Update to repairing bad voltage regulators on a dead R-Pi. Clarification: This is only for the Model A and Model B which has a linear power supply area, the others use a switching power supply.
Since posting this, I repaired the R-Pi Model B in question, but it was tedious because the parts were so small. The main regulator went in with some difficulty as not only are the pins soldered to the board but also its back heatsink area is soldered to the board. It is best to desolder the pins first, and then get the iron as hot as possible and put it on the heatsink until the regulator comes loose and then flick it of. Then use some solder braid to remove the excess solder and clean up the area before soldering in the replacement. The other two regulators were easier but smaller and needs a steady hand to replace them. One of them, the smallest of the two, came out in two pieces so it was obviously defective.
With the regulators replaced, the R-Pi runs a lot cooler but still hotter than the others. Something else must have shorted out, but with a heatsink the R-Pi runs normally. I'm thinking of using a Junction Puter (a semi conductor where one side is cold and the other is hot) to cool this R-Pi. As is, I do not dare over clock this unit.
Now, what could have caused this? Simple. In researching the R-Pi's weakness, it is the GPIO. In theory, you can power an R-Pi through the 5V/Ground lines on the GPIO. This does work but in doing so you are risking in frying your R-Pi into a crispy chunk of silicon because you are bypassing the voltage regulators and are force-feeding 5V through out the entire board. Many robotic kits connect to this 5V Line, and if the motor voltage supply is not separated, then there is a good change of frying your board. In the Model A and Model B, you fry the regulators first before anything else begins to cook but it will continue to fry the board if left to cook. On the others (Models A+/B+/Pi2), the voltage regulator is bypassed and you immediately fry the CPU. Since this this a Model B, the Regulators were fried first before further damage could hit the board.
Quote from Fernando on Oct 24th, 2014, 5:05pm:The third Raspberry Pi was slated as "Dead, Red LED turns On But Does Not Boot." I noticed that this Raspberry Pi was very sensitive to Under/Over Voltage but it does turn on and boot. I also noticed that it also gets very hot to the point of smelling something being burned. Voltage testing on this Pi shows that its running under voltage even though other Raspberry Pi's measured perfectly with the same power supply. It sounds to me that one or more of its voltage regulators may have been blown or shorted.
Replacing the Voltage Regulators The repair is to find the voltage regulators that failed and replace them.
I found this article online, which explains what are the causes for a very hot Raspberry Pi, and how to test it and eventually fix it:
http://www.petervis.com/Raspberry_PI/dead-raspberry-pi/dead-raspberry-pi.html More detailed information from his site:
Main Regulator - NCP1117-3V3 in a DPAK case 369C
http://www.petervis.com/Raspberry_PI/dead-raspberry-pi/NCP1117-3V3-pinout-RG2-pi
nout.html 1st Secondary regulator - NCP1117-1V8 comes in a SOT-223 case
http://www.petervis.com/Raspberry_PI/dead-raspberry-pi/NCP1117-1V8-pinout-RG1-pi
nout.html 2nd Secondary regulator - LP2980-2V5 is a SOT-23 regulator in a DBV0005A style package
http://www.petervis.com/Raspberry_PI/dead-raspberry-pi/LP2980-2V5-RG3-pinout.htm
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I seen that Mouser.com has these regulators at relatively inexpensive prices. I need to search digikiey.com and newark.com to see if they have them and for how much. If replacing these three regulators fixes the over heating problem as per the article's description, then I have solve the issue and could possibly fix more Raspberry Pi's.
In seeing this, I can speculate that replacing all three regulators at once would be the best option, though replacing the main regulator should fix it.
The point is this as I see it, if the Raspberry Pi turns on with a red LED but does not boot with a known working SD and a known working power supply, then its voltage regulators need to be replaced.
I'll see about getting these voltage regulators and fixing this one Raspberry Pi that gets very hot as soon as I can and post my results here.