[Q] Temperature issues while using tablet as a car head unit - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I am planning to use a tablet (probably Nexus 7) as a car head unit. I've searched the web and all kinds of forums and I'm aware of what has to be done in order to use tablet as HU.
My concern actually is the temperature. I live in the area, where we usually get -15 - -20 degrees Celsius in winter, up to -30 in rare extreme occasions. In summer, it's usually between 20-30 Celsius. I'm not so worried about summer, we don't get very hot weather here, but it's the winter I'm worried about. How does the tablet hold up in these conditions? Also if I'll take the tablet out of the car and get it inside is there a possibility for condensation or vice versa? From room temperature into a cold car.
What do you guys think? I'd really like to use tablet as a headunit, but I also don't want to kill my tablet.

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Battery Heat ???

anyone else noticed this thing heating up during long times of video playback, but especially while in a video call over qik?
i have a desktop widget app that has seen temps of 105f ???
johng75 said:
anyone else noticed this thing heating up during long times of video playback, but especially while in a video call over qik?
i have a desktop widget app that has seen temps of 105f ???
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It's probably reading residual heat from the dual core processor. I have heard of people reaching 115 degrees on their phones. The processor can handle it, but excessive heat over prolonged periods might deteriorate the battery quality quicker, that's all
johng75 said:
anyone else noticed this thing heating up during long times of video playback, but especially while in a video call over qik?
i have a desktop widget app that has seen temps of 105f ???
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when i had the epic 4g the whole battery would heat up and now with the atrix it only does it in one spot of the battery
brian2220 said:
when i had the epic 4g the whole battery would heat up and now with the atrix it only does it in one spot of the battery
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Is it down at the bottom around where the capacitive buttons are in the back?
mine was reading 115F when I was using gps and other apps at the same time. It would not go over 115F and it was in direct light on the dash board. For some reason my phone since that day has been running cooler even when I try to push it and get it to that temp again it wont do it. The incipio feather case helps with holding the phone when it gets that hot lol
Its not the battery that is heating up. It stays cool its the bottom of the phone where I think the cpu and stuff is.
aszrael1266 said:
mine was reading 115F when I was using gps and other apps at the same time. It would not go over 115F and it was in direct light on the dash board. For some reason my phone since that day has been running cooler even when I try to push it and get it to that temp again it wont do it. The incipio feather case helps with holding the phone when it gets that hot lol
Its not the battery that is heating up. It stays cool its the bottom of the phone where I think the cpu and stuff is.
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Yeah, that's pretty much it. The dual core is going to get hot sometimes and the battery temp sensor is going to catch some of that heat.
live4nyy said:
Is it down at the bottom around where the capacitive buttons are in the back?
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yes near right near the sim slot
brian2220 said:
yes near right near the sim slot
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Yeah, that's the processor. It's not the battery getting that hot.
