Where to start troubleshooting 3B+ problems?

[jimbojones]

Hi. I’m at a bit of a loss as to where to start troubleshooting with the pi?

Since upgrading to the pi 3 b+, I have expereinced a huge increase in stability problems and seemingly random shutdowns that I cannot solve without a power disconnect and reboot. What confuses me is that, being a bit of a linux noob, I don’t know where exactly I should look and what I should be looking for in the logs to get to the bottom of the issues I’m facing?

I upgraded my headless pi setup from a 3B to a 3B+ and before swapping out the sd cards I ran a ‘sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade’ command. I ran that again after swapping the SD card (I’m running stretch).

The upgrade at first seemed to go fine, with no obviouus issues. But since I upgraded, I have now had to do a hard reboot on multiple occasions. I don’t know if perhaps I’m giving the pi too much to do, but it seems strange that I don’t remember the last time I hard to perform a hard reboot on my pi 3B, but since getting the 3B+ I’ve had to do it on an almost weekly basis. The setup is exactly the same. Could it be a hardware problem with the new 3B+?

Here are the main things I’m using my pi for:

PiHole DNS Server (which uses Stubby to get DNS-over-TLS)
OpenVPN server
UniFi Controller
SMB NAS
qBitTorrent box

I also have zram enabled.

I say seemingly random because I have absolutely no idea when and what is causing these shutdowns. Once, it occured whilst I was accessing the OpenVPN server. Another time it occured in the middle of an ssh session. And multiple times it has occured overnight when I haven’t actively been doing anything with the pi.

Any help with how and where to start solving this would be greatly appreciated.

[davidcoton]

There is a long thread about Pi3B+ lockups, one key post is viewtopic.php?f=28&t=208821&start=125#p1301982 but read as much of the thread as you have time for. Post there with the results of the settings suggested by dom and PhilE. Ultimately you have the choice of returning your Pi for replacement by your supplier, sending it to Pi Towers for investigation and replacement (pm PhilE or dom), or living with configuration settings if they work for you.

AIUI no-one is suggesting that a reduction in RAM clock is a permanent solution because of the performance implication, it is a step along the diagnostic path (ie, confirm the problem before attempting a solution).

[jimbojones]

Ah, appologies, I didn’t see that thread. I’ll have a look and report my issues there instead. It’s a shame that it appears like it’s a widespread issue with the 3B+ Though

[Nachteule]

It’s a shame that it appears like it’s a widespread issue with the 3B+ Though

Full ACK