GameStick $17/$20 (in store/online) at Gamestop

zebular said:
First things first, stop everything that you are doing right now and get Ad Block. Then you wait the 5secs and click continue in the upper right hand corner. Here's the direct link but I don't want you using it until you get ad block because it blows my mind that anyone doesn't already have it installed on their web browser lol.
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=95747613655043085
Click to expand...
ok got ad block! got the file. now what is my next step? just reflash it the same as the previous file or do I keep the previous flash and flash over it with this? I am an idiot.

I also had another stick that doesn;t have sound for some reason.....might return that one.

 
Squall280 said:
ok got ad block! got the file. now what is my next step? just reflash it the same as the previous file or do I keep the previous flash and flash over it with this? I am an idiot.

I also had another stick that doesn;t have sound for some reason.....might return that one.
Click to expand...
I don't have a dock to test but people have said you don't have to reflash and can just flash that as an update through the recovery menu without doing the wipes. If that doesn't work then yeah, guess you'll have to wipe and reflash.

 
So ready for some kernel access and to put this thing through hell...
20150122_000208.jpg


 
So thanks to whoever posted about the K400. FYI the pc/power button seems to work to turn the stick off without unplugging it. Also I think I forgot to say thank you to the OP. The gamestick is awesome!

 
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zebular said:
So ready for some kernel access and to put this thing through hell...
20150122_000208.jpg
Click to expand...
HAHAHAHAHAHA

You are the man :rofl:

I have to ask though - couldn't you have cleaned up those cuts a little? lol

As for people talking about the dock - is that ANY chance the dock fan is necessary because the gamestick is ENCLOSED in the dock, as opposed to being open-air without the dock? I am thinking the fan doesn't do much better than leaving the stick out in the open.

Maybe I'm totally wrong? DISCUSS!!!

SECOND - I installed HappyChick (I have it on a JXD 7800, and it's pretty good). On the Gamestick, it runs FAR better than I expected. Some of the emulators I tried from the Play Store were very laggy (even NES emus). I ran Ikaruga for Dreamcast through HappyChick and even that was playable (some slowdown, but it looked fantastic!). I tried Spiderman on the N64 and it wasn't great, but again - playable.

Contra on NES was great, Super Mario 3 on NES was great, some GBA game (forget which one) ran pretty good too.

I'm still not convinced this is going to replace by modded Xbox (sweet frontend w/ EmuXtras, videos, screen shots, plus the ability to use S-Video for older TV's) or the Ouya (Quad Core Tegra is much better than what the Gamestick runs on), but this is pretty great for the portability and price.

I am thinking about using the Xbox for older stuff and the Ouya for N64/PSX/DC, and just leaving the old Gamestick for easy XBMC on my second TV.

 
BigBizzee said:
HAHAHAHAHAHA

You are the man :rofl:

I have to ask though - couldn't you have cleaned up those cuts a little? lol

As for people talking about the dock - is that ANY chance the dock fan is necessary because the gamestick is ENCLOSED in the dock, as opposed to being open-air without the dock? I am thinking the fan doesn't do much better than leaving the stick out in the open.

Maybe I'm totally wrong? DISCUSS!!!

SECOND - I installed HappyChick (I have it on a JXD 7800, and it's pretty good). On the Gamestick, it runs FAR better than I expected. Some of the emulators I tried from the Play Store were very laggy (even NES emus). I ran Ikaruga for Dreamcast through HappyChick and even that was playable (some slowdown, but it looked fantastic!). I tried Spiderman on the N64 and it wasn't great, but again - playable.

Contra on NES was great, Super Mario 3 on NES was great, some GBA game (forget which one) ran pretty good too.

I'm still not convinced this is going to replace by modded Xbox (sweet frontend w/ EmuXtras, videos, screen shots, plus the ability to use S-Video for older TV's) or the Ouya (Quad Core Tegra is much better than what the Gamestick runs on), but this is pretty great for the portability and price.

I am thinking about using the Xbox for older stuff and the Ouya for N64/PSX/DC, and just leaving the old Gamestick for easy XBMC on my second TV.
Click to expand...
Trust me, I would to have loved to use a dremel but I have a serious lack of tools here. Exacto knife wouldn't cut through it (that plastic is thicker than it looks), so I went to town with a drill and wire cutters lol.

