Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?

In article , Your Name
wrote:

It didn't even finish installing and booting!
I know those USB flash drives were hot to touch. :/

Yeah, that might well be what killed them.

The heat? Hmm, do all USB flash drives get hot after being connected?

They pretty much all get warm-ish to hot because the USB port is
sending electricity through for powering the drive and sending /
retreiveing data. How hot they get depends on the size of the case, how
much free air space there is around the circuit board, the materials
used in the case, the tightness of the circuit board design, etc. It
will also depend on where they're plugged in (behind a computer with
little air flow will make them hotter than sitting on the desk
underneath a fan).

nonsense. some usb sticks get warm, others don't. it also doesn't
matter.

They aren't really designed to be left plugged and in constant use.
They're designed to transfer files from one computer to another.

either works perfectly fine.

In message
nospam wrote:
In article , Your Name
wrote:

It didn't even finish installing and booting!
I know those USB flash drives were hot to touch. :/

Yeah, that might well be what killed them.

The heat? Hmm, do all USB flash drives get hot after being connected?

They pretty much all get warm-ish to hot because the USB port is
sending electricity through for powering the drive and sending /
retreiveing data. How hot they get depends on the size of the case, how
much free air space there is around the circuit board, the materials
used in the case, the tightness of the circuit board design, etc. It
will also depend on where they're plugged in (behind a computer with
little air flow will make them hotter than sitting on the desk
underneath a fan).

nonsense. some usb sticks get warm, others don't. it also doesn't
matter.

I've had at least one that got so hot I could not remove it from the
computer with my fingers. It was a crappy one that I was given in lieu
of printed information when I told them I could not use their business
card sized (and shaped) mini cd. IIRC the thumb drive was 128MB and after
I managed to get it out of my computer with the use of a cloth napkin, I
threw it in the trash.

either works perfectly fine.

I find USB thumb drives get very temperamental if they are left plugged in
horizontally. I have a USB hub with ports on top and find the thumb drives
do much better in that.

--
If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Ant wrote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed wrote:
Ant wrote

It didn't even finish installing and booting!
I know those USB flash drives were hot to touch. :/

Yeah, that might well be what killed them.

The heat? Hmm, do all USB flash drives get hot after being connected?

No (to the touch), but I've seen customer reviews of some miniature
ones that comment on them getting too hot to touch, perhaps even
beginning to melt the case of a laptop (my memory is sketchy on
whether this last claim was made or not).

One I'm thinking of was a well known brand sold very recently by
major retailers in Australia. I'm afraid I can't remember the
exact brand or model.

Actually if all your memory sticks are getting hot, are you sure
it's not an issue with the computer (assuming you're mostly using
these in the one machine)?

There are USB voltage meters sold cheaply on Ebay to show if the
USB voltage from a computer is too high/low. If the USB voltage
was far too high, the extra energy would cause excessive heating
of the drive.

Another possibility, if you only ever use one USB port (or a group
of similarly affected ones) for testing these memory sticks, is
that a high resistance in the computer's USB socket is causing
the _socket_ to heat up, and the heat is being transferred
to the drives themselves via the USB connector. Here, not only
the heat, but also the coresponding reduced power to the memory
stick, may induce irrecoverable write errors or other failures.

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In article , Computer Nerd Kev
wrote:


There are USB voltage meters sold cheaply on Ebay to show if the
USB voltage from a computer is too high/low. If the USB voltage
was far too high, the extra energy would cause excessive heating
of the drive.

if the voltage was too high, not only would it not be usb compliant,
but it would likely fry anything plugged into it, which is expecting a
regulated 5v. the amount of current sourced is limited by what the
device negotiates from the host.

