On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:04:20 -0600, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

>Peter Jason wrote:
>
>> I use mine a lot and they heat up quite a bit in the hot weather
>
>USB thumb drive = USB-connected flash drive (solid-state storage device)
>
>Flash is memory. Why is yours getting so hot?
>
>Max current through USB port: 1/2A
>Voltage from USB port: 5V
>
>That means max power consumption for any USB-powered device, like a
>thumb drive, is . From the CiteSeer article on USB drives at
>http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc...=rep1&type=pdf,
>the worse case for power consumption in Figure 1 is SanDisk 4GB at close
>to 80mA. Well, with 5V for source voltage from the USB port, that's a
>mere 0.4W but a hefty portion is for the large bright LED indicator.
>
>Remember that without the LED indicator and with a different layout,
>these same flash devices are used as memory cards that slide into
>digital cameras where the card is totally encased and there is no air
>circulation. Power consumption is so low that it's rare to find it
>mentioned in the maker's specs for their products. That's because they
>don't expect the product to be under continual use (i.e., constant use
>with no rest phase). Despite Microsoft adding ReadyBoost to Windows
>Vista+ (a dumb decision since oxide stress and consumption of reserve
>space for masking bad sectors will eventually make a flash drive
>catastrophically fail which means data corruption from loss of memory),
>it is expected that you occasionally use the flash drive. Although
>power consumption is low, continual use can drive up the temperature.
>
>http://blog.premiumusb.com/2011/02/w...drive-get-hot/
>http://blog.premiumusb.com/2011/03/h...ash-drive-get/
>
>Can USB thumb drives be air cooled? Yes, they always are. They are
>designed for convection cooling using the air around the device. Maybe
>you meant to increase air movement beyond normal convection by using a
>fan to up the air flow rate around the device. You can always point a
>fan at any device that is generating heat to blow cooler air over it and
>improve the convection rate.
>
>Here ya go:
>http://www.tradeeasy.com/supplier/16...table-fan.html
>http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=%2Busb+%2Bfan

Will wonders never cease? Instead of buying one of these gizmos I'll
set up a hub just before or after one of the HDD fans so that this
will do the job. Also, I notice some thumb drives produce less heat
than others.