Not a fire hazard but will kill the long-term reliability of your battery.
Which is a big deal for a system without a user-replaceable battery
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PSA: If you have your Switch wired via ethernet, it will warm up in the dock overnight!
- Thread starter Alvis
- Start date
Not a fire hazard but will kill the long-term reliability of your battery.
Which is a big deal for a system without a user-replaceable battery
No, I don't make this sound like anything.
The Switch warms up in the dock overnight. My title reads "it will warm up in the dock overnight". That's literally what happens. You made the fire hazard thing up
Thanks for the heads up. I bought and hooked up the Hori adapter to the 3.0 spot a couple weeks ago. The bottom right corner, near the stand, was a bit warm near the stand while in sleep mode. I've got it unplugged for now, and will check on it later. Hopefully this gets fixed soon as well as activating the 3.0 port.
Just to add my experience:
I use wireless but I plugged my switch in, using a standard USB C cable, turned it off, had it set for automatic screen turn off, placed it into a case and came back to the screen being on for ~hour. The case was warped, the air vents broke on the top. I got scared and put it in the freezer.
Not the same. I've had it fixed due to controller problems and I think they replace a lot of things.
I'm just wondering if there are flaws. Flaws that prevent it from shutting down at high temps. I've never seen that again but I triple check. I thought I would charge and protect the screen. I got mine at launch, so I wonder if the initial batches had flaws (I assume likely).
And Nintendo fixed my joy cons (which were the problem) and fixed other things. New screen (mine had a protector, got it back with no scratches, no protector), replaced sir vents. The heat even warped the console plastic so the lines were off. Now it looks brand new. Even need to buy more screen protectors.
I'm wondering why they would fix other things. Has that been a policy or are they being proactive in fixing a bunch of flaws?
I bring this all up because I wonder if we'll find other reasons it heats up.
I use wireless but I plugged my switch in, using a standard USB C cable, turned it off, had it set for automatic screen turn off, placed it into a case and came back to the screen being on for ~hour. The case was warped, the air vents broke on the top. I got scared and put it in the freezer.
Not the same. I've had it fixed due to controller problems and I think they replace a lot of things.
I'm just wondering if there are flaws. Flaws that prevent it from shutting down at high temps. I've never seen that again but I triple check. I thought I would charge and protect the screen. I got mine at launch, so I wonder if the initial batches had flaws (I assume likely).
And Nintendo fixed my joy cons (which were the problem) and fixed other things. New screen (mine had a protector, got it back with no scratches, no protector), replaced sir vents. The heat even warped the console plastic so the lines were off. Now it looks brand new. Even need to buy more screen protectors.
I'm wondering why they would fix other things. Has that been a policy or are they being proactive in fixing a bunch of flaws?
I bring this all up because I wonder if we'll find other reasons it heats up.
I didn't mean you literally said "fire hazard", just that you're making a big deal about it like it was. The device gets hot when plugged into the wall and downloading updates at a higher speed than Wi-Fi (therefore more processing is being done, ergo more heat).
Might as well make a PSA that says to never leave anything plugged up ever since it might get warm. While you're at it, you might as well tell people to never play the thing because it gets super hot when you actually play it.
This is completely unrelated. Just throw that USB C cable in the garbage bin. Only use high end USB C cables that are fully spec compliant. Google and Apple USB C cables are the best. And try to only use Nintendo branded stuff on Switch since the Switch itself isn't fully USB C compliant either...
Yeah I didn't know about this and was considering this literally today. Glad I saw this.
Those of you using Ethernet, have you found it faster than a wireless connection? I think I read somewhere that wireless was weirdly faster on Switch.
Speed's not my deciding factor in using Ethernet. It's reliability since I live in a subdivision with a lot of Wi-Fi noise and not much I can do about it. I wouldn't say there's a significant difference in speeds between wired and wireless though and it may actually be true that wireless is indeed faster, but slightly slower is better than disconnects IMO.
Update to my last post. Just felt my Switch after leaving my Hori adapter unplugged while I was out for a few hours running errands (in sleep mode). It's dead cold. It was only slightly warm near the kickstand while it was plugged in, not enough that I should feel worried, but Nintendo really should update the firmware to make it more efficient to reduce potential long term effects.
WiFi is faster (for now) since I have AC 5 GHz WiFi vs the USB 2.0 (for now) ethernet of the Switch. But it's not about download / upload speeds, it's about ping / latency. I used to play Smash Wii U competitively (well, about as competitively as my skill allows lol) and I definitely noticed the added latencty and additional stutter when using WiFI instead of wired. I even went as far as to test wired vs wireless with the same friend to make sure and yep, wifi had some stutter that just weren't present when wired.
A wired connection will always be more reliable and have sightly less latency than a wireless one. Even if you don't personally notice it.