I think I found a use for all the heat lol. I got one of those screen protectors where you have to use fluid to get them to stick. I think the brand is gadget guard. I hope the heat transfers to the screen. I've got a nice 25 min youtube clip playing with screen brightness at 100% and the charger plugged in I think I will run the mp3 player also for good measure see how hot I can get this bad boy.
Don't know if it is relevant but battery heat issue went away from i switched to a custom power plan in battery manager..the night mode was keeping sync alive all the time during day resulting in battery drain and heat.
with youtube going for 40 min straight the screen on full brightness the battery charger plugged in and win amp running its holding steady at 41C.
I decided to try and see how far I can push the multi task. So far wim amp is playing the gps latatuide thing is going youtube is playing and I'm sending and receiving texts at the same time the phone isn't slowing down one bit. I can only get the temp up to 42 right now.
Really guys? 115F is the best you can do?
When my Atrix was plugged into my car dock, running Car Dock, Navigation, and Slacker Radio, SetCPU was reading 62C (144F). 115F is nothin . I've been playing games on my phone and its reached over 55C (131F).
This is my second Atrix so it's not a faulty device. I have a SetCPU profile to underclock over 60C; I had originally set it at 55C but it would underclock too often while playing games and during car dock mode.
IMO, I think Motorola is smart enough to implement some form of heat protection into their phone once the phone reaches a certain temperature. They know it's a dual core phone and I'm sure the engineers expected a lot of heat.
42 degrees for me, really crazy. Do they have warning stickers for this in the US so that they dont get sued?
Kaaji1359 said:
Really guys? 115F is the best you can do?
When my Atrix was plugged into my car dock, running Car Dock, Navigation, and Slacker Radio, SetCPU was reading 62C (144F). 115F is nothin . I've been playing games on my phone and its reached over 55C (131F).
This is my second Atrix so it's not a faulty device. I have a SetCPU profile to underclock over 60C; I had originally set it at 55C but it would underclock too often while playing games and during car dock mode.
IMO, I think Motorola is smart enough to implement some form of heat protection into their phone once the phone reaches a certain temperature. They know it's a dual core phone and I'm sure the engineers expected a lot of heat.
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yea i have around the same temps as you. I have the body glove case on, so do you think that its worsening the overheating or dissipating the heat?
i cant really even have Wifi and battery charging at the same time. the phone gets so hot lol
I notice that when i change my battery heat temps are all over the place , 6 batteries and only 2 off them show a heat range and keep a heat range of 25 to 27 degrees ..just swap out one battery at 25 degrees and put the new one in booted and notice that it is at 37 degrees and holding under no stress . Here the funny thing at 25 the back and screen got very warm to the touch but at 37 the back and screen are cool to the touch
even in standby mode,my atrix's CPU temp is about 42-44 C
and the battery heat is about 35 C
it's kind of crazy because i didn't use any apps though..
my phone is just sit still at my desk
how to get rid of this crazy battery/CPU heat?
Kaaji1359 said:
When my Atrix was plugged into my car dock, running Car Dock, Navigation, and Slacker Radio, SetCPU was reading 62C (144F). 115F is nothin .
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I've seen this too. In the car dock with navigation and music I've seen it reach 139°F. It seems to always get hot in the car dock.

