Rock 5B won't boot, makes buzzing sound

#1

Hi,

My Rock5B used to work fine with the Ubuntu image. I haven’t touched it for about a month but to my surprise, the board doesn’t boot anymore. Here are the symptoms:

  1. The green LED is about 50% of the usual brightness (I have another Rock 5B to compare with)
  2. The board makes a buzzing sound once USB-C is plugged in.
  3. The SoC gets hot gradually at a rate much faster than my working Rock 5B board.
  4. I have unplugged all attachments (eMMC, NVME, USB etc), no difference with or without.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

#2

Probably it broke, maybe PMIC?
Try to locate buzzing part, it may be damaged, also take a deep look at board - do You see any damage?
Was board cooled by some fan? Where it was located? Are You sure it’s not overheated?

#3

Nothing obvious really, I compared the two boards side by side but couldn’t spot anything obvious.

Yes, I’ve installed a heatsink with a fan (Radxa branded) and had it turned on while the board is running. I’ve never stress tested the board, only compiling and running some Java application that is short lived.