I just got DirectTVNow and have a abrand new $49.99 ROKU in the green box and it keeps overheating !  can this harm my Smart TV ?  Can I return this ?  

Define "overheating." 

The device may run hotter than you might expect, but not hotter than designed. If that's the case, it's not overheating.

So, what do you mean by "overheating?" Provide specifics as to how you came to that conclusion.

As stated by Basil, what exactly you mean by "overheating" matters.

It looks like DirecTV is distributing the Roku Model 3800 Streaming stick.  As far as I know, this uses a quad-core processor that can consume over 2 watts of power.  It is normal for it to get hot to the touch.  That is not the same as overheating were a product may become unstable or glitchy because the temperate exceeds the design specifications for the processor.

Any HDMI product, including a cable, can damage your smart tv if produced incorrectly.  In the case of Roku, they are properly licensed adopter of the HDMI Foundation standards which is designed to avoid such problems coming up.  You can check their status here:

https://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/enf ... _tool.aspx

For that reason and the lack of evidence having been presented so far that any Roku product has damaged devices in the past, I believe it is unlikely your Smart TV is  any peril due to the Roku.

As to being able to return the Roku, it seems like that would be up to DirecTV.  Given it is a bundled "free" perk for signing up for service, my gut tells me they will likely just exchange it for another Roku streaming stick.  However, to be fair, I have never dealt with DirecTV personally and have a bias against their parent company.  You should probably contact DirecTV to find out what type of resolution they would actually be willing to offer if you are still uncomfortable.

Also, if you are really worried about it getting hot to the touch, I would recommend avoiding any stick-like media player.  DirecTVNOW also supports Chromecast and Amazon Firestick so they may recommend using one of those instead.  However, I find those can also get hot to the touch.  My recommendation based on your concerns (if you still have them) would be getting a Roku Ultra which has a much larger surface to spread the heat produced by the processor and feels cool to the touch while operating.

I have almost the same problem, except that the tv displays "my device is overheating". I have an extender, it isn't close to heat, is attached to an HDMI adapter. I unplug from electrical connection and it seems to work for a couple of hours. My tv is very old but working well. It is a 40" HP plasma tv. Thanks for ur help

I have the Roku 3800X that I bought from Amazon about 3 months ago. For the first time, today a message came up on the screen that said my Roku device was overheating! What does this mean? Is it defective? My device is plugged into a Sanyo Smart TV and and electrical power supply. I unplugged it to allow it to cool off, but am very concerned. What should I do?

TexasTigerlady wrote:

I have the Roku 3800X that I bought from Amazon about 3 months ago.  For the first time, today a message came up on the screen that said my Roku device was overheating!  What does this mean?  Is it defective?  My device is plugged into a Sanyo Smart TV and and electrical power supply.  I unplugged it to allow it to cool off, but am very concerned.  What should I do?

Try using an extender. If it is plugged in directly to the HDMI port, it can get hot. You shouldn't ever see that message if you use an extender. If you do, it is likely an issue with the Roku.

fallen04 wrote:

I have almost the same problem, except that the tv displays "my device is overheating". I have an extender, it isn't close to heat, is attached to an HDMI adapter. I unplug from electrical connection and it seems to work for a couple of hours. My tv is very old but working well. It is a 40" HP plasma tv. Thanks for ur help

A message on-screen stating the device was overheating is precisely what I encountered for the first time last night on a Roku 3800X.  The message included instructions to refer to this URL about the problem:  http://go.roku.com/tempcheck.  This particular streaming stick is only a few months old and the LED TV it's attached to is even newer.

I have several generations of Roku devices, from 2nd. generation (2XS) through 6th. generation (3800Xs), and most of these exhibited problems that appeared to be thermally-induced whether or not they were stick-type or tabletop devices:  i.e., the devices would frequently seize up, become unresponsive to their remote controls (physical remote or software remote/app), wouldn't respond to network pings, and would spontaneously reboot themselves.  SOCs similar to the Roku's (ARM-based) have hardware watchdog timers that can be enabled and programmed to take a variety of actions based on different conditions, including internal temperature readings, so that faults resulting from heat can trigger reboots automatically.  The fact that such problems vanished on the troubled devices I had by running a small fan or attaching small heat sinks (to tabletop Rokus) is a strong indication of a thermal problem.