Are you guys having heat issues/problems?

So I decided to test my 3D with my Shift and EVO4G in terms of heat emission on all three devices. Here are the quick results. All with max brightness.
4G - Hovers around 88-93F through normal use
Shift - Hovers around 88-90F through normal use
3d - Hovers around 88-96F through normal use
Played HIMYM for 25 minutes each. Same clip, same 960x540 resolution.
4G - 101F
Shift - 98F
3D - 103F (101F if you avoid grasping the back)
Played Crystal Defenders for 30 minutes each
4G - 101F
Shift - 98F
3D - 111F
So the 3D is running a little hotter. Everything but the Crystal Defenders scares me, but I guess it is a game after all. Here's the weird thing though. I put all 3 on the charger and when I woke up
4G - 83F
Shift - 80F
3D - 113F
This is with the AC on full blast all night (its 98F outside). The 3D was molten hot. I looked at history and around 5AM an hour after I slept it was ~78F then at 8AM it spiked and maxed out at 114F while charging. This happened from 8AM to 2PM when I woke up.
I don't get what's wrong. Everything seems pretty comparable with past phones. I'm scared it ran at ~112+ for 6 hours. It might be even be dangerous for me as it might explode at those levels.
I took mine back today and got it exchange -- though, not easily. Mine had rebooted when it got hot last week and it was at the point where the game Majhong would make it so hot I couldn't answer a call.
They tried to tell me all smartphones get hot (not as hot as this did) and it might be the GPS radio which is normal (palying Majhong? Really?) and if I would reset it and leave it stock I would probably be OK (WHAT?!).
The guy even asked if I was rooted -- which I'm not -- because I use ADW laucher! LOL!
So, I got a little loud. I told them I expected them to at least pretend to take me seriously and trust that I am not stupid about my phone. They were busy, so they exchanged it.
I'm still testing my new one.
I just got a dose of this earlier today. My gf was shopping so I sat on a bench outside and played Plants vs. Zombies. About 15-20 minutes later she called and I picked up the phone and felt like I was burning my face holding it up to talk. SUPER HOT!
That was the first time not charging that it had gotten that hot. I'm not sure if it is every time or not.
Guys just to clarify, those seem all normal (beefier hardware and whatnot) except for while it's charging.
There's a thread over at Androidforums discussing that its charging at too high of a voltage and that's the problem with the charging. People tried the extended battery and the issue disappeared for some. My phone also burns when its charging, but normally stays below 103-105.
The rest are due to screen brightness and temperatures around you (especially since its blazing hot in a lot of the US right now).
If it's reaching 110F+ on anything aside for GPS nav related stuff and heavy duty/graphics gaming (crystal defenders burns my iPhone 4 as well) then you got a problem, otherwise its normal.
If you pull the battery, it states on the label that it's safe up to 60c. That's 140F. 114 is nothing. And I'd bet the electronic parts are safer up to an even higher temperature, seeing as my PC's video card can take up to 70-75c (160ish F) without any problems.
It's warm to you, obviously. Anything above body temperature is "Warm"
Big powerful phone + no room for a big heatsink = warm phone.
Heck, I actually think the back camera is designed to be a heatsink, which would be why it feels so warm most of the time.
Also, if it's new, it does run a bit hot while the battery is in it's "Breaking in" period.
Yes. Mainly at night when charged via wall charger. Seems to not happen while charging with usb to PC.
My 3d seems to top out at 105-110 F overclocked underload. My old Samsung Moment used to be 130-140 idle........... LOL. Toasty hands during hunting season!
As annoying as it may be, I don't think this SoC is at a danger zone until around 150
mine is regularly at 45-50 deg C i think thats topping out at 125 roughly?
I left mine in the car out in coachella.... And the temp got really high... It was.120 outside that day.. Was still able to use phone... But I put it in front of the AC with battery cover off while I used it
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
shouldn't the 45nm gate-length of the 3vo3d result in LESS heat than the 65nm Evo OG? and, I thought it was supposed to give better battery life - what gives?

