad it wasn't our fault!

[aaroncoffey]

As a thought, in the OP it was stated that you are using your computers USB port to power the Pi.

connected to PC's USB port as power supply.

USB spec states 500mA of draw, the Pi needs more. I would switch power supplies for the future.

[Dillpickel]

My rpi b+ melted the sd card during boot and now won't boot up even with a new card it has the green led and the red led light up solid and does not respond at all

[DougieLawson]

Does the big black chip get very hot very quickly?
If you build a new SDCard does it boot from that?

[hello world :-)]

My rpi b+ melted the sd card during boot and now won't boot up even with a new card it has the green led and the red led light up solid and does not respond at all

I once had both lights lit up on my B+ and not booting because I hadn't inserted the microsd card correctly. (It hadn't clicked in. I just took it out and put it back in again and it worked.). It might be that your pi's sd card reader isn't working properly...