Another possibility, if you only ever use one USB port (or a group
of similarly affected ones) for testing these memory sticks, is
that a high resistance in the computer's USB socket is causing
the _socket_ to heat up, and the heat is being transferred
to the drives themselves via the USB connector. Here, not only
the heat, but also the coresponding reduced power to the memory
stick, may induce irrecoverable write errors or other failures.

unlikely.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage nospam wrote:
In article , Computer Nerd Kev
wrote:


There are USB voltage meters sold cheaply on Ebay to show if the
USB voltage from a computer is too high/low. If the USB voltage
was far too high, the extra energy would cause excessive heating
of the drive.

if the voltage was too high, not only would it not be usb compliant,
but it would likely fry anything plugged into it, which is expecting a
regulated 5v. the amount of current sourced is limited by what the
device negotiates from the host.

Another possibility, if you only ever use one USB port (or a group
of similarly affected ones) for testing these memory sticks, is
that a high resistance in the computer's USB socket is causing
the _socket_ to heat up, and the heat is being transferred
to the drives themselves via the USB connector. Here, not only
the heat, but also the coresponding reduced power to the memory
stick, may induce irrecoverable write errors or other failures.

unlikely.

Fry right away or after a while?
--
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perfect - forget about perfect - but just learning by what I was taught
and living by my own values. I might have stepped on a few ants - and a
few other things as well - but I've never hurt anybody." --Kiri Te
Kanawa
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In article , Ant
wrote:


Fry right away or after a while?

usually quickly, but it depends how much over 5v it is. chances are
that unless you bought a noname charger, the usb host is within spec.

"Ant" wrote in message
...
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed
wrote:
Ant wrote
Rod Speed wrote

I think, for the industry, flash drives are seen as the new
floppy.
It
doesn¹t much matter who you go with, they¹re all built to be
essentially disposable.

That said, though, they all seem to come with a 2+ year warranty,
so
you¹d be getting some nifty free refreshes if you¹re seeing
failures
every year. Personally, I just buy the MicroCenter store brand
in
whatever size $10 will get me, and it generally lasts until at
least
the warranty runs out. It¹s not a huge expense, so I don¹t worry
too much about it.

USB flash drives (thumb drive, keyring drives, pen drives, memory
sticks, whatever else you want to call them) and SSDs do have a
limited
lifespan measured in the number of write cycles ... so using them
continuously (e.g. as an OS boot drive with things like virtual
memory
going) as Ant said can be a bit silly and cause them to "wear out"
much
sooner than simply using them to store files on for backup or
transport.
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/l...sb-flash-drive
http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/data-storage-lifespan/
http://www.flashbay.co.nz/blog/usb-life-expectancy

The weird part is that I was still installing mac OS Sierra v10.12
on these two old USB flash drives. Is that too much already?

Yeah, much more likely that it was that that killed them.

Too much writing from it?

Unlikely, that doesn't write all that much.

It didn't even finish installing and booting!
I know those USB flash drives were hot to touch. :/

Yeah, that might well be what killed them.

The heat?

What got them that hot anyway. Looks like something failed
that sees them get hot now when plugged in, even tho you
arent doing anything. That's not right.

Hmm, do all USB flash drives get hot after being connected?

Nope, none of mine do. They do get marginally warmer after
they have been filled with movies, but only marginally warmer,
nothing even remotely like hot.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage nospam wrote:
In article , Ant
wrote:


Fry right away or after a while?

usually quickly, but it depends how much over 5v it is. chances are
that unless you bought a noname charger, the usb host is within spec.

Well, the USB ports are inside the computers. ;P
--
Quote of the Week: "I really believe I've been a good person. Not
perfect - forget about perfect - but just learning by what I was taught
and living by my own values. I might have stepped on a few ants - and a
few other things as well - but I've never hurt anybody." --Kiri Te
Kanawa
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit-
( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.

"Your Name" wrote in message
...
In article , Ant
wrote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed
wrote:
Ant wrote
Rod Speed wrote

I think, for the industry, flash drives are seen as the new
floppy.
It doesn¹t much matter who you go with, they¹re all built to be
essentially disposable.

That said, though, they all seem to come with a 2+ year
warranty, so
you¹d be getting some nifty free refreshes if you¹re seeing
failures
every year. Personally, I just buy the MicroCenter store brand
in
whatever size $10 will get me, and it generally lasts until at
least
the warranty runs out. It¹s not a huge expense, so I don¹t
worry
too much about it.

