I got a HDD dock from startech.com. It works great and does everything I need. The problem is it has the brightest goddamn blue LED I have ever seen. It is so unnecessarily bright. My eyes hurt looking in the same direction as it. What the fuck should I do? Return it? De solder the stupid ass LED? It works great aside from this one issue.

Edit: I opened the thing and drew with sharpie on the LED. It’s bearable to look at now.

    • @hactar42@lemmy.ml
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      31 day ago

      I bought a keyboard from ThinkGeek that had an LED that would hit me right in the eye. A little piece of tape and that keyboard served me well for years.

  • @Doombot1@lemmy.one
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    41 day ago

    I usually use a little tiny piece of electrical tape, which should work unless the power button is absolutely minuscule. Desoldering it also works, but is more permanent.

  • @Wahots@pawb.social
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    41 day ago

    You can get LED film off Amazon for like, $7. It blocks those annoying LEDs on tech devices, monitors, wall outlets, kitchen appliances, and my nemesis, smoke detectors with stupidly bright LEDs.

    Best $7 you’ll spend this year.

  • @lemonuri@lemmy.ml
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    142 days ago

    Blue LEDs are the worst offenders. No need to return it as long as you keep a bit of black tape ready. If you still need it as an indicator, you can use layers of yellowish tape. The one used while painting your walls works great. Masking tape it’s called in English.

    • @daggermoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      92 days ago

      Yeah it sucks that I sleep in the same room as my computer. It’s damn near impossible to find a case without RGB.

    • lost_faith
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      32 days ago

      Last pc i built i had 1 hard request, “I don’t want a damn xmas tree in my pc.” girl laughed and the only light is from the heat sync :(

    • Dyskolos
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      2 days ago

      Amen. I do love LEDs since their dawn and have a big-ass collection. But on every single stupid computer thing? I don’t wanna pay extra just because my mouse can have stupid rgb-lights. Or my damn RAM. It adds absolutely nothing, costs more and has another part that will go broke.

      I hate the rgb-craze…

      One my Xbox controller’s light is so bright it could power our solar-panels. I had to put multiple Band-Aids on it 🫤

  • @Stovetop@lemmy.world
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    172 days ago

    Likely not, it seems wasteful if the product is otherwise good in all other important regards. I’d just cover up the LED with tape or paint.

  • Dr. Wesker
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    252 days ago

    I’ve use a black sharpie to “tint” LEDs before. Your mileage may vary though, depending on the kind and shape of LED.

  • monovergent 🛠️
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    31 day ago

    My monitor had a bright blue power LED smack in the middle of the lower bezel. I took it apart on day one and brutally ripped out the LED, only then did I ever connect it to my computer.

  • @Mothra@mander.xyz
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    2 days ago

    I am also a hater of unnecessarily bright lights. In your shoes, presuming I’m happy with the product otherwise, I would paint over it with a bit of nail polish.

    You can get polish in any color you want these days, and it’s very cheap. It dries fast and it comes with a very small brush. You can apply one coat, see if the led still shines through too much, apply another coat 15mins later once the first layer is dry. Repeat.

    Edit: seeing the photo I realize the shape it has. Be careful with the polish if you use it, one coat or two probably will be okay on the inner surface but don’t add more or the button may get stuck. Also wait extra before even daring to test button functionality, you don’t want the button scraping off semi dry polish.