My ethernet shield is getting hot even with a heat sink. It uses 350mA from a 9V battery.
is that normal??
Probably this is not depends on that but the sd card info example is not working. Error at formatting, but I tried both FAT default and FAT32. However in other example I can write to it...
Another problem I just noticed that on the chip at one side there are 4 pairs of pins soldered together... Might be this the fault of Chinese product??
The heat is normal, is essentially down to poor regulator design, and not usually a problem. I don't know about the the 350mA but, if the battery is a PP3, it probably won't be using 350 for long and you ought to consider using a sensible power supply before you blame the Chinese.
Format the SD card according this : Don't Format SD cards with OS utilities! - Storage - Arduino Forum
The W5100 chip (and also the ENC28J60) gets very hot. That is normal.
I have also added a heat sink to my W5100, and it is still hot.
The W5100 chip is old, the newer W5200 and W5500 are better.
As Nick_Pyner wrotes, the small 9V batteries don't last long. We don't recommend them for any project, and certainly not for a Ethernet Shield.
I can't see it very well, because of my heatsink, but there are a number of pins combined. That is okay. Those pins could be grounds, or 3.3V pins. There is copper under that solder, between the pins. When the board is soldered, some solder stays on the copper between the pins, it is supposed to be like that.
Perhaps the official Ethernet Shield has a different copper layer, because I can't see in the photo here : https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoEthernetShield
But I can see it here : http://artofcircuits.com/product/arduino-ethernet-shield
It really does get very hot, and that is supposed to be normal.