[Q] Is the phone suppose to get this hot?

I'm uploading a video to my Facebook account and the back of the phone up by the camera is burning hot. It's like putting a wet rag in a microwave for 1 min on high. But when the video stops uploading, you can actually feel it cooling down. Has anyone felt this before? Can my phone be defective? Can someone try uploading a 2 min video to Facebook and let me know if their phone gets super hot?
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
Mine gets pretty hot when I use heavy 3g
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
I've noticed some heat issues as well....currently rooted and under locked to 1ghz, haven't noticed it since
My daily commute to work is about 33 miles. On the drive to work, I usually have the phone connected to a 12V USB charger (not sure of the charging rate, but I'll guess 0.5 A) while talking on the phone using the bluetooth hands free that is built into the car while using Waze (data and GPS) for traffic info. Thats a LOT to be going on when the phone is charging, using both data and voice, GPS, and bluetooth. It gets VERY HOT. Sometimes I'll pick it up and hold it in front of the air conditioning vent to cool it down. I've actually heard random noises over the bluetooth while on a call that is very loud and I'm wondering if heat is causing the noise to occur. Seems to be normal though, my last phone (HTC Diamond, Windows Mobile 6.5) would get really hot with heavy data usage while charging. Never really seemed to be a problem. I was hoping to find a car dock that clips onto the air conditioning vent so the phone can constantly be cooled while in use.
My phone also gets very hot. It only happens if I'm in a very weak signal area and.I'm either doing heavy gaming or heavy web browsing. Both of which take a pretty heavy toll on battery life. There have been times though were I will just stop whatever I'm doing and just let it cool off for a bit though...doesnt take to long for it to cool down.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Tested it again uploading and I noticed the heat starts on the left side of the camera if you are looking at the back of the phone.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
Yep same side for me to
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
ilusnforc said:
My daily commute to work is about 33 miles. On the drive to work, I usually have the phone connected to a 12V USB charger (not sure of the charging rate, but I'll guess 0.5 A) while talking on the phone using the bluetooth hands free that is built into the car while using Waze (data and GPS) for traffic info. Thats a LOT to be going on when the phone is charging, using both data and voice, GPS, and bluetooth. It gets VERY HOT. Sometimes I'll pick it up and hold it in front of the air conditioning vent to cool it down. I've actually heard random noises over the bluetooth while on a call that is very loud and I'm wondering if heat is causing the noise to occur. Seems to be normal though, my last phone (HTC Diamond, Windows Mobile 6.5) would get really hot with heavy data usage while charging. Never really seemed to be a problem. I was hoping to find a car dock that clips onto the air conditioning vent so the phone can constantly be cooled while in use.
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I was using my phone as a GPS and an audio source during a 3 hour trip to Rehoboth beach and had it attached to a 450 mA car charger. First of all, the charger was not powerful enough to actually charge the phone as I would actually lose juice during the trip and the phone would actually tell me it used more energy than it replenished. Second, I'm guessing because there was not enough current to charge and bypass the battery, there was a lot of current flow through the battery. Combining with the heat of the radio trying to grab weak 3G signals in the rural areas of the trip, my evo started flashing an alternating green and red. Awkwardly, the user manual has no mention of this notification state, but I assumed it was an overheated battery (the phone was getting scarily hot). As soon as I unplugged the charger, the notification light would return to normal and the phone would cool down.
Anyway, point of the story is, the phone will at least warn you when the battery is getting too hot. I wouldn't worry too much about the radios, but yes my antennas do get pretty hot especially in poor reception areas.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
ilusnforc said:
My daily commute to work is about 33 miles. On the drive to work, I usually have the phone connected to a 12V USB charger (not sure of the charging rate, but I'll guess 0.5 A) while talking on the phone using the bluetooth hands free that is built into the car while using Waze (data and GPS) for traffic info. Thats a LOT to be going on when the phone is charging, using both data and voice, GPS, and bluetooth. It gets VERY HOT. Sometimes I'll pick it up and hold it in front of the air conditioning vent to cool it down. I've actually heard random noises over the bluetooth while on a call that is very loud and I'm wondering if heat is causing the noise to occur. Seems to be normal though, my last phone (HTC Diamond, Windows Mobile 6.5) would get really hot with heavy data usage while charging. Never really seemed to be a problem. I was hoping to find a car dock that clips onto the air conditioning vent so the phone can constantly be cooled while in use.
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I use Waze as well every morning and afternoon for a 35 mile each way commute and it does get hot just using that app. Luckily I use the Bracketron - Grip-iT Mobile Device Holder from Best Buy, on sale for $13.99 right now. It just clips on the A/C vents and when the A/C is on, the phone is never hot while using the app. The only bad thing is the placement of the USB port on the phone but I can still plug in using this holder. Hope it helps!
this CPU is clocked the same as CPU's in some old PCs and some current laptops and it has no cooling, plus the heat from the radios etc, pretty sure the only way to offset the heat is to under clock it or don't buy a super phone. all my smartphones back to the mogul have all gotten hot, actually i remember my old i870 flip phone got hot when in long phone calls
My evo also gets very hot... So hot it starts to burn my leg when it's in my pocket at work. Also the screen has started to separate from the body, im assuming the glue is melting because when you press the screen on the left side you can hear it click back into place. Can I get this replaced under the warranty?
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
I just picked up the car dock over the weekend and it gets even hotter (sitting in the sun and having less air circulation behind the phone). When I parked to get out of the car it almost hurts to touch the phone its so hot. I ordered a new mount for the car dock that will put it right in front of an air conditioning vent so hopefully that will help to cool it down. I've also read that if you have an under powered 12V charger it will cause it to get hot. Going to try a different charger with the dock and see what happens.

[Q] Are high temps in car dock normal?

