HomePod PSA - Popping HomePod died & got very hot in the process

[smithrh]

So, I've been putting up with one of my stereo pair HomePods having the random popping sound.

Over the weekend, I decided to listen to some music. Everything was fine for a couple of minutes, then the volume in HomePod that had the poppings diminished greatly - but it was still emitting the right sound, just at low volume.

Nothing changed this - tried different songs, different sources, changing volume, swapping L&R and so on. But sometimes w/o any physical prompting, the volume would come back.

Decided to un-plug and then re-plug it into AC power to reset it.

This time, when I reconnected power, I got a couple of louder pops within maybe 10 seconds - more like cracks. But the volume was back, so I said "huh" and listened to music for maybe 5 minutes, then the volume dropped again.

This time I jostled the unit a bit and the volume came back. Uh oh, that usually signals hardware as the culprit.

Then I tried changing the volume via the top (something that I never do), and the top was hot. Very hot. Not hot enough to burn, but closer than I'd like. I immediately unplugged the unit and I could smell burnt electronics coming from the pod.

Well, that settles that - it's a hardware defect.

One dangerous thing - the heat did not dissipate. A couple of minutes after I pulled the plug, the top of the unit was as hot or even hotter than before (I could feel some radiated heat while handling the unit via the mesh, but it was easy enough to grab).

I set the unit outside on concrete. Even 15 minutes later the unit was quite warm so I left it outside for an hour and while it felt safe bringing it back into the house, it was still warm then.

So now I only have one HomePod, and a clearly dangerous one. I really loved the HomePod stereo experience, but buying another one seems like a stupid thing to do at this point.

 

[Itinj24]

So, I've been putting up with one of my stereo pair HomePods having the random popping sound.

Over the weekend, I decided to listen to some music. Everything was fine for a couple of minutes, then the volume in HomePod that had the poppings diminished greatly - but it was still emitting the right sound, just at low volume.

Nothing changed this - tried different songs, different sources, changing volume, swapping L&R and so on. But sometimes w/o any physical prompting, the volume would come back.

Decided to un-plug and then re-plug it into AC power to reset it.

This time, when I reconnected power, I got a couple of louder pops within maybe 10 seconds - more like cracks. But the volume was back, so I said "huh" and listened to music for maybe 5 minutes, then the volume dropped again.

This time I jostled the unit a bit and the volume came back. Uh oh, that usually signals hardware as the culprit.

Then I tried changing the volume via the top (something that I never do), and the top was hot. Very hot. Not hot enough to burn, but closer than I'd like. I immediately unplugged the unit and I could smell burnt electronics coming from the pod.

Well, that settles that - it's a hardware defect.

One dangerous thing - the heat did not dissipate. A couple of minutes after I pulled the plug, the top of the unit was as hot or even hotter than before (I could feel some radiated heat while handling the unit via the mesh, but it was easy enough to grab).

I set the unit outside on concrete. Even 15 minutes later the unit was quite warm so I left it outside for an hour and while it felt safe bringing it back into the house, it was still warm then.

So now I only have one HomePod, and a clearly dangerous one. I really loved the HomePod stereo experience, but buying another one seems like a stupid thing to do at this point.

I have nine HomePods and this is very concerning, but you’re not alone. Seems like a widely reported defect. Every day I wake up and see how many more HomePods out in the wild get infected with regards to reports like this. I also get nervous that I’m next. It’s awful to only get a couple years usage out of a premium bookshelf speaker and Apple is basically telling people to kick rocks if it’s out of warranty.

Are you on the latest OS? This was a huge problem in later OS14 versions and seems to have reared its ugly head again

 

[smithrh]

I was on the latest non-beta release.

I'll entertain the possibility of this being triggered - somehow - by software, but this very much seems like a latent hardware or design defect. Either a batch of parts is failing prematurely (it does happen) or the design isn't robust enough.

 

[Itinj24]

I was on the latest non-beta release.

I'll entertain the possibility of this being triggered - somehow - by software, but this very much seems like a latent hardware or design defect. Either a batch of parts is failing prematurely (it does happen) or the design isn't robust enough.

Some poster on here did a tear down and repair and found the issue to be a diode.

It could be coincidence that this started happening after a software update to a lot of units but then again all the units are about the same age so who knows? It’s also plausible that an inefficient running software could cause overheating issues leading to hardware issues. Either way it’s maddening indeed. I been following these reports closely since they started.