The standard cooling on it consists of a thermal pad (like you would find on a 360 ram chip) connected to a piece of foil. As shitty as this looks, this should be far cooler.

Might throw one of these on it too for shits and giggles:
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556102687.html

 
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zebular said:
Trust me, I would to have loved to use a dremel but I have a serious lack of tools here. Exacto knife wouldn't cut through it (that plastic is thicker than it looks, so I went to town with a drill and wire cutters lol.

The standard cooling on it consists of a thermal pad (like you would find on a 360 ram chip) connected to a piece of foil. As shitty as this looks, this should be far cooler.
Click to expand...
i noticed the foil yesterday when i popped mine open... wonder if it's the cause of crappy wifi?

 
I finally got the happychick app working smoothly. I played smb3, super mario world, it played flawlessly. I then tried Marvel vs Street fighter and it ran beautiful. N64 games are slow and not really that playable. I didnt attempt to try  a DC game. I would love to get Marvel vs Capcom 2 running on it but i know its going to play slow. Also cool tip you can put roms into the happychick rom folders and they will show up in the app. This stick would make for a close to perfect arcade when paired with a couple fightsticks. 

 
omargm said:
I'm sorry to ask again but i am using Kodi and i cant put the movies on full screen. Can someone show me how to do it please?. I am moving all the options but i just cant do it.
Click to expand...
Just to add my $0.02 on this so others can benefit from the info...

SPMC and Kodi (14.0) are both set to 720p out of the box, and I can't seem to change it in the Video Output menu (grayed out).

YouTube works fine full-screen in Kodi, but Genesis has part of the picture cut-off; seems like it's trying to display 1080p video on a 720p screen. SportsDevil seemed to display fine, so maybe it's specific to Genesis.

Switching to SPMC Genesis works fine, so I'm sticking with that for now.

Am I missing anything here?

zebular said:
So ready for some kernel access and to put this thing through hell...
20150122_000208.jpg
Click to expand...
Does this mean you've figured out kernel access?!?!? :whee:

BTW, that pic will work great as a template on where to cut; keep us posted! :)

Finally, what heatsinks are you using? They look to be perfectly sized (unless you cut them down yourself :p)

Stimes said:
So thanks to whoever posted about the K400. FYI the pc/power button seems to work to turn the stick off without unplugging it. Also I think I forgot to say thank you to the OP. The gamestick is awesome!
Click to expand...
Yup! It feels nice to turn it off.

dizturbed19 said:
I want to watch some hockey can anyone recommend some good add ons on kodi for tsn, cbc, ahl games, ohl, qmjhl, and khl games??
Click to expand...
I'm still researching this myself, but I installed SportsDevil last night and it seems to have a number of streams; here's the guide I followed:

https://seo-michael.co.uk/how-to-manually-install-sportsdevil-on-xbmc/

Looking through the Addon Installer, I did see some specific sports streams; might be worth a look.

Install fusion, then Addon:

http://www.tvaddons.ag/fusion-installer-kodi/

http://www.tvaddons.ag/addon-installer-kodi/

 
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xeroblade said:
I finally got the happychick app working smoothly. I played smb3, super mario world, it played flawlessly. I then tried Marvel vs Street fighter and it ran beautiful. N64 games are slow and not really that playable. I didnt attempt to try a DC game. I would love to get Marvel vs Capcom 2 running on it but i know its going to play slow. Also cool tip you can put roms into the happychick rom folders and they will show up in the app. This stick would make for a close to perfect arcade when paired with a couple fightsticks.
Click to expand...
Yep, I've had my MK tournament stick for xbox 360 hooked up to it and played some mame.

 
yellowsnow4free said:
Just to add my $0.02 on this so others can benefit from the info...

SPMC and Kodi (14.0) are both set to 720p out of the box, and I can't seem to change it in the Video Output menu (grayed out).

YouTube works fine full-screen in Kodi, but Genesis has part of the picture cut-off; seems like it's trying to display 1080p video on a 720p screen. SportsDevil seemed to display fine, so maybe it's specific to Genesis.

