Amid an already rocky launch, Google Stadia appears to have found itself another problem with new reports from users that indicate some people’s Chromecasts are overheating. These reports say that the Chromecast units are getting “extremely hot” and are dying in the middle of playing games like Destiny 2. Following one initial report shared within the Google Stadia subreddit, other players chimed in to say they’d had similar results. Google, however, says that Chromecast Ultras don’t have an overheating issue.
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The post on the Stadia subreddit included an account from one player who said their Chromecast unexpected died when they were in a middle of a fight in Destiny 2. They were using the Chromecast Ultra that comes with Stadia’s Founder Edition and said the device became quite hot after it reportedly shut down.
“I was in the middle of a fight in Destiny 2 when suddenly my Chromecast died and lost connectivity to the network,” Reddit user armadeon7479 said in the Stadia subreddit. “I went to unplug it from the power and it was extremely hot. Has anyone else experienced overheating with the new Chromecast Ultras that come with the Founder’s Edition? I hadn’t seen other posts about that.”
Chromecasts overheating has been a topic of discussion within the device’s communities even before Stadia was released, but some players within the subreddit speculated that the act of streaming games – especially if you’re trying to play in 4K – might put more stress on the Chromecast. Others within the main thread corroborated the user’s anecdote and said their devices were getting quite hot while some said they’d also experienced shutdowns after varying lengths of playtime.
Google, however, said this problem doesn’t exist with the Chromecast Ultra. In a response that’s quite at odds with the user reports from the thread, Google aid that a Chromecast device becoming warm to the touch is a sign that it’s working as designed but that there’s no evidence of thermal shutdown problems.
“Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We know any sort of heat on a device can be worrisome, but we can confirm there is no thermal overheating issue with Chromecast Ultra,” a reply from a Google Stadia community manager said in the post. “During normal usage (like watching cat videos on YouTube), the surface of the device may get warm to the touch, but this is working as designed. The team has done extensive testing on the hardware, services and games—this includes tests of long Stadia play and video sessions—and have not seen thermal shutdown problems.”
Google has not commented on any overheating problems through its social media accounts at this time. The latest issues it addressed pertained to people who paid for the Founder’s Edition of Stadia but had not yet received their codes.
