I have owned the Pimoroni Presto since early summer and it has worked flawlessly. But today I connected my Pimoroni Presto as usual when all of the sudden the screen flashed and seemingly disconnected from Thonny. It showed up as a drive and I tried to flash the firmware both without and with the file system according to the instructions on GitHub but it wouldn’t show up as a serial device or boot up. I noticed a part was getting really hot to the touch and I don’t dare connect it again. I have outlined the hot component in the attached picture. What should I do?
I don’t own one, just so you know.
If you have anything externally connected, I’d unplug it.
You might also want to flash nuke it, so it’s completely blank.
Gadgetoid/pico-universal-flash-nuke
Then reflash it with the Pimoroni uf2.
Does it get hot even after a flash nuke, and or in Boot Mode?
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This looks like it is the LDO (regulator). These do heat up in regular operation, but with the other information you gave this might be a faulty component. Anyone having a (working) Presto might check how hot this is.
You should also write to support and ask for help. Maybe they are willing to replace the unit. It is not that old.
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Read this as I was running a looping test of intensive calculations to see what difference the @micropython.native decorator may bring to my program. Finger test on the component found no discernible heat. Might be worth a check to see if the power supply to the Presto has not gone faulty and is suppling more than 5v, but otherwise it seems your Presto will need to undergo some surgery.
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I tried flash nuking it but it still wouldn’t accept any subsequent firmware flash. After the flash nuke the component in question (supposedly the LDO) was still way too hot, I’m talking flesh-burning hot. I also tried just connecting it to the wall with a weak adapter with an output of 5V @ 1A but it was still not booting nor cooling down but the backlight was still lit. I assume that the voltage regulator is fried due to the fact that 5V to 3.3V at 1A isn’t that much and should at most be producing 1.7 Watts of heat. I also don’t have access to a multimeter so I can’t see what the input/output voltage to/from the LDO is.
As @SirFico puts it: the Presto needs some surgery. Try to sort out things with support first, maybe they want you to turn in the unit, I don’t know. If not, don’t throw it away. Try to find a repair cafe or makerspace near you or someone else who knows how to solder small SMD components. Replacing the LDO is possible. Always in the hope that the blown LDO is the root cause.