Switching to SPMC Genesis works fine, so I'm sticking with that for now.

Am I missing anything here?
Click to expand...
Yeah, 1080p movies actually play in 1080p but for whatever reason (xbmc,spmc,kodi) say it will only output to 720p. I'm not 100% sure why but when you watch a 1080p movie in SPMC it is indeed playing at 1080p.

 
zebular said:
Yeah, 1080p movies actually play in 1080p but for whatever reason (xbmc,spmc,kodi) say it will only output to 720p. I'm not 100% sure why but when you watch a 1080p movie in SPMC it is indeed playing at 1080p.
Click to expand...
Weird.

Well, at least SPMC will get the job done until Kodi is updated :)

Just to double-check, both SPMC and Kodi are set to 1280x720 (720p) by default, right? And is it grayed out for everyone like it is for me?

 
yellowsnow4free said:
Weird.

Well, at least SPMC will get the job done until Kodi is updated :)

Just to double-check, both SPMC and Kodi are set to 1280x720 (720p) by default, right? And is it grayed out for everyone like it is for me?
Click to expand...
Yep. Just make sure your overall Android display is set to 1080p and SPMC will actually play them in native resolution.

 
I still can't seem to get local 720p mkv files to stream to the gamestick without buffering every 30 seconds or so. Has anyone else tried to stream Hd mkv files to the gamestick? I tried Kodi, TVMC and SPMC and i get the same results. Any help?

 
What controllers are all of you using for HappyChick or other Emulators? Looking for a good wireless one to buy/use.

 
BigBizzee said:
As for people talking about the dock - is that ANY chance the dock fan is necessary because the GameStick is ENCLOSED in the dock, as opposed to being open-air without the dock? I am thinking the fan doesn't do much better than leaving the stick out in the open.

Maybe I'm totally wrong? DISCUSS!!!
Click to expand...
I'm in for a GameStick dock discussion.

I'd be tempted to pick one up if there was one at a nearby GameStop, but there wasn't.

It does have some cool features; mainly ethernet, USB, and SD card slots. Didn't know about the fan, but I've heard people say it's pretty loud. As for the controller charger, I don't think it's worth it, as I haven't even used my GameStick controller yet :p

Yeah, having the GameStick enclosed seems like a bad idea.

If any of the features are appealing, it's probably worth the GameStop price ($5 or less?). Mainly it would be nice for ethernet, although I wouldn't be surprised if you can accomplish that with an OTG cable and a USB to ethernet adapter; I know you can do it on rooted Android phones.

Personally, the dock kills the portability of the console; I love having it connected to my TV with no wires or boxes seen on it, and the WiFi works well enough for me (haven't tried a speedtest though).

If cooling is your concern, I'd try to get my hands on a couple 25mm fans. I read online that the GameStick dimensions are 78 x 27 x 11mm, which should make 1 or 2 25mm fans on it a perfect fit :)

 
xeroblade said:
I still can't seem to get local 720p mkv files to stream to the gamestick without buffering every 30 seconds or so. Has anyone else tried to stream Hd mkv files to the gamestick? I tried Kodi, TVMC and SPMC and i get the same results. Any help?
Click to expand...
Never streamed locally, only have used 1080p mkvs off a micro sd and 1080p streams in genesis.

 
yellowsnow4free said:
I'm in for a GameStick dock discussion.

I'd be tempted to pick one up if there was one at a nearby GameStop, but there wasn't.

It does have some cool features; mainly ethernet, USB, and SD card slots. Didn't know about the fan, but I've heard people say it's pretty loud. As for the controller charger, I don't think it's worth it, as I haven't even used my GameStick controller yet :p

Yeah, having the GameStick enclosed seems like a bad idea.

If any of the features are appealing, it's probably worth the GameStop price ($5 or less?). Mainly it would be nice for ethernet, although I wouldn't be surprised if you can accomplish that with an OTG cable and a USB to ethernet adapter; I know you can do it on rooted Android phones.

Personally, the dock kills the portability of the console; I love having it connected to my TV with no wires or boxes seen on it, and the WiFi works well enough for me (haven't tried a speedtest though).