Elsewhere in this thread it was said that warm/hot temperatures don't necessarily indicate a problem with these Roku devices.  That's true provided a device is running within its thermal design specifications, which for some ARM-based SOCs built for industrial use can be reasonably high, but I doubt anyone outside of Roku knows what the acceptable thermal operating range is because I haven't seen such information published anywhere.  However, a reading of my 3800x cited above taken with an infrared thermometer a few minutes after disconnecting it from the TV produced a reading of 127 degrees Fahrenheit.  Note that's a temperature from the surface of the device's case, not from somewhere on the bare SOC which must have been higher, and the reading was taken a few minutes after being disconnected from power as I it took time to find the thermometer.

All this aside, it seems Roku acknowledges this as what must be a thermal problem and must be trying to address it in good faith because visiting the link above takes you to an offer for a free HDMI extender.  The purpose of the extender, as others here have suggested, is to allow stick-type devices to dangle a distance away from other heat sources such as the back of a television where you'd normally plug them into an HDMI port.  The result should be something similar to Google's Chromecast devices which were designed with a captive HDMI cable from which they dangle freely away from the back of a heat-emitting TV with the possible additional benefit of gaining somewhat better air circulation as a result.

I hope the extender helps because I still think that Roku, short of this thermal problem, has the best overall approach to this type of device, seems to introduce incremental improvements more frequently, and unifies searches across content providers better than the alternatives.

The HDMI extender isn't really for heat related issues, but might certainly help. It's primary purpose is to move the Stick away from any potential WiFi interference that might cause either remote or network connection issues. Even today's flat screen monitors have low level RF emissions that can interfere with the WiFi radio reception in the Stick. But I agree that Rokus in general and the Stick in particular can run quite warm. 

atc98092 wrote:

The HDMI extender isn't really for heat related issues, but might certainly help. It's primary purpose is to move the Stick away from any potential WiFi interference that might cause either remote or network connection issues. Even today's flat screen monitors have low level RF emissions that can interfere with the WiFi radio reception in the Stick. But I agree that Rokus in general and the Stick in particular can run quite warm. 

That's an interesting notion but, if that were the case, then I'm left wondering why Roku is giving these away to address heat related problems.  If you go the link displayed in the overheating message displayed on-screen by the R3800X (https://go.roku.com/tempcheck), you can get a free HDMI extender, offered as a remedy by Roku specifically for overheating, by filling out an application.  My HDMI extender shipped today, so they're at least processing these promptly.

For the record, I haven't noticed any problem with network connectivity with this particular setup.  Heat has been an altogether different matter.  Reading elsewhere on this form I've seen some exceptionally high temperatures for this device reported.  According to what this device reports on its "secret screen" interface, its operating temperature hovers around 100 degrees Celsius which is far higher than I'd have imagined.  Just testing it now, it reports 66C right after booting.

I had never seen that page before, and yes that is interesting. Any time a Roku rep here on the forum referenced the HDMI extender it was to improve network connectivity. So it can probably accomplish both. Moving the Stick away from the TV would certainly enable better ambient cooling. 
.
I have an extension cable packed in my suitcase, since I only use my stick when I travel. By getting the Stick out from behind the TV I can usually connect to the hotel wireless better. But yeah, it does get warm.

I can't say why it might cause overheating, but I'd try the power adapter that came with the Express rather than using the USB port on your TV.

-JT

renojim wrote:

I can't say why it might cause overheating, but I'd try the power adapter that came with the Express rather than using the USB port on your TV.

-JT

I can (in theory):

When the supply voltages from an inadequate power supply (like the one in your TV) tank, physics demands the current has to go up and this makes things hot.
Could also be a bad unit, but Jim's suggestion of using the proper power supply is a great one - to remove at least one of the possibilities. Also if the inadequate power supply in the TV self emulates the TV will go dark permanently - generally considered a bad thing and will be a LOT more costly to replace than a cheap stick.

