But Is It A Firehazard?

[Wylver]

The only thing being a fire hazard is the included charger, just change that asap and you’ll be fine.

As for the other part it highly depends on what you want to do “in bed”…

It only reaches these temperatures when the cpu is pushed. Furthermore the cpu temperature is not the temperature of the tablet housing so there shouldn’t be any fire hazard. But be warned, when pushed, the tablet gets so hot that I can’t hold it in my hands, even under low load it gets quite warm.

Nope, I don’t use it in bed and don’t intend to.

If you consider doing the thermal mod just keep in mind that you are dissipating all of the processor heat outwards to the housing and it will get even warmer, so if you want to hold it it might be worse for in-bed-usage.

And yes there is a possibility to make the tablet cooler via system. Underclock the cpu and voila you have reduced performance and temperatures and gain some more battery. But why buy a strong cpu and underclock it to reduce temperatures when you can buy a cooler lower tier cpu instead?

 

So at the end of the day it all depends on what you want to do with your device.

[GA]

What makes you say that the included charger is a fire hazard?

[Tutius McFrutius]

Wylver wrote:

But be warned, when pushed, the tablet gets so hot that I can’t hold it in my hands, even under low load it gets quite warm. Nope, I don’t use it in bed and don’t intend to.

Because it’s more likely to cause a fire, or just because you can’t hold it?

Bit of a silly question, I know, but I just need to be triple-sure of safety and such.

[Wylver]

• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCndtemperatur (german wiki-site for autoignition temperature – “Baumwolle”= cotton and is stated at 450°C)
• https://www.quora.com/At-what-temperature-will-cotton-ignite (says it is around 400°C)

And keep in mind, the outer shell isn’t anywhere as warm as the cpu!

I’m pretty sure you are on the safe side as long as your tablet doesn’t shoot sparks or spews flames… Just keep in mind that you might not be able to hold it in your bare hands if it is under heavy workload.

Personally I don’t use the tablet in bed because I have better things to do when I’m in bed.

May I ask what you intend to do with it, that you are so paranoid of turning into a human matchstick? And if it bothers you that much, than why not look for a tablet that runs cooler. Do you need the performance delivered by a core m3 in bed or does an Atom cpu suffice maybe?

 

@GA: I’m sure the included charger doesn’t have any safety guards built in and an overvoltage or a power surge might fry the tablet or even worse the charger and anything around. Furthermore that little flimsy adapter for european plugs is just an accident waiting to happen.

[John Macie]

@Wylver This question from @GA about the ac adapter is good. “What makes you say that the included charger is a fire hazard?” I haven’t gotten my i7 book yet, but is the tablet ac requirement of 2.5 amps and the adapter’s 2.0 amp output the hazard? In other words, adequate 12 vols but inadequate amperage? Also, I read the threads here about charging through usb-c, and the need to have a charger with power delivery, why is this necessary, as there are 12v 2.5+ amp chargers that don’t have power delivery in the spec, but they charge macbooks etc. And would you absolutely need “power delivery” in portable power bank? Sry to @GA for hijacking his thread, but it’s good info to get.

[Wylver]

It has nothing to do with the amperage discrepancy.

Just call me paranoid but I dont trust those chinese chargers one second because I’m fairly certain they don’t include any safety guards to keep the price as low as possible since safety mechanisms also require testing and need to pass certain standards.

And for anyone that doesn’t have US plugs it is even worse since they need to use that devilish flimsy adapter they ship it with.

There is no need to go overboard and spend a lot of money on usb c charging, you might as well just replace the ac charger or just live with the included one.

 

On the topic of power delivery:

If you want to charge the tablet over usb c then you absolutely need to use a charger or power bank specified for power delivery.

Qualcomm Quickcharge and USB C Power Delivery are two totaly seperate standards and use different charging circuitry therefore it won’t work, period.

Even if the specs match, the circuitry doesn’t, simple as that.

[mrobi]

I’d say charger is most dangerous part because its the one connected to grid which is 240V atleast in Europe. With 240V AC, 30mA is fatal for humans.

Chris had measured in his review that outside top left corners heats up to 45C, I don’t think its going to make things burst into flames. And for 97C you had to disable GPU powersavings etc. To make CPU package run cooler, I’ve noticed that reducing turbo boost is pretty easy way to do it. You can do it with Intel XTU software, though I haven’t figured out how one could make it start up automatically and load customized profile.

[Tutius McFrutius]

Thanks for all the help! I’m not intending to do crazy things, rather I was just kinda paranoid and thought that hot cpu = burning house. Plus I’ve heard aome horror stories about Chinese tech before so I needed to be double sure that the tablet was good to go.

But yeah I’ll definitely replace the charger. It uses USB-C right? So I’ll be all good if I go down to my local tech shop and get myself a cable and adapter yeah?

[John Macie]

Great info, Thanks all!

[GA]

Thanks for the explanations, really appreciated! Will be plugging out my adapter and storing it somewhere out of reach as a result :).

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