If cooling is your concern, I'd try to get my hands on a couple 25mm fans. I read online that the GameStick dimensions are 78 x 27 x 11mm, which should make 1 or 2 25mm fans on it a perfect fit :)
Click to expand...
Another option is a cheap wifi repeater. I went from 5mbps to a constant 65mbps.

But yes, portability is the main draw. Seriously, pretty slick to have a capable device that you can do a ton of actions (office apps, movies, games) that will attach to a keychain lol.

 
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zebular said:
Never streamed locally, only have used 1080p mkvs off a micro sd and 1080p streams in genesis.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Yea I can easily run 1080p streams in genesis but I guess i just don't get why it wont stream little 720p mkv files from my pc. Does the 1080p mkv off a micro sd work flawlessly?

 
Side loaded HappyChick last night and I am far from a happy...dude. Kept saying I had no network connection when i clearly did, am I doing something wrong?  :wall:

 
wilkix said:
Side loaded HappyChick last night and I am far from a happy...dude. Kept saying I had no network connection when i clearly did, am I doing something wrong? :wall:
Click to expand...
Happy Chick goes down a lot... Makes sense since it's China based and I'm sure there's a ton of people using it to download isos.

 
[quote name="xeroblade" post="12433041" timestamp="1421949312"]I still can't seem to get local 720p mkv files to stream to the gamestick without buffering every 30 seconds or so. Has anyone else tried to stream Hd mkv files to the gamestick? I tried Kodi, TVMC and SPMC and i get the same results. Any help?[/quote]
Are you on wifi or Ethernet? If I tried to stream 720/1080p mkv files over wifi, I would get buffer issues. Also I got better results using MX Player for streaming local mkv files. I simply use ES Explorer to access the files and play it with MX Player.
 
Casan0va said:
Are you on wifi or Ethernet? If I tried to stream 720/1080p mkv files over wifi, I would get buffer issues. Also I got better results using MX Player for streaming local mkv files. I simply use ES Explorer to access the files and play it with MX Player.
Click to expand...
I am on wifi and i did try Ethernet and I still had buffer issues. I will try MX Player later tonight thank you.

 
So probably a stupid question but I asked before with no reply, does anyone know how to add your favourite tv shows to "my genesis" so I don't have to search for them every time?
 
yellowsnow4free said:
snip

Personally, the dock kills the portability of the console; I love having it connected to my TV with no wires or boxes seen on it, and the WiFi works well enough for me (haven't tried a speedtest though).

snip
Click to expand...
I have my dock hooked up with ethernet and my k400/wired xbox controller but I think I am going to get a micro cable that will allow me to easily connect and remove the stick from the dock without taking it apart.

A micro-b male/female extension cable maybe? Connect one end inside the dock and leave the other end free for when I want to hook the stick up for dock features.

 
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Stimes said:
So probably a stupid question but I asked before with no reply, does anyone know how to add your favourite tv shows to "my genesis" so I don't have to search for them every time?
Click to expand...
Hold down click on tv show and add to favorites, alternatively you can hit the (what would be square button on a ps3 gamepad) and select add to favorites. They will be listed under your "My Genesis" tab or if you are using another add-on they will have a separate favorites list.

 
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So I've modified the dock to run the internal fan silently (or close to it). Watched a few shows and everything worked fine. I couldn't find my thermalcouple attachment for my multimeter, so I couldn't monitor the temperature in realtime.

Background: The stock cooling setup is pretty basic. There is a sensor (thermalcouple) in the dock underneath where the stick is inserted. When it gets hot enough, the fan will kick on full blast for exactly 2 minutes and turn back off until the temperature goes up again. The fan itself runs at 12V and 200mA, thus if the voltage is lowered, it will run at a lower rpm. Lucky for us, there are plenty of 5V sources in the dock (usb ports, wireless controller charger, etc).

For this mod, I chose to run the fan constantly and connected it directly to wireless controller charger portion of the board. The fan runs at a soft whir (about the same level as my dvr) and keeps the stick cool enough that the signal to normally turn on the fan never activated. No more annoyingly loud fan noise to ruin a movie.

