Cruzer Ultra CZ48 OVERHEATING, Slow, No disk activity LED!

Last year, i bought a Sandisk Cruzer Ultra CZ48 16GB and was very impressed with it. It had really good read/write speeds, and had a nifty LED Indicator to indicate disk activity. It runs quite cool even under heavy loads (not uncomfortable to touch)

TODAY, I bought a NEW Sandisk Cruzer Ultra CZ48 32GB and i am really disappointed by it. Here are the 3 problems with it:

  1. By logic, a 32GB should offer at least the same performance as the 16GB one, right? WRONG. This new 32GB Drive runs Slower than my 16GB CZ48! (Yes, both of my thumbdrives are sold under the same model number. The write speed on this new 32GB one is HORRENDOUSLY SLOW. Read speeds are between 10-20% lower than the old16GB CZ48)

  2. Where’s my disk activity LED?! My new 32GB thumbdrive has NO LED INDICATOR at all! Compare this to my 16GB drive (same model), and it has a disk activity (orange) LED! But that’s not all! 

  3. OVERHEATING. This NEW 32GB usb drive runs very, very hot! When plugged in and not even in use, once i eject and plug out the thumbdrive, i realize the metal USB Ports are very hot! (70 degrees celsius and above i think). My 16GB one does not heat up so crazily like that! I fear this kind of heat would 1) kill the NAND memory in the drive quickly and 2) Spoil my laptop USB port! NONE of my other thumdrives heat up so much (e.g. sony, toshiba, imation, etc)

Totally disappointed with the new Sandisk Ultra CZ48 32GB that i bought. :confounded:

Model number: SDCZ48-032G

Anyone else have this issue?

Sandisk, will you also help to advice on this?

If you’re unhappy with it, for whatever reason, return it.  Either to where you bought it or to SanDisk.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5232/~/return-material-authorization-(rma)-process

heh. I wished it was that easy. The store that i bought this from does not support returns of product. I have to go through some official distributor to return this product, and i don’t think i can swop for another model or unit, unless this one breaks. But Thanks anyways.

The purpose of this thread was to ask: Anyone else with such a drive model with the same issues? 

This is already a possible issue with the hardware. I’d suggest to ask for a replacement from the store where you bought this from.

Yap…I was considering this could be a hardware issue…But first, just to make sure i don’t make a wasted trip to my sandisk authorized distributor for exchange, i want to double confirm with: Sandisk, are the above symptoms i mentioned in my first post normal in any case?

Thanks! 

same here, i bought 64 GB SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0, i just plugged-in only (both PC and my Android phone), not doing anything, then it gets very hot. Do you solution for this, @dromedary? i am afraid that i bought defect product. Can we get replacement for it? If you have, please share your solution.

thank you and best regards,
Gunawan Agung