[crucialcolin]

Have you pulled your Touchpad off the TouchStone lately? Serious question? Run it down to about 50% and then charge it, then pull it off the TS and feel the back. It's a hell of a lot warmer than you think. Especially warmer than CPU usage hot. Oh and keep it in its case too as usual. It's also an accumulative process and not a one off deal. Think plastic cups in dishwasher...

The plastic case is closed to a tight fit as we all know since there isn't any free space in the packaging of the tablet. It's under pressure obviously. Heating up the large battery, which just so happens to be directly beneath the case definitely plays a role in the cracking of the unit in my opinion. Here is a battery disassembly tutorial with detailed pictures off of ifixit Installing HP TouchPad Battery - iFixit so you can see the layout for yourself.

It will also help some of you understand why you get tool marks on your TouchPad back from repair and the resulting creaky plastic. This thing wasn't meant to be opened.

Yes I actually only got the TouchStone recently and the cracking happens before hand. I actually noticed the beginning of cracks after I had turned it off and left it sit over night on my desk. It wasn't there before and I had been looking for them every time I used the thing. Whats interesting is the previous night I had used the speakers at medium to low volume for the first time to listen to music for about an hour before bed. Maybe that could have something to do with it?

Anyways I used to let the battery run down to about 50% or less often before I got the TouchStone because I was worried about the life of the USB port. Even then I found that charging even from those low levels produced less heat then taxing the CPU by running ubuntu chroot, etc. Now that I have the TouchStone even if the battery gets low because I forgot to put my TP on it for awhile and even then I find the battery doesn't heat up that much when i charge the TP. It's almost always completely cool to the touch when using the TouchStone otherwise.

Also I have a family member who is tech illiterate so they almost always use their TP until the battery gets completely empty before they charge it up fully. I keep telling them doing so is not good for the battery but they always wind up forgetting They haven't developed any cracks yet so if it was related to heat from charging I think it would have happened to them as well.

who knows :/

[chaosdivine]

I wish I could find the story of the user who put his TP on a TouchStone and without touching it, it made an audible pop - sure enough, crack city. There are also posts about cracks developing near ports, headphone, microUSB and of course speakers, sometimes one, sometimes both. It's not always speakers though which is my point. Some have had cracks in ALL places.

Using reasoning here, there is just no way possible in my opinion that this is all due to abuse and neglect. I would bet a pretty penny that virtually all of these people use a case of some type to protect it and treat it like it's their first born.

I can't prove this is due to heat and the expansion of the battery pressing on the case, but there isn't any other solution that makes sense. Plastic just doesn't crack on its own without a force being applied to it. Pressure change, impact or temperature change. Those are the logical choices here. I didn't include vibration because you need some serious logarithmic levels to cause things to come apart structurally...so I think that rules out sound levels - the speakers would blow far sooner due to volume levels required for this to occur. The TP's volume levels aren't that great in my opinion.

We all charge the unit. Everyone of us, every day (sometimes more than once in a day) or as soon as it requires it. Whether by TouchStone or by microUSB cable. Charging is the common denominator here and must be the catalyst to case cracking. I am convinced of it...

There will be more people reporting cracks over time. There is no doubt in my mind.

UPDATE: Just noticed two more hairline cracks radiating out from my microUSB port. This thing is a complete abortion! I am so mad...

[crucialcolin]

UPDATE: Just noticed two more hairline cracks radiating out from my microUSB port. This thing is a complete abortion! I am so mad...

I'm afraid to even look at mine. I haven't taken the HP folio case off and so far as I know my cracking is all around the speakers. Wouldn't be surprised to find cracks around my headphone jack as well because I have to be pretty forceful to get my headphones to plug all the way into the jack with case on. USB port could be as well because it seems a little looser then it was when i first got it which is one reason I decided to buy the TouchStone.

Ah well I have no choice but to send my unit in for repair anyways since the plastic between the top or left speaker and the screen cracked all the way through and fell off leaving a gaping hole into the unit.