I have an upcoming coast-to-coast drive, and I was planning on using my HTC One in the car dock the whole trip as my primary GPS.
I got a nice universal-type car dock from iBolt, and the phone is in an Otter Box case.
I tested it on a shorter 3-4 hour trip, and I noticed the phone got very warm after a couple hours. And it stayed warm and the battery dropped very quick when I took it out of the charger. (down from 100% to 75% charge in 30 minutes).
Is there a problem with the charger or is this typical for car mode?
I did read that when I was researching temperature issues ,when my phone
Was running hot while I was steaming media.somone mentioned the car mode was making the phone really hot.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
Bandalo76 said:
I have an upcoming coast-to-coast drive, and I was planning on using my HTC One in the car dock the whole trip as my primary GPS.
I got a nice universal-type car dock from iBolt, and the phone is in an Otter Box case.
I tested it on a shorter 3-4 hour trip, and I noticed the phone got very warm after a couple hours. And it stayed warm and the battery dropped very quick when I took it out of the charger. (down from 100% to 75% charge in 30 minutes).
Is there a problem with the charger or is this typical for car mode?
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with any particular electronics/appliances heat is always your enemy ...it reduces the longevity of the battery (if the device has a built in battery), thereby reducing the overall life of the device ... elevated temperature is normal while charging the phone and using it for GPS, Media streaming etc, i.e. anything that requires the CPU to run close to its maximum clocking speed ...if the phone is hot and/or to the point where it starts effecting battery life immediately, and if you feel the hear throug the otterbox case, thats bad.... it is recommended usually to charge the phone without a case on to let the heat dissipate through the aluminum body....
rahtrip said:
with any particular electronics/appliances heat is always your enemy ...it reduces the longevity of the battery (if the device has a built in battery), thereby reducing the overall life of the device ... elevated temperature is normal while charging the phone and using it for GPS, Media streaming etc, i.e. anything that requires the CPU to run close to its maximum clocking speed ...if the phone is hot and/or to the point where it starts effecting battery life immediately, and if you feel the hear throug the otterbox case, thats bad.... it is recommended usually to charge the phone without a case on to let the heat dissipate through the aluminum body....
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I agree that the heat can be damaging, I'm just curious if this is typical for people who use the car docks for this phone. I haven't observed any heat issues during normal charging, and it only gets slightly warm during heavy use around the office and house.
Is the GPS and Google Maps really that intensive that it's forcing the CPU to full load all the time? I'd hate to damage my phone on this road trip. I would think my case would fall under "typical use" though, nothing extreme.
GPS is a real burner... If I am charging and using GPS, it does get quite hot. My old Atrix got so hot that the GPS starting malfunctioning after 3-4hours. (determined to be heat related after significant debugging)

Heat and data connectivity.

With current smart phones always running hotter than the older ones. It has come to my attention that when my Padfone X gets to about 140(ish) degrees F it starts to slow down the CPU in order to cool off. I have no problem with this, other than the fact that the phone starts to mess up my data connection. I can be on 4G LTE with four bars and it will fail to open a website or communicate my gaming on Ingress. Also, when I brought it back to my work, it was jittery and only had about a 50% success rate with pinging www.google.com.
I know electronics do not like heat, but this is kinda ridiculous. I rely on my data connection when I am out and about playing Ingress. Since I don't drive and operate my phone it stays in a phone cradle in my window. Thus it does get to temperatures above 140 easily. The Samsung Galaxy S4 never had heat issues at that temp, it would need to reach 160 before it tried to shut down. At 150 it starts its cool down operations (slower CPU, dimmer screen).
I guess what I am asking is this:
1. is there a way to adjust the threshold of the device to 145?
2. will that damage the unit?
I have noticed my LTE modem fry at temperatures exceeding 155. So I can see that this phone is a bit of a Nancy when it comes to heat. Other than strapping an ice pack to the back, I am at a loss of what to do here in Texas.
ghost0001 said:
With current smart phones always running hotter than the older ones. It has come to my attention that when my Padfone X gets to about 140(ish) degrees F it starts to slow down the CPU in order to cool off. I have no problem with this, other than the fact that the phone starts to mess up my data connection. I can be on 4G LTE with four bars and it will fail to open a website or communicate my gaming on Ingress. Also, when I brought it back to my work, it was jittery and only had about a 50% success rate with pinging www.google.com.
I know electronics do not like heat, but this is kinda ridiculous. I rely on my data connection when I am out and about playing Ingress. Since I don't drive and operate my phone it stays in a phone cradle in my window. Thus it does get to temperatures above 140 easily. The Samsung Galaxy S4 never had heat issues at that temp, it would need to reach 160 before it tried to shut down. At 150 it starts its cool down operations (slower CPU, dimmer screen).
I guess what I am asking is this:
1. is there a way to adjust the threshold of the device to 145?
2. will that damage the unit?
I have noticed my LTE modem fry at temperatures exceeding 155. So I can see that this phone is a bit of a Nancy when it comes to heat. Other than strapping an ice pack to the back, I am at a loss of what to do here in Texas.
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Hello XDA Community,
I would like for anyone reporting any issues relating to heat and data to please contact me with details.
Are you using Wi-Fi, LTE, Streaming movies, Videos, Playing games, or using certain Applications?
Was your Padfone X docked when this happened?
Please provide your Serial Number.
I would like to gather as much information as possible and I cannot do it without this communities help.
Please email me at [email protected], place case number N140842602 in the subject line along with your username.

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