Pi-Top[4] Shut Down / Power Off Taking Too Long

pi-top [4]
,
#1

My first Pi-Top[4] 4GB was from the Kickstarter campaign, I received it Aug. 2020, so I am sure the warranty has expired.

I am experiencing a problem with this unit not powering off as quickly as my other Pi-Top[4] 8GB (DIY). The 4GB takes almost 5 minutes to power off while the 8GB unit takes about 15 to 20 seconds. This first started happening about 2 months ago. I have been able to use the unit (daily) it just takes along time to shut down / power off.

The troubleshooting steps I have performed are:

  • Removed the 1 TB HDD boot device and re-inserted a 32 GB SD card with a fresh install of Sirius (pi-topOS-sirius_C781_2020-12-22_04-11-42) – same problem takes about 5 minutes to shut down / power off.

  • Installed the 1 TB HDD boot device on the DIY Pi-Top[4] 8GB – shut down / powered off normally (15 – 20 seconds).

  • Do not think it is a software problem with Sirius.

  • Searched the Internet looking for anything that might help, ended up on raspberrypi.stackexchange.com and it was suggested that I try a reboot -f to ensure that a reboot does not take 5 minutes which would help prove that the issue was in a userland process. Performed the reboot and it didn’t take but a few seconds.

  • The next suggestion was to boot with system.log_target=kmsg in /boot/cmdline.txt to collect system messages in the kernel log and review the log for anything out of the ordinary. Performed that on both Pi-Top[4]’s to help identify something out of the ordinary. Not knowing what I am really looking for I reviewed both kernel logs and did not find anything that might be construed as ‘out of the ordinary’. Did this review on numerous power downs.

  • Problem still exists – I believe my next logical step would be to replace the Pi 4B 4GB in the Pi-Top enclosure with either a new one or another one that I am using.

Looking for any help or suggestions?

#2

@Korbendallaz does the “spinning” [4] logo remain on the miniscreen display for a long time when you do a shutdown?

#3

Yes, for the entire time until the system shuts down.

#4

@Korbendallaz someone internal also reported this problem to me recently too and I’ve seen it before - we’re looking into what could be causing it. Were you running code from Further before the problem appeared or is it random?

#5

I can’t recall, I didn’t really notice when it started, when I initiate the shut down ,I normally just push it off to the side and move on to something else. My normal sequence when I power on the pi-tops is to check for updates, if any they are installed, the system is then rebooted, (rebooting is unaffected by this). When the system comes back I enter into SDK to see if there are any noticeable changes and then Further to see if there are any new Robotic Challenges. Then I shut down, while the 4GB unit is shutting down I start the 8GB unit and follow the same steps. So I start Further on the 4GB unit every day. If there are no system updates or changes in the SDK and/or Further, the 8GB unit may not be powered on that day.

I hope this helps.

#6

Thanks @Korbendallaz, we’ll get right on it!

#7

I finally got tired of waiting for the Pi-Top to power down, got to the point where I stopped using this system so…
I reinstalled the OS and the problem has disappeared. Thanks for those who reviewed this.

#8

Well, I thought the problem disappeared with re-installing the OS, but today I updated the OS, the updates requested a reboot - I did. After the the system came up I performed a normal shutdown. I was recharging the battery at the time.

The OLED stayed responsive, I could scroll through the items but was unable to connect to the desktop using VNC Viewer.

When the battery was done recharging I pulled the plug. OLED still responsive. Waited a few minutes more and manually slid the power button. Unit powered off.

I will see how it responds next time I power it up.

My other Pi-Top [4] 8GB (DYI) unit no issues - still.