We noticed we get messages that streaming stick is overheating when we watch movies on Movies Anywhere app.
Can an app cause an overheating problem?
Or can watching movies cause overheating?

I'm posting this as a follow-up since having received the HDMI extender cable last week.  The net result is a drop in temperature of approximately 8 degrees Celsius, as reported the device's "secret screen" in an operating state as close to idle (sitting at the secret screen for an extended period of time) as possible.  This results in the device idling at around 90 degrees Celsius, as reported by its own sensor, which still seems incredibly high for such a device.  By comparison, a Roku 3600X I have idles at around 64 degrees Celsius.

Someone else in this thread suggested using another power supply and reverting to that supplied with the Roku, but changing power supplies didn't alter the measurements.  Using a considerably more robust one I had for powering small SBCs, a switching power supply capable of supplying voltages at an amperage well in excess (5V @ 3 amps) of the power supplies provided by Roku, also showed no change in idle temperature. 

Besides the moderate change in idle temperature, I noticed an undesirable side effect in the use of the HDMI extender.  The image displayed by the 3800x is overscanned by a noticeable amount when connected to the display through the extender.  I've had other HDMI extenders in the past, including some right-angle varieties, that I've used to attach Roku stick devices to displays that had their HDMI input ports at inconvenient locations and I found they are often hit-or-miss with cheaper ones not properly supporting certain resolutions or corrupting the output in some other way.  Even so, I expected Roku might have more carefully selected an extender capable of avoiding such problems given that there is no way to compensate for over/underscanning (that I'm aware of) on the Roku but, considering they are giving these away free, I imagine this extender was deemed good enough for their cost.  Coincidentally, the 2nd. generation Chromecast I have suffers from the very same problem on any of the displays to which I've connected it.  Kodi boxes allow you to make adjustments like this easily so I don't know what's prevented Roku and Google from including such a feature.

All this aside, forum readers will probably want to know whether these apparent heat-related problems have abated since using this Roku 3800X with the HDMI extender furnished by Roku.  While the extender did result in a drop in idle temperature, assuming I can believe these high temperature readings reported by the device itself, I found no combination of extender or power supply (whether Roku's, various external switching types, or the display's USB port) alleviated the previously observed problems.  I'm still observing the same symptoms at roughly the same frequency.  Despite lowering the idle temperature a small amount by using the extender, I think the 3800x's idle and operating temperature are so high to begin with that the small temperature reduction introduced by the extender is simply not enough to address the problem.

Another post on this thread raises the question as to whether certain apps or activities can trigger some of these problems.  Even though it's not possible to conclude this unequivocally without observing a Roku device in a development setup in order to monitor process loads, operating temperatures, and so forth during program execution, I'm inclined to say yes based on observation of the same apps running on many different Roku devices.  The 1st. generation "Streaming Stick" (such as the Roku 3400/3500 model sticks in the blue colored shell) struggled to run apps such as Sling and Amazon Prime Video, taking far longer to load, exhibiting stuttering during playback, and likely keeping their slower CPUs running at their highest oscillating frequency for extended durations (and generating more heat because of it), compared to something like the 4200X (a tabletop Roku device with a considerably faster CPU).  So, while the 1st. gen. Streaming Stick appeared worse in terms of performance and frequency of crashes compared to the newer Roku devices I have, one might wonder how another device with more in terms of electronic resources to apply toward apps, such as the 3800X, could suffer from similar problems as the 1st. gen. Streaming Stick.  My guess is the form factor of the sticks is a problem.  The 3800X seems as responsive and quick as a 4200X, while also providing some features the 4200X lacks, into a shell a fraction of the size of the 4200X, and it does so without any apparent provisions for ventilation.  I'm surprised by this because the older 3400/3500 model sticks had slots for ventilation along two entire sides.  Given that Roku has tacitly acknowledged thermal problems with its devices, I'd be curious to know what lead to the decision that eliminated ventilation slots from newer devices like the 3800X.  Could dust have been considered that much a problem?

I'm still hoping Roku finally addresses these stability problems with its devices, whether ultimately heat-induced or otherwise, because I have used numerous Chromecast and Kodi devices and find them all lacking in too many respects, despite their greater stability, to replace the Rokus I have.