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I'd be interested if a lot of the so called faulty hard drives people complain about are actually ok. It seems almost impossible to put something that works fine in a box and ship it and have it dead at the other end. Unless United breaks hard drives in addition to guitars. Or is it just the bad usb voltage issue. I should have returned my blackberry. Only 2 of the 20 some usb ports I have will charge it, the rest give me insufficient voltage messages.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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My guess would be "maybe" a 10th of a percent? (If that much!)
Cheers,
Mike
Cheers, Mike My Music * Asus ROG Strix G15CF 32 GB DDR4 4TB HDD + 1 TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB Win 11 AKAI EIE PRO Sound Interface. BIAB/RB 2024 UltraPak Build - Latest
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I do seem to be having trouble with mine. Where was that thread about fixing 'em up...?
Best, Tom SmithWin10/64 • i7-8700K • 24 GB RAM BIAB 2026 • Reaper 7.57 • Izotope MPS AKG C1000S • IK iRig I/O Pro
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Quote:
I do seem to be having trouble with mine. Where was that thread about fixing 'em up...?
Hi Tom, what kind of trouble do you have with your HD? Maybe we/someone can help here in the forum.
Cheers,
Mike
Cheers, Mike My Music * Asus ROG Strix G15CF 32 GB DDR4 4TB HDD + 1 TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB Win 11 AKAI EIE PRO Sound Interface. BIAB/RB 2024 UltraPak Build - Latest
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I had to use a powered hub with one of them, to get sufficient power. The powered hub was used for the 'extra' USB connector on the Y cable.
Depends on how your motherboard is wired, but you should always get the most power you are going to get out of the USB ports on the rear of the case, since these are built into the motherboard. Different PC manufacturers may scrimp here.
You can see USB current draw for connected devices in Device Manager. There is a finite amount of current supplied.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Quote:
You can see USB current draw for connected devices in Device Manager. There is a finite amount of current supplied.
?
Where?
Here, winXP SP3, I can see the bandwidth of each device reported as a percentage but not the current draw...
--Mac
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Hey, Mike. I can't get either of my computers to recognize it, even the desktop with a powered USB hub....
Best, Tom SmithWin10/64 • i7-8700K • 24 GB RAM BIAB 2026 • Reaper 7.57 • Izotope MPS AKG C1000S • IK iRig I/O Pro
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This just interests me. I have no real answers, but the fact that my Blackberry won't charge on most of the USB ports says something.
Perhaps, just in case, the drive should come with external power, I have 3 from PG music and I think all have a place to plug a 'wall wart."
This is postulation, but if I was shipping product I would plug every returned hard drive into a reliable source and determine if it was ok. Then I would provide plan b to the customer.
I had issues with 2 of the 3 hard drives, all solved by changing the port.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Tom, are you using the USB cord with two plugs to add the extra power?
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Even using that plug for my blackberry was not a solution. Didn't work. I have one really good usb cable, the rest are no good at all unless plugged into some preferred port.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Quote:
Quote:
You can see USB current draw for connected devices in Device Manager. There is a finite amount of current supplied.
?
Where?
Here, winXP SP3, I can see the bandwidth of each device reported as a percentage but not the current draw...
--Mac
No doubt I'm calling it by the wrong term. In the USB Root Hub, Power tab, you see what they call "power required for each attached device", expressed as mA (which is a measure of current, correct?). Since it also shows "total power available per port", you can see if a problem exists. I'm sure your term of bandwidth is a better way to describe this. It must be that they show only what a device requires, rather than what it actually draws, which could be less, and should not be more unless it's defective? Thanks for the correction.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hi John,
As a matter of interest over the last few years I have had these problems frequently occur causing me to think that the USB external hard drives were faulty and even getting them replaced
But when the new ones came the same problem appeared so I began to look for other answers - I tried powered USB hubs with no result and then one day by accident I did a sequence that solved my problem everything worked - I posted this finding a couple of years ago
I actually went opposite to the instructions and plugged the lead/both leads into the computers USB port/s first and then into the external hard drive last and it worked on all the drives I thought were faulty
I also found that doing it the instruction way (and did not get recognised even with the two connectors) could be resolved by opening a program I use Paragon Partition Manager to see that a drive showed up but a drive letter had not been assigned to the drive - so I assigned a drive letter and it worked fine for that session - it obviously had enough power to operate but somehow confused on recognition
jazzman
BIAB - RealBand - 2022
Windows 10 64
Zoo computer with 7i processor- SSD 1TB -2TB HDD
Roland keyboards
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Very interesting.
I still emphatically state that using the shipped hard drives (I have 3), that the cable in the box did not work often enough to be reliable and that I have a 12 inch, thick USB cable that works every time, on the same port(s) that didn't like it before.
