I have an old 128 MB thumbdrive by Lexar and it gets hot in the newer computers but not in all computers. I'm not sure if there are different voltage requirements going through some of the newer computers.

I was searching through all of the files on my thumbdrive with a different computer which doesn't usually make it hot and it got hot after all of the searching.

I'm seeming to think that the lack of use will preserve these chips.

USB 2.0 is a higher voltage yes. Unless it gets really hot, I wouldn't worry about it.

Just make sure to use the icon by the clock on the lower right to remove the device from the system before you unplug it. Yes it does ruin USB ports when you pull USB devices from the machine while they are in use.

Does that apply to mice? Because I swap between two usb mice while in use. Will this damage my system?

Yes. USB ports or the device can and will be damaged by pulling devices while power is being applied.

However, in most cases, you are looking at a few 100 times of doing this. It is just good practice to remove it properly by stopping the device.

I run a PC shop and I see it all the time.... plus, since we are always plugging in thumb drives all day, we go though a lot of them since they die out after about 2 months.

USB devices are designed to be hot plugable. Power is not removed from the connector by using the "remove hardware" icon on windows, this merely allows the software to do any necessary cleanup for the device and helps the driver keep track of the status of the device.

The USB bus supplies 5V DC regulated power (maximum 500mA) through each port on pins 1 and 4 (pins 1 & 5 on mini-USB). These pins are longer than the data pins to ensure that the power connections mate first and un-mate last. The specification provides for no more than 5.25 V and no less than 4.35 V to be supplied to the device.

The USB spec allow for a rance of acceptable voltages supplied to the device (almost a 1 volt range) for both USB 1.1 and 2.0 so the heating differences you notice is most likely due to the system the unit was plugged into and not wether it was a USB 1.1 or 2.0 port.

http://pinouts.ws/usb-pinout.html

i know what you mean, my average thumb drive lasts 2 or so months max, lucky i always have them backed up and mine is an ocz one so it has inf lifetime warranty.

I wish you ladies could agree on the topic of removing a USB device. I know you're SUPPOSED to stop the device first, but I've never really heard any conclusive evidence that compels me to do it. The only reason I care about this topic is I saw a PC with bad USB ports for the first time last week and was curious if improperly removing a device repeatedly caused this.

Firemist has it right.

Never unplug a usb drive while writing data or it will corrupt it - common sense. As for safely removing the device, this writes any cached data to the drive. If you change the drives write policy to "optimize for quick removal", then you do not need to use the safely remove device option.

Rodney_WS

Well I have lots of experience as far as testing how long usb devices last, as well as usb ports. This is my experience, and I am reporting it. But your right, I have never seen a document stating this from extensive testing.
Maybe I should start recording my results in the shop and let you all know though a TG Article.

Newer thumbs have a lite on them to remind you when/when not to remove the thumb.

I'll stick with my PS/2 mouse/KB thank you.

@compTIA whats that: <1000 insertion cycles? Thats poor!