My SMP works better upside down

I was having an issue with my movies cutting out for a few seconds starting about halfway through the movie randomly. I thought it was bad files or software issues. I guess the problem is overheating. The unit doesn’t feel excessively warm. I noticed all the vent holes on the bottom so I flipped it over and the problem has disappeared. With the vent holes facing up, the heat can rise out of it and the cooler air can fall into it. I don’t know why it is overheating. It is sitting out in the open on top of the cabinet. I decided to post this in case other people are having similar issues. I assumed for awhile now that it was just the stutter problem everyone else has been reporting.

Hey, whatever works for you, but know that vent holes in products are at the bottom for a reason, and that is to let cool air in as heat rises from the top of device.  The device probably shudda had some vent holes at the top, but missing that, another idea is to put slightly larger “feet” on the unit to raise it up a tad more so more cool air can get in.

I know it sounds crazy but there is some truth to this, the heat holes should be on the bottom. This keeps dust out that might damage the unit. I do Agree that it should have something on the side for ventilation maybe some slits or something. I had the same issue with it freezing up or just not acting right and I have to boot the unit to get it working again. The Unit is very warm to the touch and I couldn’t believe it didn’t have a cooling fan inside so I sat it on my laptop cooling tray and that seemed to make all the difference in the world. So I went to Fry’s and bought a small USB cooling fan and mounted it under the SMP and plugged it into a powered USB hub so that it didn’t pull power from the SMP. I currently have two external drives also connected to the SMP and plugged into the USB hub so to not pull power. So far so good. The truth is it could have been designed better maybe higher feet or added a cooling fan or something.

DanBrown wrote:

I know it sounds crazy but there is some truth to this, the heat holes should be on the bottom. This keeps dust out that might damage the unit. 

I cannot see how ‘dust’ will damage a passive unit. 

Rich, the device is not “passive” – it is very much alive and active,  “electrically”.

In any electronic device, “dust” can cause problems if it accumulates too much, because 1) it could cause a short circuit, and 2) it insulates, retaining heat, thus making a heat problem even more so.   Bottom line is too much dust is not good for any electrical device.

mike27oct wrote:

Rich, the device is not “passive” – it is very much alive and active,  “electrically”.

In any electronic device, “dust” can cause problems if it accumulates too much, because 1) it could cause a short circuit, and 2) it insulates, retaining heat, thus making a heat problem even more so.   Bottom line is too much dust is not good for any electrical device.

All old CRT TV receivers have top vents and they are generally full of dust when you open the back. By passive I really meant there was no fan / moving parts to clog up. I was a TV engineer so I have seen inside a number of TV receivers.

I also have amplifiers and other electrical items with top vents and never had any real trouble with dust. The internal circuitry of TV receivers also attract the ‘tar’ from cigarettes and in a house where there is heavy smoking there is a film over the components which is sticky and attracts more dust.

If its considered that heat and dust are bad for electronic components then I would say that dust is the lesser of the two evils by a long way.

Rich, I concur with all you say.  I, too, was once upon a time an electronic technician in the USAF where I worked on large systems housed in two big trailers, (radar jamming simulator) and boy did this thing, filled with hundreds of hot vacuum tubes and transistors, have lots of cooling fans!  Big ones, and when they went out it was a dirty and all day affair to replace one.  After AF, I worked in the repair dept. of a stereo store (while back in college) where I saw my fair share of dirty and dusty components!  Some people can be very slobby about the care of their equipment.  I repaired some of the dirtiest turntables ever seen, so no wonder they did not work!  After college, I left the ET career behind and went into marketing for 30 years, but my years of troubleshooting and repair served me well to this day.

Gentlemen, I have also worked in the field of electronics I was  Network Operations Technician for more than 25 years and I have installed and maintained several hundred servers in a A/C environment, while all servers have cooling fans they also have circuit boards that do heat up and sometimes they get to the point of no return and cause failure to the component, I was simply stating that even though I keep my equipment clean this is still an issue if not properly ventilated. If my idea helps a fellow user than that’s great, if not, no harm done. In my desktop PC I have as some would say “Overdone” the cooling issue with 7 fans, but I never had an issue with heat.    

Dan,  I really don’t think anyone was differing with you about heat.  Rich and I know one another pretty well here at the forums, and we were just trading info with one another; technical and personal.

For all you guys, for what it’s worth, I keep my gadets from heat and dust as is practical.  I have a Live Plus, it doesn’t get as hot as the SMP seems to get.  I hope the designers at WD got the message about the SMP’s heat and don’t make the same mistake again… 

I have a large cabinet for all the electo-gear, and my Roku and Live Plus sit atop the Comcast box (STB) inside the cabinet.  Since the box has vent holes fully covering the top and bottom, it is easy to feel where the heat is and is not.  My gadgets on the box sit over the cooler area.  They are warm, but not hot, and get vented with all the holes of the STB under them.

BTW, using cheapo laptop USB-powered coolers is an idea I also use for some things.

OK, enough of discussing this serious stuff about operating an SMP upside down.  Time for some fun. . . . 

For all the ex-TV and stereo repair people on here now, and who may visit this thread in the future, here is a little trip back to Memory Lane and the early days of TV.

OK, here’s a short video that tells why we should buy this 1950 TV.  It sounds like one of the commercials of today, “…it’s just like being there in person…”   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIfQcY988hw

If you were a repairman, you might like this one from 1953, too. (Issues with electronic gadgets is an age old problem.).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA5ADIQkZbk

TV was ready to rollout to the world by the end of the 1930’s, but then a big problem occurred called WW2 which delayed the launch of the new industry.  Here’s the story of the beginnings of TV as told in a 1939 short.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HW_SspGLt0

OK, 1945, war over, and every returning GI needed a job, so here’s a motivational video about getting a job in the new TV industry.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-o31mcunSs

Not wanting to leave out HiFi/Stereo fans, so here is a look at the new RCA stereo record player. (Bring your own left speaker!)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHoAcM-LDcE

OK, enough of this, but if you want more, I found all these as well as old automobile commercials, etc. at this YouTube channel:   http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbA1oKrikHk9EVTtpbNMqEg