I like the customizable LEDs on my razer mouse mat, except when my PC (2021 15.6-inch razer laptop) decides that since I just went 6 hours without installing what are now almost daily win10 patches, it’s time to fuck up my drivers- and then it exits sleep mode despite the lid being closed and there being nothing wrong with my power settings, causing my fans to jet-engine, the logo led thing to come on and the mouse mat to shine brighter than a sun with its default color-cycle thing. And for bonus points, sometimes it even tries to address the problem by actually auto-updating at the time I told it to (1 AM or something), so I get startled by the “du dun, duh dun doooooo” which always seems louder at night.

And I dare not switch to linux, as razer laptops are not a common laptop choice and therefore it’s unclear how I’d be able to keep all its complicated and already-buggy drivers and proprietary software up to date so they don’t make it overheat within the first week, especially since the odds of me finding any help online for converting such an exotic rig to ubuntu are minimal to none.

I use Black Masking tape to cover them a bunch. It cuts the blinding glare, but you can still see them, as they're often integral configuration.

I started just taping over the lights of anything in my bedroom. I figure if it also makes a goofy noise when it turns on, thats how I know its frickin' on.

i have an arduino starter kit and the blue LEDs could light up the entire house

Guess I have the unpopular opinion here but I like leds 🤷‍♂️

100% agree. I have tape over the lights on my PS5 to keep my room dark at night. Plus I turn all my monitors off...and sometimes put something over my router to cover up all those blinking lights...and the Oculus Quest charging light....

I've taken too darkening them with a sharpie.

I purchased non residue duct tape simply to combat this problem. Many of the electronics in my apartment have tape covering lights.

Everything except phones, which actually could do with having them.

(This isn't a completely new thing, in the 1980s I had an A-Team watch that had led lights on it.)

I put electrical tape over all of them. They're unnecessary, they're annoying.

I tried my best to build a new computer without any LEDs and I couldn't. So now I just keep a piece of cardboard in front of my glass case side so I don't have to look at that bullshit.

Yeah, yeah, it probably causes it to run hotter. I'll take a little more heat, less performance, and possibly shorter overall component life over having to deal with those stupid lights.

i agree. tho the blue light thing is blown a bit out of proportion. The luminance just isnt high enough considering how much blue light the sun emits.

The thing that helps the most with sleep is turning down the brightness of your phone to minimum for when u in the dark and trying to sleep. Or just dont use it lol.

I miss the days of red LEDs. I understand blue were new and novel at one point but that's passed.

My in-laws power outlets throughout the whole house have always on LEDs on them. It drives me crazy. My mother in law likes it and says they are like night lights, but the whole house is so bright at night.

I also get frustrated with how ubiquitous they've become. I want darkness in my house at night, I don't like LEDs winking at me from all over the place and I hate placing electrical tape over them but there are few options that aren't permanently damaging.

The team that invented blue LEDs won a nobel prize.

Now every fucking item in my room has a beacon that would put the eye of fucking Sauron to shame.

100% agree with you, and have started destroying LEDs where possible.

I built my first PC in a Bitfenix Prodigy. The blue LEDs they used for the power and HDD activity lights were brighter than a thousand suns. I ended up disconnecting them.

I don’t know if this is the right place to complain about this but since it’s LED related.. Why are all the automakers putting the brightest fucking LED’s in their new vehicles now?? They are legit brighter then how high beams used to be only a few years back!!

What did we all used to do when headlights used to be slightly yellow??

My computer lighting is powered by incandescent bulbs. Lots of replacing, heat and landfll usage but its worth it to not have any of those woke leds in there.

To piggyback on this... so many people have added permanent LED lights to the outside of their houses (at least in our area). It used to be fun to see a house or two lit up with current holiday colors, or sports team colors. But now there are several on each block, and they have become much brighter. On the 4th we were up on a hill watching fireworks and there was a lot of competition from the LED houses.

Next level pro-tip: Use a "dot" or dab of dark nail polish to tone down the intensity. It's more permanent than the tape method but will allow you to see if the LED is on or off so doesn't remove functionality.

Goes with nothing ever turning off any more. If it all shut off, no lights.