USB flash drives (thumb drive, keyring drives, pen drives, memory
sticks, whatever else you want to call them) and SSDs do have a
limited lifespan measured in the number of write cycles ... so
using
them continuously (e.g. as an OS boot drive with things like
virtual memory going) as Ant said can be a bit silly and cause
them
to "wear out" much sooner than simply using them to store files
on
for backup or transport.

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/l...usb-flash-driv
e
http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/data-storage-lifespan/
http://www.flashbay.co.nz/blog/usb-life-expectancy

The weird part is that I was still installing mac OS Sierra v10.12
on these two old USB flash drives. Is that too much already?

Yeah, much more likely that it was that that killed them.

Too much writing from it?

Unlikely, that doesn't write all that much.

It didn't even finish installing and booting!
I know those USB flash drives were hot to touch. :/

Yeah, that might well be what killed them.

The heat? Hmm, do all USB flash drives get hot after being connected?

They pretty much all get warm-ish to hot because the USB port is
sending electricity through for powering the drive and sending /
retreiveing data. How hot they get depends on the size of the case, how
much free air space there is around the circuit board, the materials
used in the case, the tightness of the circuit board design, etc. It
will also depend on where they're plugged in (behind a computer with
little air flow will make them hotter than sitting on the desk
underneath a fan).

They aren't really designed to be left plugged and in constant use.
They're designed to transfer files from one computer to another.

I find that they don't even get warm when just plugged in,
doing nothing at all.

And some of mine are the smallest ones too, not much bigger
than the smallest coin with the bit that isnt the USB plug itself.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage nospam wrote:
In article , Computer Nerd Kev
wrote:


There are USB voltage meters sold cheaply on Ebay to show if the
USB voltage from a computer is too high/low. If the USB voltage
was far too high, the extra energy would cause excessive heating
of the drive.

if the voltage was too high, not only would it not be usb compliant,
but it would likely fry anything plugged into it, which is expecting a
regulated 5v.

I don't mean by design (although anything's possible with Chinese
knock-off stuff, if that's involved), I mean due to a failure of
the computer hardware.

Now the 5V at the USB ports being high would often only make sense
if they were supplied by a separate line from the power supply. If
the internal computer components and the USB ports were both
subjected to a failure of the 5V voltage regulation, it would
be very likely to destroy the computer without the user having
any time to worry about their USB accessories.

Most desktop PCs have standard power supplies that provide the
USB 5V from the same lines as everything else, so it is unlikely
that an over-voltage situation would only affect the USB ports.

A laptop, however, may have a separate power supply circuit for
the USB 5V. If this failed, and supplied too high a voltage, it
may not sevierely affect the normal operation of the computer.

A power-boosted USB hub with a faulty or incorrectly specified
mains adapter powering it could also be a culprit.

the amount of current sourced is limited by what the device
negotiates from the host.

Current limiting only protects against an over-voltage situation
if the device requires more than the minimum current limit (500mA)
to be damaged. If an IC in the memory stick normally draws 20mA
at 5V, it may draw 28mA at 7V (this based on rough calculations:
5V / 0.02A = 250R 7V / 250R = 0.028A, but it proves the point),
however the IC may only be rated to sustain 5.5V, so it may be
damaged while only consuming 28mA. The rest of the components
in the memory stick will also be drawing additional power, but
you see that the total power draw is not increased enough to
hit the 500mA maximum if the stick normally draws, say, 100mA?

Another possibility, if you only ever use one USB port (or a group
of similarly affected ones) for testing these memory sticks, is
that a high resistance in the computer's USB socket is causing
the _socket_ to heat up, and the heat is being transferred
to the drives themselves via the USB connector. Here, not only
the heat, but also the coresponding reduced power to the memory
stick, may induce irrecoverable write errors or other failures.

unlikely.

Such failures are known to occour due to strain on solder joints
causing them to break, or joints that weren't correctly soldered
in the first place. It is a less common failure, but it's also
uncommon to consume large quantities of memory sticks.

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