Sometimes, you may end up with an overheating problem while you are doing some serious coding on your Raspberry Pi 3 board. One of the main reasons for these high temperatures is the board overclocking that many Pi enthusiasts do for some extra performance from the board.
To avoid excessive temperature and overheating issues on Pi, you can first try to avoid overclocking the Raspberry Pi 3. Don’t put too much load on the CPU or GPU of the board and you may be successful in eliminating the problem.
If you can’t avoid overclocking your Pi, here’s a few suggestions that may fix this over temperature issue when running the board:
Option 1: Install a Cooling Fan
The safest solution for avoiding overheating is to mount a cooling fan on your Raspberry Pi 3 board through the GPIO. You can buy the fan either online or offline and can set it up on your Pi 3 board quite easily.
Option 2: Use Heatsink
A compatible Raspberry Pi heatsink is often the best solution to prevent overheating problems on your Pi 3 device. It will help to cool down the processor and also allow you to avoid using a noisy cooling fan for your system setup.
Installing the Raspberry Pi heatsink is an easy process which you can complete in a few quick steps. Though the heatsink cannot cool down your Pi board as effectively as an active cooling fan does, it can certainly add an extra protective layer to reduce the risk of over-temperature conditions. Combining the heat sink and a fan works even better.
Option-3: Get the help of an External USB Powered Fan
An additional USB powered fan can also provide a great help in Raspberry Pi 3 cooling. If you do not want to install a CPU fan or a heatsink on your Pi 3, then you can purchase an external USB fan (such as PJSFM1 from Klein Tools).
You just need to attach it to the USB port of your Pi board. Remember to point the fan towards the processor area of your device.