Very high temperature on idle Cubie A5E

Cubie Series A5E
1

Hi,

I have flashed a527_cubie_a5e_bullseye_beta_20250303_raw_disk image, uninstalled xfce gui to have minimal server system, but I still see that there is some load on idle system and temperature is quite high: ~76°C

top - 19:18:06 up 13 min,  1 user,  load average: 3.08, 3.21, 2.12
Tasks: 163 total,   1 running, 162 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.3 us,  0.4 sy,  0.0 ni, 98.7 id,  0.6 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :   1964.2 total,   1519.0 free,    172.8 used,    272.4 buff/cache
MiB Swap:      0.0 total,      0.0 free,      0.0 used.   1768.8 avail Mem

root@cubie-a5e:/sys/devices/virtual/thermal# cat */temp
76245
76765
74360
74360
76505
75700

That doesn’t look good.
Anyone else is observing the same?

2

Me too! I just check rpi3b’s cpu temparature, which is nearly~40°C

3

Same issue, I think we should wait for a fan or heat sink case.

4

mine is hot too… but wait? cubie A5E have an official casing now?

5

This is because the previsous release the CPU is always at performance mode, you can check the latest test release:

https://github.com/radxa-build/radxa-cubie-a5e/releases/download/rsdk-t3/radxa-cubie-a5e_bullseye_kde_t3.output_512.img.xz

The idle temperature is a lot lower now.

Yes, Cubie A5E has an official meta case now.

Radxa Metal Case 7264

1 Like
6

Hi, I tested your referenced image and I still see exactly the same high temperature on idle system:

radxa@radxa-cubie-a5e:~$ cat /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/*/temp
74425
74295
71500
71500
74100
73900
radxa@radxa-cubie-a5e:~$ uname -a
Linux radxa-cubie-a5e 5.15.147-4-aw2501 #4 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jul 25 11:45:41 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux
7

I checked Armbian nightly image and the numbers are following:

root@radxa-cubie-a5e:~# cat /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/*/temp
57980
58760
56290
58630
root@radxa-cubie-a5e:~# uname -a
Linux radxa-cubie-a5e 6.14.0-rc1-dev-sun55iw3 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Mar  6 23:33:40 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux
8

Hi @ubunter,
After my testing, everything seems to be working fine:

radxa@radxa-cubie-a5e:~$ uptime 
 02:12:16 up 21 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.14, 0.27, 0.53
radxa@radxa-cubie-a5e:~$ cat /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/*/temp
54600
54860
54760
54760
54665
53700
radxa@radxa-cubie-a5e:~$ uname -a
Linux radxa-cubie-a5e 5.15.147-4-aw2501 #4 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jul 25 11:45:41 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux
radxa@radxa-cubie-a5e:~$

It’s possible that you performed a task with high load before checking the temperature. Try leaving it idle for about five minutes, which should also help restore the idle temperature

9

I tried to connect USB power meter, and while being in just a u-boot prompt, doing nothing, it sucks 5V 440ma. So, 2.2W while just doing nothing.

To me it looks like a hardware design issue. Or maybe my board is somehow faulty?

10

Are you using any other peripherals? Some power sources are enabled by default in U-Boot, which can increase power consumption. For example, on my side, when I connect an Ethernet cable, the power draw goes up.

11

No, no peripherals at all. Here is a thermal photo of a board just flashed and booted without anything connected:

59
59957×1167 87.3 KB

12

Is there a way to reduce CPU temperature when peripherals are attached?

I currently have a PoE Ethernet and an NVMe SSD connected. I understand that these peripherals can increase CPU temperature slightly, but I’m consistently seeing CPU temperatures close to 90 °C on Debian.

Here are the current thermal readings:

radxa@cubie-a5e-nvme:/sys/devices/virtual/thermal$ cat */temp
87490
87490
83265
83265
87555
81500

uname -a
Linux cubie-a5e-nvme 5.15.147-13-aw2501 #13 SMP PREEMPT Tue Dec 9 07:24:35 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux

These values seem quite high to me. Is this expected behavior, or are there recommended ways to lower the CPU temperature (cooling, configuration, power settings, etc.) when using PoE and NVMe?

13

Put a heatsink on that board I can see the allwinner stencil.

14

One thing to keep in mind is that most arm soc don’t throttle until they reach 70+, using heat sinks and or fan is recommended. Another thing to check is our power supply voltage with a multimeter or other inline tester. something like 40 at idle isn’t a big deal upgrade your cooling.