I'm on mobile right now, but can post a tutorial later if there is enough interest. Note that soldering is involved.
 
Palinn said:
I have my dock hooked up with ethernet and my k400/wired xbox controller but I think I am going to get a micro cable that will allow me to easily connect and remove the stick from the dock without taking it apart.

A micro-b male/female extension cable maybe? Connect one end inside the dock and leave the other end free for when I want to hook the stick up for dock features.
Click to expand...
Yeah, a micro USB extension cable is what you're looking for.

Here's a page I found that might be useful to you:

http://www.hunterdavis.com/2014/08/22/gamestick-dock-hacking/

nm3th said:
So I've modified the dock to run the internal fan silently (or close to it). Watched a few shows and everything worked fine. I couldn't find my thermalcouple attachment for my multimeter, so I couldn't monitor the temperature in realtime.

Background: The stock cooling setup is pretty basic. There is a sensor (thermalcouple) in the dock underneath where the stick is inserted. When it gets hot enough, the fan will kick on full blast for exactly 2 minutes and turn back off until the temperature goes up again. The fan itself runs at 12V and 200mA, thus if the voltage is lowered, it will run at a lower rpm. Lucky for us, there are plenty of 5V sources in the dock (usb ports, wireless controller charger, etc).

For this mod, I chose to run the fan constantly and connected it directly to wireless controller charger portion of the board. The fan runs at a soft whir (about the same level as my dvr) and keeps the stick cool enough that the signal to normally turn on the fan never activated. No more annoyingly loud fan noise to ruin a movie.

I'm on mobile right now, but can post a tutorial later if there is enough interest. Note that soldering is involved.
Click to expand...
Nice idea! :)

I'm interested in seeing a tutorial, but it's only out of curiosity; I don't have a GameStick dock :p

 
How do I format a USB to be able to write to it? I tried exFAT and that did not work, anyone have a tutorial or instructions? TIA

Need more room for all these ROMs, Happy Chick Emulator is pretty sweet.

 
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Blade3D said:
How do I format a USB to be able to write to it? I tried exFAT and that did not work, anyone have a tutorial or instructions? TIA

Need more room for all these ROMs, Happy Chick Emulator is pretty sweet.
Click to expand...
Mine's formatted to NTFS and gets mounted as sd1 (sd0 is your internal memory, ext sd is the external micro sd card). If it isn't showing up as mounted I'm guessing you are probably using a self powered usb drive and it can't pull enough power from the Y splitter to power it correctly (just because the on light comes on doesn't mean it's getting enough power).

 
You can still use a self powered external hdd but you will need a powered usb hub.
 

 
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nm3th said:
So I've modified the dock to run the internal fan silently (or close to it). Watched a few shows and everything worked fine. I couldn't find my thermalcouple attachment for my multimeter, so I couldn't monitor the temperature in realtime.

Background: The stock cooling setup is pretty basic. There is a sensor (thermalcouple) in the dock underneath where the stick is inserted. When it gets hot enough, the fan will kick on full blast for exactly 2 minutes and turn back off until the temperature goes up again. The fan itself runs at 12V and 200mA, thus if the voltage is lowered, it will run at a lower rpm. Lucky for us, there are plenty of 5V sources in the dock (usb ports, wireless controller charger, etc).

For this mod, I chose to run the fan constantly and connected it directly to wireless controller charger portion of the board. The fan runs at a soft whir (about the same level as my dvr) and keeps the stick cool enough that the signal to normally turn on the fan never activated. No more annoyingly loud fan noise to ruin a movie.

I'm on mobile right now, but can post a tutorial later if there is enough interest. Note that soldering is involved.
Click to expand...
Shoot me a pic if you don't mind. I don't have a dock but that sounds easy enough, should only be a 2 point solder job. Going to see if I can do the same with the stick itself with a mounted fan, I have an obsession with making this thing run as fast/cool without an AC plug involved.

