# RP4 RANDOMLY RESTARTS WHILE FOLDING **URL:** \ **Category:** Fold for Covid\ **Created:** [May 17, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077 "2020-05-17T17:17:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bdub28412](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bdub28412](https://forums.balena.io/u/bdub28412)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/1 "2020-05-17T17:17:50Z")
so i know its restarting and rebooting balenaOS bc its hooked up to a display ---
**Author:** ![vinntec](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/vinntec/32/3592_2.png) [@vinntec](https://forums.balena.io/u/vinntec)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/2 "2020-05-17T23:08:48Z")
The most obvious thing to check is if the RPi4 might be overheating. All mine are fan cooled - even though I am not overclocking them they still get hot. If it is in a case, as a minimum open the top. If that doesn’t help, check your SD card as we have found that 16GB **appears** to work better than an 8GB one. This is not scientific fact just a suspicion. I have 5 x RPi4 4GB + 4 x RPi3 all working like the clappers for several days now since the last update stabilised things a lot. I too had the terminal connected in the early days but all I saw was a blank screen or the Balena logo. Later I also got the web gui on there but the keyboard/mouse didn’t appear to work. The online web gui has improved a lot since then. ![IMG_1080](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/balena/original/2X/9/9261602091b3785c0d8aaf072ee3ebc4ab82c297.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![GrfxGawd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/grfxgawd/32/3706_2.png) [@GrfxGawd](https://forums.balena.io/u/GrfxGawd)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 5:28pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/3 "2020-05-18T17:28:01Z")
So, as it looks, you have “some experience” with this. (Nice rack!) Two things. I recently bought a new keyboard and mouse to use with my Pi4, and they don’t seem to do a darned thing with this running. So, this is a “known thing”? No one has made any comments to my post about it on here. (and I was literally in the process of writing the seller about it.) I guess I should shut this down and rewire the fan to constant speed instead of rpm being temperature based then? (It looked like yesterday at one point it restarted from the log.) And three - what is that case in the foreground with the Pi and the HDD? ---
**Author:** ![vinntec](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/vinntec/32/3592_2.png) [@vinntec](https://forums.balena.io/u/vinntec)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/4 "2020-05-18T17:54:17Z")
The keyboard and mouse didn’t seem to work for me either when connected as a console, but worked fine on Raspbian. This might be worth checking if you are not sure, but almost certainly they are fine. The gui for end users is from a web browser to allow headless operation, which is probably for most people. If you don’t have another computer, a web browser on an iPad or iPhone worked for me but I had to use the ip address to connect (same applies probably for all wi-fi depending on setup). My rack only has two fan speeds driven by GPIO power pins. Since I put them on full, the RPi4 are more stable. The upper black box has a temperature sensitive fan and this has worked fine without me doing anything. In the foreground is an ancient PiDrive from Western Digital with USB2 drive included. It has an RPi3 in the box (with top off to prevent overheating for this task). The hard disk is not connected if you zoom in close enough. The black box on top is more interesting as this contains an RPi4 (4GB) with power supply + fan on top and a 2TB hard disk below. The hard disk is not currently connected. [https://geekworm.com/collections/raspberry-pi-4/products/x825-2-5-sata-hdd-ssd-storage-board-x825-case-x735-power-management-board-dc-5v-4a-power-supply-b-kit](https://geekworm.com/collections/raspberry-pi-4/products/x825-2-5-sata-hdd-ssd-storage-board-x825-case-x735-power-management-board-dc-5v-4a-power-supply-b-kit) ---
**Author:** ![GrfxGawd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/grfxgawd/32/3706_2.png) [@GrfxGawd](https://forums.balena.io/u/GrfxGawd)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/5 "2020-05-18T18:25:14Z")
Thank you! That answered every single thing. (And answered it well!) Power cycle machine, change power headers to increase fan speed, boot Raspbian and check keyboard and mouse before returning to Folding - then to the links you posted. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/6 "2020-05-18T18:50:14Z")
Thanks for those answers @vinntec! ---
**Author:** ![GrfxGawd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/grfxgawd/32/3706_2.png) [@GrfxGawd](https://forums.balena.io/u/GrfxGawd)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/7 "2020-05-19T19:03:18Z")
Keyboard and mouse work wonderfully with Raspbian. The keyboard and mouse are both non-functional connected directly to the Pi with this running. If I’m going to let that fan run at max all the time I’m going to need to see if someone like Nanoxia or Noctua makes one. ---
**Author:** ![vinntec](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/vinntec/32/3592_2.png) [@vinntec](https://forums.balena.io/u/vinntec)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/8 "2020-05-19T20:34:10Z")
Or get some ear plugs 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GrfxGawd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/grfxgawd/32/3706_2.png) [@GrfxGawd](https://forums.balena.io/u/GrfxGawd)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/9 "2020-05-19T22:39:00Z")
Oversharing a little - my ear canals seem to sweat a fair amount, leading to infections if I make too much use of in-ear earplugs (I was a certified firearm instructor for a while and spent quite a bit of time using various forms of hearing protection). Since it seems to be “very headless” I may just relocate the Pi 4 to another room while I let it do its thing. More on topic, I have no way to “prove” this (with any hard numbers), but it looks like the Pi with the fan set at max is processing tasks possibly 3X faster (or more) than it was previously. Just a note for anyone who might be using Pi 4 4G and not making use of active cooling. I’m running a [CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 Starter Kit](https://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-4-starter-kit.html) with the three heat sinks and the included 30mm fan installed. ---
**Author:** ![bdub28412](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bdub28412](https://forums.balena.io/u/bdub28412)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 6:18am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/rp4-randomly-restarts-while-folding/115077/10 "2020-05-20T06:18:31Z")
doubt its over heating it has the huge icetower heatsink fan