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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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11 years ago

FPGA - Unusual heating . why ?

I am using Cyclone III FPGA Starter kit which uses EP3C25F324 FPGA.

As soon as I power on my board, it is getting heated up rapidly in about 3 seconds. I am not even able to touch the FPGA , its that hot.

Does the FPGA usually get heated up rapidly when powered ON and then cool down or does this mean there is some problem with the FPGA?

I fear to use the board for more than 5 Seconds as I fear it will spoil the board.

Will using an external fan for cooling the FPGA, help?

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    It is not normal. The factory default pof does not generate much heat. Is this the first time the board is powered up?

    If not, could it be possible that the flash was overwritten with bad pof? If the pof has incorrectly assigned pins, contention with other components would cause it to heat up. Revert it to the default if so.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    The board should not be doing this, no.

    Restore the board's FLASH memory, using the instructions i provided in the original thread you opened on this exact subject (http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44340), so that - most importantly - it's in a known state. If the FPGA still heats erratically, you have a problem with the hardware.

    http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44340 (http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44340)
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    11 years ago

    No. I have burnt our code a few times and checked out output. But we did not notice if the FPGA was getting heated up or not. Only now I noticed it.

    I used Quartus II to burn my code. How will it rewrite the flash with a bad pof? Sorry, I do not understand that. Incorrectly assigned pins- Might be possible because am new to using FPGA and I might have made some mistake with that.

    How do I check if the flash is rewritten with a bad pof and how to revert it to default ?