I have never thought to go machine to machine, I have 4 on right now, and test to see if the same cable runs my blackberry, or charges it. I tried the two headed thing shipped by pgmusic when I forgot my charger and found out that again, it would not work on the Acer to charge my blackberry.
I also suspect that as other stuff gets plugged in and out that you start getting access violations. I think I'd put last on the testing line a low powered usb port, that might be typical of what an end user has, and test the thing there, and as you point out try different sequences to ensure that the device is working. Also some sort of script to sort out the usb ports might be in order. Again as i have stated before, I have 2 machines that the Ketron via Edirol USB Midi 1 in 1 out cable, HAS to reside in the same USB port it was first plugged into or it won't play. Same for one of my cameras.
Just throwing stuff against the wall here. I continue to suspect that perfectly good hard drives are being shipped internationally when in reality they work, but it's good customer relations to say we are shipping you a new one rather than make Igor seem like his computer and his brain are not functioning.
I'd be sorely tempted to send out a support email with detailed instructions meticulously written to end run the costs and frustrations. To do that you'd need to test the 'faulty' drives and figure out how to make them work, and then do that. It might just be as simple as finding Xing cable company makes some really robust cable and go buy a hundred or so, and include that cable in the packaging. The new silver and black box in a blister pack to satisfy those who don't want to see the old graphics. Mug shots of the Realtracks guys done in black and white, morphed to silver on the box. LOL.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Hi John,
I would agree that cables are a part of the potential problem but the strange thing here is that I also changed cables with no result and the sent cables now work with my method as well
I also agree that many users I see pull the USB connections out and replace willy nilly without using the "safely remove hardware" feature which could also be a factor
Contrary to the instructions I can now plug external drives into any USB port including the two at the front of the box using my method
The U in USB is not so universal
I also have sent back external hard drives back before I found this way to make them work - they could have been perfectly ok
jazzman
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...
... rharv, I didn't know there was a two-plug USB with it. I just used the USB that I had been using; I could feel the drive start up, but the lights didn't come on and the laptop didn't recognize it. Great. Now I've gotta search the desk and the Big Box O' Cords for the two-USB thingie that presumably came with this drive, grumble mumble....
Best, Tom SmithWin10/64 • i7-8700K • 24 GB RAM BIAB 2026 • Reaper 7.57 • Izotope MPS AKG C1000S • IK iRig I/O Pro
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**What John found out by using the shorter cable is more likely to be solving a Voltage-drop problem rather than Current.
It may not be the same situation for all, though, due to differences in motherboard design out there. Some, if not all, will likely experience the Current drop situtation, which should be handled by the provided double-plug cable when hooked up right.
There may even be some few machines that provide tawdry USB power -- and suffer from both Voltage and Current drop. That would be an entirely bad situation, solvable only with external power from either externally powered USB hub or perhaps a wallwart connection to drive if it has a power socket on it.
--Mac
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Hi Mac,
Your point about the USB performance on different computers is very real and in our business we see the biggest difference on computers that have been upgraded over the years where the motherboard is really not up to the current requirements/demands
It just re-inforces the statement that all men are born equal but computers are not
jazzman
BIAB - RealBand - 2022
Windows 10 64
Zoo computer with 7i processor- SSD 1TB -2TB HDD
Roland keyboards
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Quote:
Hi John,
As a matter of interest over the last few years I have had these problems frequently occur causing me to think that the USB external hard drives were faulty and even getting them replaced
But when the new ones came the same problem appeared so I began to look for other answers - I tried powered USB hubs with no result and then one day by accident I did a sequence that solved my problem everything worked - I posted this finding a couple of years ago
I actually went opposite to the instructions and plugged the lead/leads into the computers USB port/s first and then into the external hard drive last and it worked on all the drives I thought were faulty
I also found that doing it the instruction way (and did not get recognised even with the two connectors) could be resolved by opening a program I use Paragon Partition Manager to see that a drive showed up but a drive letter had not been assigned to the drive - so I assigned a drive letter and it worked fine for that session - it obviously had enough power to operate but somehow confused on recognition
jazzman
This is very interesting and useful, and I don't recall seeing it the first time around. You might consider placing this info in the Tips and Tricks forum.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Well, I did find the two-headed USB cable. And I tried plugging it into the computer first, as Matt suggested. And the drive still doesn't recognize. I'll see what tools I've got to convince it to be recognized.
It's not that big a crisis, I do almost all my work on the desktop 'puter. But it'd be nice to have that extra drive. Sigh.
Best, Tom SmithWin10/64 • i7-8700K • 24 GB RAM BIAB 2026 • Reaper 7.57 • Izotope MPS AKG C1000S • IK iRig I/O Pro
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