Very high temperature on idle Cubie 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.

https://radxa.com/products/accessories/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