Since it gets hot even if you just plugged it in and didn't use it once (if I read your email correctly), and since there's literally no driver here that takes automated control of the dongle and sends it any commands:

That's a hardware issue. The RTL28.. contains linear regulators, and these probably are running continuosly.

Best regards, Marcus

On Thu, 2018-05-24 at 18:36 -0500, Bill Gaylord wrote:

I am having this problem with all of my dongles (from multiple sources) and was wondering if it could be some sort of problem with it not getting closed properly,

In all cases the chip that gets hot is the actual SDR not the tuner. But I don’t understand why it is heating up when the dongle is not in use and is just plugged in.

Or is this just some weird problem with the dongles.

Sincerely, William