What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Talk about non-gaming tech, old or new, right here!
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Bridget Endeavor
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What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by Bridget Endeavor »

This is a thread for ranting about hardware, big or small, that has frustrated you enough times that you just gotta frikkenrant

I'll start with a personal nemesis of mine: The Hirose U.FL antenna cable.
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This motherfucker right here.

I did hardware repair on computers, iPhones, and various other electronic devices professionally for nearly 15 years. In that time, very very few other connectors, internal or external, have proven to be more aggravating to deal with, or as consistently fragile as the Hirose U.FL.

These fuckers have been around since 1991 and much to my personal disgust, are still very commonly found in modern devices. They were designed to be space-saving and I'm sure in 1991 they were a godsend, but now? Now there's no reason we shouldn't have something better. It's been 34 years and modern electronics have evolved in a lot of ways. The constant push to make notebook computers thinner and lighter alone has spawned a lot of innovations in internal wiring, and yet here we are still using a 34 year old standard that is well known to break down after a handful of re-uses. You read that right.
They were not originally designed with re-connection in mind.
Let that sink in for a minute.

In many devices, the cable is hard-wired on one end, so if the connector on the other end wears out after a couple times(and it will), tough shit you better be good at soldering. But that's not all! Disconnecting the cable requires a fair amount of force, because the connector snaps on and holds pretty tight, and depending on the device in question, there's often minimal room to grip or pry to get it loose. If the solder holding the male end(the one on the board) is old and weakened, or just of lesser quality/subpar application, or if you're just unlucky, it's not uncommon for it to break off the board while trying to disconnect it. Once again, you'd better be good at soldering. I remind you that these have been known frustrations since 1991. In fact it's such a known problem that multiple companies sell special tools made to remove these connectors(and only these connectors) in a way that merely reduces the chance of breaking them. And yet we still use this! And there have been zero notable design improvements in all these years! Because reasons!

FUCK THESE THINGS
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I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end it doesn't even matter
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Re: What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by Enbyeon »

Modern monitors have less static protection so they keep turning off when I leave my desk. They also lose their collective minds if you turn one on and off because they only exist in Windows if they are powered on, not if they are plugged in. The result is that windows turns the other monitors on and off too trying to figure out what's happening.

FUCK modern monitors.
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Re: What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by Galuade »

Enbyeon wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 6:39 amthey only exist in Windows if they are powered on, not if they are plugged in.
This started with my current pair of displayport monitors and I HATE it, I have to leave my monitors on and rely on Windows putting them to sleep (which it sucks ass at doing, turning them back on constantly for no reason)
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Re: What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by Bridget Endeavor »

Enbyeon wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 6:39 am Modern monitors have less static protection so they keep turning off when I leave my desk. They also lose their collective minds if you turn one on and off because they only exist in Windows if they are powered on, not if they are plugged in. The result is that windows turns the other monitors on and off too trying to figure out what's happening.

FUCK modern monitors.
Agreed 100%
▬▬▬▬▬▬⋘⁜※ↈ※⁜⋙▬▬▬▬▬▬
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end it doesn't even matter
▬▬▬▬▬▬⋘⁜※ↈ※⁜⋙▬▬▬▬▬▬
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Re: What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by lopodyr »

I don't know if that qualifies as hardware, but I have been on a personal vendetta against TPE coatings.

You know the one, the "soft-touch" rubber-like coating electronics manufacturers keep using to make it feel "premium". The same coating that quickly gets gooey, sticky, greasy looking, a total dust magnet, ruining everything it's on.

It's on mice, it's on USB battery banks, it's on audio field recorders, it's on the buttons of my very expensive - and otherwise immensely durable - electronic instruments from Elektron, my Ableton Push 2 MIDI controller... it's EVERYWHERE.

It ages horribly, cannot be fixed once its decaying process starts, sucks to remove (calls for dangerous chemicals to use indoors), turns into a black tar that gets everywhere, gunks up everything it touches and messes mechanical parts up...

TPE coatings NEED to DIE. NOW. ratatatatatata
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Re: What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by ElTipejoLoco »

lopodyr wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 9:18 amI don't know if that qualifies as hardware, but I have been on a personal vendetta against TPE coatings.

You know the one, the "soft-touch" rubber-like coating electronics manufacturers keep using to make it feel "premium". The same coating that quickly gets gooey, sticky, greasy looking, a total dust magnet, ruining everything it's on.

It's on mice, it's on USB battery banks, it's on audio field recorders, it's on the buttons of my very expensive - and otherwise immensely durable - electronic instruments from Elektron, my Ableton Push 2 MIDI controller... it's EVERYWHERE.

It ages horribly, cannot be fixed once its decaying process starts, sucks to remove (calls for dangerous chemicals to use indoors), turns into a black tar that gets everywhere, gunks up everything it touches and messes mechanical parts up...

TPE coatings NEED to DIE. NOW. ratatatatatata
Oh, so that's what this ridiculous substance is called.

Yeah, no, I hate this junk as well. Honestly, I didn't think it needed help getting removed seeing how the stuff crumbles all on its own with age.
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Re: What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by lopodyr »

ElTipejoLoco wrote: Wed Jul 16, 2025 9:23 am Oh, so that's what this ridiculous substance is called.

Yeah, no, I hate this junk as well. Honestly, I didn't think it needed help getting removed seeing how the stuff crumbles all on its own with age.
You would think it would at least have the respect to fall off, but no. It turns into a goo that spreads across all surfaces, leaving skidmarks where it goes. Melting it with chemicals only makes that worse and takes lots of rubbing before you can get it fully off.
Besides, oftentimes, it's used to cover the likes of screws or clips. This means that once removed, you uncover an unwieldy surface underneath, which can make your electronics uncomfortable to use.

It is an attempt at making "forever machines" that backfires hard and makes them landfill-ticking bombs. :x We need the culture of repair, maintenance and "consumable parts", and we need it yesterday :cry:
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Re: What hardware frustrates you? (good-humored ranting encouraged)

Post by flaxenPhoenix »

Not the hardware itself, but its usage being decreased. I miss when software came on CDs, especially games. I get that the new stuff is more convenient when you can just download the game off of Steam or whatever, but there's a certain satisfaction to be had from having a nice big software library that takes up an entire bookshelf. I also feel the need to specify that I mean both the software being delivered as a CD, and also the software actually being contained on the CD. None of this "empty CD box with a download code" stuff I've been seeing lately.
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