Well i can lighten the mood with a funny story...
Did laundry 1 day...found a brand new 16G stik in the washer pullin the clothes out...it had gone thru a full cycle.
I figured i had nothin to lose at that point...put it back into my blue jeans pocket and ran the load thru a full dryer cycle.
Folded the clothes...remembered the stik...plugged it in to the PC and it worked...
It's now almost 2 years old...and still goin strong.
BTW I use Tide laundry detergent...not sure if that matters or not...