Shockingly my tv has been able to power the stick, a self powered usb drive and wired mouse all at the same time and without any crashing using this:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-4-Port-High-Speed-USB/dp/B002FFT8Z6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1421956915&sr=8-6&keywords=usb+splitter

 
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zebular said:
20150120_184437.jpg
20150120_184425.jpg
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zebular said:
20150122_000208.jpg
Click to expand...
zebular said:
Going to see if I can do the same with the stick itself with a mounted fan, I have an obsession with making this thing run as fast/cool without an AC plug involved.
Click to expand...
I too am thinking about adding a fan to the GameStick (although I'm not ready to cut mine up yet).

Going by the pics above, I should attach the fan to the side you mounted your heatsinks on, correct?

Should the fan blow air into the GameStick or away from it?

I've got an idea to use a USB powered fan from a laptop cooler, zip ties, and the HDMI extension cable that came with the GameStick :)

 
yellowsnow4free said:
I too am thinking about adding a fan to the GameStick (although I'm not ready to cut mine up yet).

Going by the pics above, I should attach the fan to the side you mounted your heatsinks on, correct?

Should the fan blow air into the GameStick or away from it?

I've got an idea to use a USB powered fan from a laptop cooler, zip ties, and the HDMI extension cable that came with the GameStick :)
Click to expand...
I have 3 sticks so I'm all about hacking around on them haha. Yeah I would say mount in on the top side blowing in.

 
zebular said:
Mine's formatted to NTFS and gets mounted as sd1 (sd0 is your internal memory, ext sd is the external micro sd card). If it isn't showing up as mounted I'm guessing you are probably using a self powered usb drive and it can't pull enough power from the Y splitter to power it correctly (just because the on light comes on doesn't mean it's getting enough power).
Click to expand...
I'm using the back USB port on the hub. When I go to system, and check the usage on drives it is grayed out but appears in the list. I'll double check when I get home from work.

 
I'm away from my unit right now, but I can do a quick write-up using pics from the FCC filing. Note, I am not responsible for any damage to your devices.

Step 1: Remove the rubber feet and 4 phillips screws
[attachment=11379:1.JPG]

My dock (board) looks to be a slightly newer revision, but for our purpose, the tutorial is all the same.

Step 2: Remove 2 phillips screw circled in blue. Blue arrow shows the location of the thermalcouple. V+ and V- shows where the fan is going to be wired to.
[attachment=11385:2a.JPG]

Step 3: Disconnect the fan from the board. Location shown in green.
[attachment=11382:3a.JPG]

close up of fan connector: (Note the V+ and V- from the other side of the board. We will be making the new fan connection to these 2 points)
[attachment=11383:3b.JPG]

Step 4: Cut the red and black wire of the fan an inch or so away from the white plug. Strip the two ends and route the wires under the power button to the other side like so. Solder the red wire to V+ and the black wire to V-.
[attachment=11386:4a.JPG]

Step 5: Put screws back and sit back and enjoy your videos/games without the loud fan noise.
 
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nm3th said:
I'm away from my unit right now, but I can do a quick write-up using pics from the FCC filing. Note, I am not responsible for any damage to your devices.

Step 1: Remove the rubber feet and 4 phillips screws

attachicon.gif
1.JPG

My dock (board) looks to be a slightly newer revision, but for our purpose, the tutorial is all the same.

Step 2: Remove 2 phillips screw circled in blue. Blue arrow shows the location of the thermalcouple. V+ and V- shows where the fan is going to be wired to.

attachicon.gif
2a.JPG

Step 3: Disconnect the fan from the board. Location shown in green.

attachicon.gif
3a.JPG

close up of fan connector: (Note the V+ and V- from the other side of the board. We will be making the new fan connection to these 2 points)

attachicon.gif
3b.JPG

Step 4: Cut the red and black wire of the fan an inch or so away from the white plug. Strip the two ends and route the wires under the power button to the other side like so. Solder the red wire to V+ and the black wire to V-.

attachicon.gif
4a.JPG

Step 5: Put screws back and sit back and enjoy your videos/games without the loud fan kicking on.
Click to expand...
I don't get it, one of the points of the dock is to help w the heat of the device. For this you should have just connected the stick w the extension HDMi, unless you really wanted to use a reg SD card and the USBs which will I assume cause things to go even hotter.

 
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