Piss poor overpriced consumer goods - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 07:53:30 pm
content: Here's my latest gripe : A laptop cooling pad with a USB hub decided it's fans packed up 1 day after anotherIN A YEAR.Here's the story,this was given to me by a friend, well actually it costed around 30 bucks so it was pretty expensive (Well let's just say he got cheated ...)On monday the right fan bearings were shot, so it kept on turning left and right (Control electronics trying to get it to spin)And now another shot bearing... These two fans were hardly ever in operationI had enough of all these shits, 3 cooling pads gone in two years

author: Jimmy the Squid
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 08:57:40 pm
content: You've got it apart already, why not just replace the fans? I'm more of a computer guy than an electronics guy, but I've always got several 80mm case fans lying around. Even if you had to buy them, you could buy a couple for pretty small change, and have that pad running better than new for $5.00

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 09:10:13 pm
content: I tried to use one and it didn't seem to cool my laptop down much.Some laptops are poorly designed and overheat, if so they need to be replaced by the manufacturer. Mine does not, though it does not have much graphics processing power. My old Dell laptop idled at 65°C on the GPU and throttled back at 100°C - the GPU was far too powerful...

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 09:51:17 pm
content: I normally take these and place a drop of oil on the bearing, then close it up again. Lasts another year then........Those fans are cheap enough though to buy new ones and place them in.

author: Fallingwater
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 11:54:23 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on September 19, 2012, 09:51:17 pmThis is a very wise thing to do for all supercheap fanned products like that. Do it even before it starts buzzing, so as to insure a decent life for the fans.

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 12:07:47 am
content: If there was somehow a worldwide snap ban of cooling fans for electronic parts for new circuits, efficiency of electronic circuits and parts and gadgets would go through the roof within a week.No more noisy fans! Ever. I can dream can't I?Fans to me just seem like someone cheated.

author: Pentium100
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 01:57:37 am
content: Quote from: Ed.Kloonk on September 20, 2012, 12:07:47 amWell, you can bun fanless equipment even now. There are small laptops that do no use fans (my Viliv N5 does not have a fan because it does not use a lot of power - the power supply is 15W and manages to charge the battery too), a lot of other equipment does not use them, however, I prefer equipment with fans, even though they need cleaning some times. It is not very fast though. I'll be building a HTPC soon, it most likely will also be silent (except for the hard drive) but not very powerful, it will also not be on 24/7, so it does not matter if it's a bit hotter.I have three USPs - APC Smart-UPS 650VA, 700VA and 2200VA. The biggest one has a fan, but that fan is only on when the batteries are charging or discharging. 650 does not even have ventilation holes. The result is that they become very hot (650 does not have an internal thermometer, but the 700 is usually at 50C and the 2200 is at 40C), heat vastly shortens the life of the batteries (a good battery is rated for 12 years at 25C and 1 year at 50C), so I would prefer if all these USPs had fans and stayed at just above the room temperature (which can be up to 40C in the summer). Batteries are very expensive so if I can make them last longer, I'll save money.Next time I replace the batteries, I'll probably attach a thermostat to the 2200's fan and a fan to the 700. The 650 will need more modification (adding ventilation holes).Capacitor life is also shortened at high temperature. So yes, I prefer some noise instead of overheating equipment.

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 02:21:26 am
content: Go dig up my delightful rant/review about a certain UPS right under my feet that makes a passenger jet seem silent.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 05:06:12 am
content: Quote from: Jimmy the Squid on September 19, 2012, 08:57:40 pm70mm 5V fans, good luck finding those, i'm buying a 5$ pad that has 2 of those to salvage themQuote from: tom66 on September 19, 2012, 09:10:13 pmMy one has a fair bit of grunt and only chews 7W at full load but it's unbelievable how hot fujitsu made it ... the heatsinking is awful

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 11:16:29 am
content: Quote from: SeanB on September 19, 2012, 09:51:17 pmYeah! Saved that way tons of fans. And they last much longer than just another year. I would bet that the bearing of most El Cheapo fans never saw any oil in the production (increasing revenue as always).

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 11:45:19 am
content: I'm not sure those cooling pads are any use except to get people who want to put laptops on their laps with underside vents to buy something instead of just resting the laptop on a board.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 02:02:42 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on September 20, 2012, 11:45:19 amDurr... Most of them have vents, i haven't seen one without one

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 02:09:02 pm
content: this is why i hate laptops with a few cm wide cooling outlet. they will definenatly overheat even without using its full potentional. its a nice idea to make it slim and powerful at the same time but ffs why sacrefice battery life or cooling capacity? i know built in obsolence. these wont last too long. i have an asus rog laptop (g73) it has seperate wide thick vents for cooling the thing down cpu runs around 60 celsius at full load gpu around 80 imagine if it would be a single fan solution with shared cooler and the fans are almost silent at full load the thing takes 150watts. same goes for the alienware laptops m18x even has 3 separated coolers due to dual gpu. i dont get it why the casual laptops need such a shit cooling design and yet needs to be packed with high end mobile cpu+gpu guranteed failure...

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 03:47:51 pm
content: I took my UPS and removed the batteries. Runs a lot cooler, and i added a much bigger battery (36AH bike battery) that gives a much better run time, at the expense of taking a week to charge.Not a lot of OHL UPS units are not isolated battery wise, so you may have a problem there, but mine is an old unit that has isolation. I used 4mm cable to connect to the wiring inside, with crimped and soldere joints inside and crimped and soldered lugs outside to the battery

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 04:33:33 pm
content: Quote from: T4P on September 20, 2012, 02:02:42 pmDurr... the well designed one have the vent in the top !

author: jerry507
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 04:39:08 pm
content: My wife has a laptop board with two little swing up props that does the job well enough. No fans at all. I've actually tried placing my laptop on a mesh grate and running a fan next to it so air is passing over both top and bottom. It makes little difference, so I'm not one that believes in these laptop coolers.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 06:50:27 pm
content: They are only good in one aspect : They only work if your laptop has a small vent - aka, i might as well say your laptop is done for! Like almost restricted or something and yes i have had my brushes with low power but EXTREMELY hot laptops12" Quite heavy for it's size but yes it's hot as hell ... it's unbelievable (broke every 3 months)

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 08:05:20 pm
content: Got called to a faulty computer today, complained it turned itself off. Not the usual problem of the operator pressing the power button on the keyboard by pushing it into the monitor ( the usual) but actually it was doing a thermal shutdown. Not much dust inside, I cleaned it last month and removed a whole load, but dried up heatsink compound on the CPU heatsink. During setup monitor screen the CPU was going up by 1C every 2 seconds, even with the fan running ( and not being shown in the box even though it is a monitored fan) and in the time it took to get there it was at over 80C. Heatsink off and clean off the old gunge, and a thin smear of grease back on and clip together again. Still hot ( P4 first gen unit, and the motherboard has a little issue of OHL caps as well) but it runs as well as it did. Still spends 99.999999999999999% of the time doing nothing in an idle loop, most taxing task is Sol...............