That's the one I use (the USB 3.0 model) and yes.
Was this bug ever fixed? I plan on buying the Ethernet adapter to have less shitty online play when Smash comes out and don't want to have to unplug the cable each play session
Nope. I plugged in my ethernet the other day and it still made the Switch warm.
Once Smash launches, I'll just unplug it each time after I'm done playing. It's a pain, but I'd rather that than unnecessarily heating the console when not in use.
"warm up overnight" is a weird thing to say.
It warms up after a while. Day or night. So long as it's in the dock and the cable is connected.
It warms up after a while. Day or night. So long as it's in the dock and the cable is connected.
So I tested a different usb adapter now and it indeed warms up but , to put everyone at ease, it hardly hits 38C (around 100F) at most on the warmest parts. This really shouldn't cause any issues.
It's nuts this is still happening. Was planning getting a newer one anyway, will be sure to get it by the time Smash comes.
If you have the Hori adapter this doesn't matter. Despite using a USB 3 chip, they opted for a USB 2 cable. However:
I get ~75Mb/s down over Ethernet on my Switch and ~55Mb/s down over 5GHz Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, on my phone's wifi, I'm getting over 200Mb/s down (capping my connection speed). The Switch itself is bottlenecking speeds, and it looks like it's affecting Wi-Fi more than Ethernet. Even if they give USB 3 Ethernet drivers, I'm not sure it'd help; the same adapter I'm getting 75Mb/s with on Switch caps out my 200Mb/s connection over USB 2 on my laptop. There seems to be a software issue with the Switch.
Oh thanks for that info. Was gonna ask this thread how their ethernet speeds compare to wifi on the switch. I want to get the adapter soon because I want to ensure a good connection for online gaming.
I'd recommend making sure whatever adapter you get is either the HORI or an identical chip (AX88179). The Switch supports a different chipset (the one used in the Wii adapters), but that one isn't gigabit and I believe doesn't test to the same speeds. This reddit thread lists some compatible ones; the UGREEN one in particular seems popular over there and on here.
My launch Wii died from this kind of stuff with WiiConnect24
Man, the WiiConnect thing was something else.
For years there were reports of fried chips, disc readers no longer working and sometimes outright killing consoles.
Hopefully Nintendo fixes this issue with the Switch.
It used to be fine before the update.
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the Wii got a LOT hotter though.
the switch gets hardly any warmer than your own body.
This is the switch a moment ago sitting in it's dock this morning (it's 6.30ish am here). untouched the whole night and connected to internet via usb adapter.
34.6°C (94,28°F)
The switch out of it's dock
36,3°C (97,37°F)
it's backside:
36,8°C (98,24°F) <--- to be fair: I did measure 37.0°C(98,6°F) at one point (before I could hit the trigger)
Now these are all external measurments but, from experience, the internals don't get anymore hotter than + 5-10°C.
Once I find my (needle) probe I will test the internal temperature a whole night and report back in.
Also: Wouldn't the switch'es fan kick constantly in if the internal temp got anywhere near the "danger zone"?
not all usb adapters are affected. I have two. one stays ice cold, one heats up (see above)
I would think and hope so. thermal protection shouldn't be disabled just because you put a device in sleep mode.
The ethernet adaptor clearly keeps something going on in the background functions because I can see activity happening
having said this, I haven't had the same problem I did with my launch unit which actually bricked from overheating probably due to this glitch
having said this, I haven't had the same problem I did with my launch unit which actually bricked from overheating probably due to this glitch
It's not an issue; it's working as intended. There's nothing to fix.
As for befor the update, it's because it wasn't constantly connected to the internet, so it didn't warm up.
Launch switch, docked 24/7 with the ugreen usb 3.0 to rj45 adapter. Not a single issue.
so does USB 2.0 vs 3.0 make a difference? I use a 2.0 adapter and just checked today and it felt slightly warm. My wife's switch on WiFi was cold.
I always have mine docked and connected via Ethernet. Going to see if i'm getting the same deal when i return home. But man just hear all of the various incidents that can happen with the switch is pretty unusual overall compared to other console releases. Even though most aren't necessarily catastrophic, it's nonetheless concerning in general. Seems like a revision is more likely than usual now considering these factors.
Nah it's par for the course really. Every console has a certain % of faults and problems. Forums and social media signal boost those problems. Switch isn't any more or less riddled with issues really.
Great point. I forgot the times that we're in and how much social media can get word out on the small percentage of people that these issues affect.
The only real widespread hardware issue that I can remember is the RROD. That one truly was massive.
I never noticed if it was warming up, but my Switch won't wake up with the Pro Controller when I let the Ethernet cable connected and put it to sleep for a while. So I started connecting the Ethernet only when playing online or for big downloads. No more issues, but it sucks having to do that.
