N66u and USB data stick temperature too hot?

[mightyoakbob]

I've just got a 16GB Kingston data traveler plugged into my n66u. It is a new device and seem stork fine. I was concerned about how warm USB devices get when plugged into the router so got one with a metal body and no light which I thought might help.

It still gets too warm for my comfort and isn't far off being too hot to hold. If I plug it into a PC it is much cooler. I would like to leave it plugged in 24/7 but the heat worries me.

Anyone else seeing this? Is it something I should not leave unattended?

Thanks for advice.

Cheers,

Bob.

 

[L&LD]

You may be worrying for nothing. Do you have an infrared heat temp gun to measure with?

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX39759


Most Kingston USB drives can operate up to 60C.

 

[RMerlin]

It's a frequent worry, as those USB thumbdrives often ends up being part-time heatsink for the rest of the device they are plugged to.

What I did back in the day with my WDTV was to use a very short USB extension to plug my USB flash drive. That way, the device's heat wasn't being transferred to the USB drive.

 

[mightyoakbob]

I'm afraid I don't have any means to measure the temperature but it is very warm just a bit short of too hot to touch. The pictures in the info you pointed me at look exactly like the one I have.

Wish I knew if others were getting this.


Bob.

 

[mightyoakbob]

It's a frequent worry, as those USB thumbdrives often ends up being part-time heatsink for the rest of the device they are plugged to.

What I did back in the day with my WDTV was to use a very short USB extension to plug my USB flash drive. That way, the device's heat wasn't being transferred to the USB drive.

Merlin, thanks that is a good idea, I hadn't realised that might be the cause I'll give that a try.

Cheers,

Bob.

 

[mightyoakbob]

Fixed

It's a frequent worry, as those USB thumbdrives often ends up being part-time heatsink for the rest of the device they are plugged to.

What I did back in the day with my WDTV was to use a very short USB extension to plug my USB flash drive. That way, the device's heat wasn't being transferred to the USB drive.

Hi Merlin,

That fixed it. I had a short solid USB extension only just over an inch long but I fitted it between the router and the traveler and the temperature is now only slightly warm. So you were right it was heat from the router not due to high current in the traveler.

Thanks again Merlin.


Cheers,

Bob.

 

[pirx73]

I bought quite tiny (meaning physical size, not capacity), about 5-7mm short, not counting connector itself USB thumb drive (Sandisk Cruzer Fit 8GB) so i can install AB-solution and keep router logs on it. First N66U did not want to format it to ext2, so i had to connect it to the computer, install freeware program which can format it to ext2/3 under Windows. Even then, when i unplugged flash from router i almost dropped it, it was unbearably hot. Well it was so hot it was uncomfortable to touch the connector which was so hot that one could burn fingers if held longer.
Is it normal ir USB is faulty or as Merlin says - heat is being transferred to it from router and i should use some USB pigtail to keep it further away from N66U?

 

[wh7qq]

It depends on the USB stick. I have a 16G and a 32G Kingston in plastic that are not noticeably hot, same for a 16G San Disk Ultra Fit but a 64G SanDisk Ultra Fit gets hotter than a $5 6-pistol. I don't use it often and don't leave it plugged in when not in use. Probably none are hot enough to be a problem but it can be worrisome

 

[sfx2000]

It depends on the USB stick. I have a 16G and a 32G Kingston in plastic that are not noticeably hot, same for a 16G San Disk Ultra Fit but a 64G SanDisk Ultra Fit gets hotter than a $5 6-pistol. I don't use it often and don't leave it plugged in when not in use. Probably none are hot enough to be a problem but it can be worrisome

Concur - I've got a few USB3 sticks - the little stubby SanDisk can get very warm on writes/reads - and I've got some lexmark drives that run pretty cool...

I've always believed that the vendor has tested the devices under different conditions... thumb drivers in general are pretty robust all things considered... they can and will go bad, but generally that age related, and sometimes writes during an OS crash perhaps...

 

[RMerlin]

I've always believed that the vendor has tested the devices under different conditions...

Let's be realist. Most vendors tested their thumbdrives on a Windows desktop, and that's pretty much it.

I remember my Vantec USB enclosure that wouldn't work properly under Linux until somewhere around kernel 3.10, despite being on the market for at least a year or two. Vantec were using some trickery to help Advanced Formated Drive work under Windows, but that trick didn't work under Linux. The kernel needed some specific hacks to make it work properly under Linux.

What some of these more advanced controllers will do is throttle performance when overheating. Sometimes, just copying a very large file to it might be enough to trigger the temperature-related throttling. If that happens with a desktop, I can imagine how plugging into a hot embedded device might trigger that throttling earlier than normal.

Might not be a problem with those "fake" USB 3.0 drive that can barely hit 40 MB/s, but try that with one that does 150 MB/s or more. Those tend to run quite hot. My personal experience with Phison-based thumb drives so far have been less than impressive, with (among others) one Kingston failing within a month. That one was running quite hot on large file transfers.

 

[sfx2000]

Let's be realist. Most vendors tested their thumbdrives on a Windows desktop, and that's pretty much it.

Perhaps a few years back - these days...

A given thumbdrive, whether it's on a Mac, Windows, Linux desktop - all platforms there can push a drive pretty hard.

The biggest issue perhaps, and from what I've seen is general compatibility - and there, I do agree with you that Windows seems to be the priority... some thumbdrives come from the factory with "value added" software and partitioning schemes - but once one nukes them, lays on a filesystem, again OS independent, they generally work fine...

Being non-windows focused, I've seen more than my share of crazy USB drive stuff

Getting back on target - some drives do run warm - see my comment above regarding the SanDisk compact stubby drives - the heat has to go somewhere - and it doesn't matter what it's plugged into - and the gubbins inside have to deal with that heat - hence my statement - their HW design verification folks, for reputable brands, do testing outside of windows/linux/mac - they push them pretty hard to ensure that they work...

 

[sfx2000]

I remember my Vantec USB enclosure that wouldn't work properly under Linux until somewhere around kernel 3.10, despite being on the market for at least a year or two. Vantec were using some trickery to help Advanced Formated Drive work under Windows, but that trick didn't work under Linux. The kernel needed some specific hacks to make it work properly under Linux.

I had a Vantec combo FW/USB - and ended up binning it as once a drive went over a certain size, the USB side would report one size to the OS, and the FW side would report another... (the firewire side was correct)...

I've had good luck with WD (although few MyBook controller board issues, but that was capacitors and easily fixed) - these days, due to some aggressive pricing at Costco, I've been picking up Seagate drives - and they're pretty decent - the little 2.5" drives do get warm under activity, but not excessively so... and the costco pricing is actually cheaper than the bare drive inside the case, go figure that one...