multi port USB hubs question

I recently received a multi port USB hub and plugged it into my laptop. It
seemed like a good idea as I only had 2 USB ports on my computer. This gave
me 4 where before I only had 1 which made a total of 5. I plugged a new
external DVD burning drive into one of the multi ports ports. The drive used
2 ports, 1 for drive and 1 for drives power. I also plugged 2 external hard
drives into the other 2 ports. The burning drive would not work and 1 of the
external hard drives was not detected in computer. I worked on this problem
all day surfing web for answers and finally got online with Microsoft
support and chatted with a tech. He took control of my computer and did some
troubleshooting for 3 hours. Nothing he did helped. I got to thinking about
the multi port USB hub and unplugged it from computer. Then I plugged the
burning drive directly into the computer using both USB ports on computer.
It worked flawlessly. Is this typical of these hubs or do I just have a
cheap one and need a better one. I think my ports on my computer weren't
generating enough power to run all the devices. Any information on this
would be very helpful.

Walt

Please think about what you just wrote. You have a drive that has 2 USB
connectors (to plug into 2 individual USB ports). The reason is that one USB
port may not be capable of supplying sufficient to run the drive, hence the
second cable.

Now you plug both of these cables into a USB hub that is, in turn, connected
to 1 (ONE) USB port.

You are overloading the single USB port and are lucky that you didn't burn
out the port on your computer.

You need a USB hub with an external power supply to do what you want to do.

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience & Security


"Walter Goldschmidt" <> wrote in message
news:heq17s$18av$...
>I recently received a multi port USB hub and plugged it into my laptop. It
>seemed like a good idea as I only had 2 USB ports on my computer. This gave
>me 4 where before I only had 1 which made a total of 5. I plugged a new
>external DVD burning drive into one of the multi ports ports. The drive
>used 2 ports, 1 for drive and 1 for drives power. I also plugged 2 external
>hard drives into the other 2 ports. The burning drive would not work and 1
>of the external hard drives was not detected in computer. I worked on this
>problem all day surfing web for answers and finally got online with
>Microsoft support and chatted with a tech. He took control of my computer
>and did some troubleshooting for 3 hours. Nothing he did helped. I got to
>thinking about the multi port USB hub and unplugged it from computer. Then
>I plugged the burning drive directly into the computer using both USB ports
>on computer. It worked flawlessly. Is this typical of these hubs or do I
>just have a cheap one and need a better one. I think my ports on my
>computer weren't generating enough power to run all the devices. Any
>information on this would be very helpful.
>
> Walt

Your replies make complete sense to me but I didn't know about hubs with
their own power supply. As a matter of fact this is the first time I've ever
been involved with this device, Thanks for the education.

Walt


"Michael Walraven" <> wrote in message
news:29BB2C56-8B89-4A5F-9132-...
> Did you USB hub have its own external power supply ? If it did not then
> you have discovered your problem. If the hub is not using an external
> supply then ALL its power is coming from the one USB port and being
> divided among the ports in use. In your case you need two powered ports
> and with the USB hub are getting only power from one.
> (Hubs destined for use with desktops usually include a power plug wart
> thing, those destined for laptops often don't have a provision for
> external power.)
>
> You can get information on power available and used on USB hubs from
> device manager
> Universal Serial bus controllers
> the various USB Root Hub entries
>
> Michael
>
>
> "Walter Goldschmidt" <> wrote in message
> news:heq17s$18av$...
>> I recently received a multi port USB hub and plugged it into my laptop.
>> It seemed like a good idea as I only had 2 USB ports on my computer. This
>> gave me 4 where before I only had 1 which made a total of 5. I plugged a
>> new external DVD burning drive into one of the multi ports ports. The
>> drive used 2 ports, 1 for drive and 1 for drives power. I also plugged 2
>> external hard drives into the other 2 ports. The burning drive would not
>> work and 1 of the external hard drives was not detected in computer. I
>> worked on this problem all day surfing web for answers and finally got
>> online with Microsoft support and chatted with a tech. He took control of
>> my computer and did some troubleshooting for 3 hours. Nothing he did
>> helped. I got to thinking about the multi port USB hub and unplugged it
>> from computer. Then I plugged the burning drive directly into the
>> computer using both USB ports on computer. It worked flawlessly. Is this
>> typical of these hubs or do I just have a cheap one and need a better
>> one. I think my ports on my computer weren't generating enough power to
>> run all the devices. Any information on this would be very helpful.
>>
>> Walt
>