Does anybody use a wall powered USB hub like this? I just got one and will be installing it in a few minutes. I have a 7 port now and it's really clunky. It won't make the PC run any better or anything but it will keep be from powering that many devices from the PC power supply. Between dongles for the mouse and keyboard, the camera, the Focusrite, the GPS, the Bose headphones and the et cetera... the 7 port is full. Any time I want to pop a thumb drive on to do file management I have to unplug something. 3 more ports will help. And each port is switchable so I can turn the power to each port on and off if I cared to.
I have one and it worked for a while. After a few weeks, my PC (Windows 11 up to date) started acting out. I took it off the pc and the machine started to work as before.
I use 2 of them 7 ports a piece and have had nothing but good experiences with both. I have lots of stuff that requires USB and powered hubs make a lot of sense to reduce the power coming from the PC.
My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
Inateck PCIe to USB 3.2 Gen 2 Extension Card with 16 Gbps Bandwidth, 6 USB Type-A and 2 USB Type-C Ports, RedComets U22
I can tell you it was a b... to install. The tolerances were tight. But working well for past week or two. I went with the PCIe because all the stuff I have to plug in is already taking up precious desktop space. I'm also sure the red color, implying this to be very fast, helped in my descision.
Plug the hub into a USB 3 port on the back of your computer. Better, get what Dan has (I have one of those, older than his).
Problems some people run into relate to power and interrupts.
Each USB port supports a maximum power drain. There are utilities that can make it easier to view this. Each USB port may use its own channel or share with others, and devices sharing the same channel may or may not work well together. For example, I would make sure any digital audio equipment was placed on different interrupts. This may require experimentation.
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.
I purchased the card with two priorities, number of USB ports and speed. Number because no manchines give you enough USB ports for all the devices they have, and speed, because I move a lot of data to external drives for backup storage of VI libraries and pictues and business. And moving 6TB of data can take over a day or 2 with USB 2.0.
This card does share the speed (as they all will) and I liked how it showed what was shared.
I need all 10 of the ports. And I don't have a slot on this mobo for it. My only PCIe is where my video card is. My main problem is that I just too much crap that needs to be charged that I barely use. My Garmin GPS stays plugged in so it updates but I so rarely go anywhere I don't even really need the thing with Waze on my phone. The Bose QC-35 headphones that I bought because I could and rarely use have to stay charged. And some are stupid. The camera that sticks to the dashboard and records stuff in front of me, phones, Echo Dot... I really am an over consumer, so with all that stuff I wanted to not over consume power from one USB port.
Matt, is there still such a thing as IRQ conflicts? I haven't seen one of those in years. Don't the newer operating systems allocate those in a way that there is no conflict possible? I thought there was a change in one of the OS upgrades (like back after XP) that allowed for more IRQs but I could be wrong.
I remember setting IRQs on modems with jumpers. I used to know the numbers. 3 or 4 for modem, keyboard was 1, printer was 7... that is taking me WAY back to DOS!
Some devices may not work well on an externally powered USB hub. I forget what it was exactly.... but I did have something that said explicitly in the setup instructions NOT to run it off of a powered hub but to connect it directly to a USB port on the computer.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Well, I have often read the advice that a mouse and a keyboard should not be plugged into a USB hub on a Windows-based computer, although I forgot why if I ever did know. This is NOT the case with Macs.
Most Windows-based computers I've seen expect that the two USB ports in the upper left of the back panel will be used for mouse and keyboard.
If there is something else besides those two, I'm interested in learning about that, too.
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.
Some devices may not work well on an externally powered USB hub. I forget what it was exactly.... but I did have something that said explicitly in the setup instructions NOT to run it off of a powered hub but to connect it directly to a USB port on the computer.
Korg keyboards for one.
Byron Dickens
BIAB. CbB. Mixbus 32C 8 HP Envy. Intel core i7. 16GB RAM W10. Focusrite Scarlett 18i 20. Various instruments played with varying degrees of proficiency.
I'm not following why would I plug my Korg keyboard into a USB port other than using that USB port to transfer MIDI data to the computer, which I would kind of wave off by saying that I have never used USB for MIDI. And even in that case, plugging the keyboard into a
The voltage delivered from this hub is the same 5v as what is delivered by the computer. I have read over a dozen articles about these self powered hubs vs bus powered and the ones that speak of any sort of anomaly are 10 years old or older. Currently I have the dongles for my mouse and keyboard, my Garmin GPS, my Samsung tablet, my iPad, and cell phones plugged into the self powered hub and I have seen nothing wrong.
If anybody has had an issue PLEASE DO tell me so I can test it out. I will literally go buy whatever hardware resulted in a problem to test it because I'm a nerd like that.
Byron can you expand on why a Korg keyboard would have issues, and if you have seen it yourself or read that somewhere? Since, as I said. you don't actually power the keyboard by USB, but just pass MIDI through it, I'd be interested to know more.
I'm also interested to know more about the statement "Korg keyboards for one."
I would like to know how the keyboard is connected, and for what purpose (playing, downloading etc?), any software applications in use (BiaB?, others?) and what are the exact problems that were experienced. Such information would be most useful.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Professional & Windows 11, Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors
Take note of Jim's article and its mention of Selective Suspend.
You can do this from Control Panel, Power Options (and that's about the only place I need to make adjustments in Windows now). Under the USB power settings, Selective Suspend should be Disabled.
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.
Korg tells you in the documentation that they don't work plugged in to a hub.
They are correct.
Last edited by Byron Dickens; 01/02/2311:57 AM.
Byron Dickens
BIAB. CbB. Mixbus 32C 8 HP Envy. Intel core i7. 16GB RAM W10. Focusrite Scarlett 18i 20. Various instruments played with varying degrees of proficiency.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
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