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Experiencing external SSD data corruption issues which I believe are related to power issues.

Evaluating if it’s worth upgrading power supply from official Raspberry Pi 3A USB-C power supply to Argon Forty’s 3.5A USB-C power supply.

sunknudsen
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  • What makes you think its power related? A powered usb hub might be a better solution if so. I use an official 3A psu on my Pi400 with SSD without issue. – CoderMike Feb 07 '23 at 14:39
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    The max USB capability is 1.2 A, shared over all USB outlets, so if you are exceeding that, even momentarily, a beefier PSU won't fix that. – Michael Harvey Feb 07 '23 at 16:02

2 Answers2

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A Pi 4 shouldn't consume more than say 500-800mA (Reduce power consumption Raspberry PI 4) by itself, so I don't think your problem is with the power supply (unless of course it is a low quality one where voltages float around).

Corruption has other causes like for example SD card corruption

Clóvis Fritzen
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Assuming that you are actually having power problems, and not problems with a poor quality or worn out SD card...

Power problems could be caused by:

  • Poor quality power supply (not likely if it is an official Pi power supply and not damaged by surges or lightning)
  • Over budget use of power by accessories (move them to a powered usb hub?)
  • Inappropriate manual removal of power (stop that! Shut down cleanly first)
  • Accidental removal of power (maybe look into a Pi rated UPS?)
  • Dirty input power (again...Pi UPS?)

A higher voltage will not fix any of the above problems.

user10489
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  • "A higher voltage will not fix any of the above problems." -> The OP is not asking about that, and of course the supply to the Pi must be ~5V anyway. However: the supply is probably a good one in that it puts out 5.25V; at some point the Rpi official supply was bumped up to 5.1V I believe on the premise that this can mitigate against sudden voltage drops -- which is what can happen when you try to instantaneously pull an amount of current close to (or greater than) the supply's amperage. Which greater amperage probably also mitigates against this. – goldilocks Feb 09 '23 at 14:36
  • ...So while you still won't be able to draw more than 1.2 amps over the USB, you may be able to do it more consistently, ie., without fluctuations caused by an electronic device's rapidly fluctuating needs. A better solution might be better regulation, but Pis, being low cost devices, I think do not have the gold standard or anything there. – goldilocks Feb 09 '23 at 14:36
  • Actually, the 5.1v is more likely to mitigate extra long supply wires that are too thin and cause a voltage drop. The regulator on the pi is at least good enough to fix the slightly higher voltage if there is no drop. – user10489 Feb 10 '23 at 10:45