I see lots of threads on here about fan problems and cases.

I don't have them.

My first Pi4, a 1GB model, has been running continuously since July
2019, connected to an SSD, as a general server: lightweight NAS +
printer + Lan-WWW + in-house mail.  These days it runs Puppy Linux
but that's probably not relevant.

I printed a case for it and set it up - At first it needed a
fan-shim and still overheated occasionally.  But after the first
firmware upgrade the temperature problems reduced and, once I
removed the case they dropped further.

After the second (I think) upgrade I was able to remove the fan
shim and, as long as the Pi is on it's side, it's fine.

The most recent firmware release (July this year iIrc) has
improved things even more and added the ability to boot from USB
among other things.

So now my 1GB, 2GB and 4GB Pi4s are running cool, without fans and
without cases: if you must have a case get something very roomy
with lots of ventilation.  Mine are mounted on edge, one of the
socketed sides upwards 'though one of them is just dangling from
it's leads.

So: Is everyone keeping their firmware up to date?

If you haven't done so:
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt full-upgrade

This does most of the firmware fixing and...

  sudo apt install rpi-eeprom
  sudo rpi-eeprom-update

Checks your bootloader, if it's not the most recent...

    sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a

Fixes it and you will be up to date after the next reboot.


Cheerio,

--
>> derek.moody@casterbridge.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05