USB question

Hi there.

My new PC has a lot USB ports, mostly ver 3.x, 1 or 2 ver 2, and one USB-C. It's more than enough for what I need. However, for practical pu rposes I'd like to connect a couple of devices using a hub (3.0 hub, 3.0 A - mini-B cable). Connecting a printer works just fine, so does a 3.x disk).

But if I connect my USB soundcard (Hyper X Cloud II), sound becomes jagged (if that's the correct word). Connecting it directly to an on-board port works just fine. Anyone who knows why? BTW, it's a new hub, and a new cable.

pib..bur.who….i..s……p.uzzl……ed.

PS: I'm very satisfied with the quality of the soundcard/headset combo, so it would surprise me if that one was the culprit. DS.

Static (randomly) or white noise (constant)?
Seems not a problem with HyperX but with the hub or wherever it's plugged in - you say you've tried plugging the card directly into another port and it worked flawlessly, try plugging the hub into exactly that USB port.

Forget printers and stuff, those don't need uncut/constant flaw of data in realtime to work. If the hub sporadically loses power for miliseconds, a printer won't "argue" with that but will wait till it receives a complete package. Your ears cannot wait.

Could be a driver issue. I have the same headset but I haven't tried it with a USB hub.

It's not noise. More like sound intermittently disappearing. Don't know if "jagged"# is the correct word for this.

Doubt it's a driver issue, since it works just fine when connecting directly to the PC.

pibbur

Oh, I meant Hub drivers. If it comes with them. Could also be faulty hub. Do you have problems with other USB devices connected through it?

Originally Posted by Ivanwah
Oh, I meant Hub drivers. If it comes with them.

Ahhh. I misunderstood you. No it doesn't come with drivers.

Could also be faulty hub. Do you have problems with other USB devices connected through it?

No problem with other devices, but as joxer said, printers don't need constant data flow. One of the devices, NVidia 3dvision, would, I think, but that one works flawlessly .

The hub is new (bought it yesterday). I'll try a couple of other hubs I have, to see if it makes a difference.

Anyhow, it's not a big problem (so far), as I can connect the USB soundcard to a front USB port. But I would like to know why.

pibbur

Maybe just a quirk that this headset doesn't work properly with hubs for some reason. But that's just a wild speculation. Anyway, if you can spare a port it's all good. Cloud 2 has a fairly long cord, it's not like you need a hub as a way to elongate it

I am not an expert here, but I have some "experience" with similar issues.

As I am currently using 8 external USB Hard drives and occasionally also connect a digital camera or an mp3 player I am using an USB hub for a while.
But as my old one got sticky after 10 years or so, and it was still usb1, I finally got a new one, didn't put a lot of care into researching it though.
Horrible experience. Putting in one device into the hub kind of worked fine, after the second one issues started to appear. Devices not found and so on.
Plugging them into the pc directly worked. Guess the voltage/signal is going to waste fast with cheap external usb hubs.
So what I bought after that is a pretty good usb hub with 7 ports and 3 different power switches, so I can switch stuff on and off as required (usually most of the HDDs are not required). Now and then I am still having issues,especially when having all HDDs active, which can be fixed by a power off/on.

That said: Since Wndows 10 I also regularily have issues with a logitech webcam…seems like sleep mode is not helping either…usually un and replugging helps.
But if the signal gets jagged…I am pretty sure that the power of that thing is not sufficient or the cable is too long. Also it could make a difference which USB port you are using. Try to plug in the USB hub into one of the rear mobo connections for example, not into the ones which are extended via the case to the front of the pc.

I'm assuming this is not a powered USB hub. Try a USB hub with an external power supply.

Originally Posted by Caddy
I'm assuming this is not a powered USB hub. Try a USB hub with an external power supply.

Yep, that's a must regardless.

As a reference:
This one I had for a very short time. It came without power supply and said it was "optional". Used it without power supply (utter garbage) and with power supply (just slightly better). https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01…?ie=UTF8&psc=1

After that I bought this one. Maybe not the best in the world, but the best I had yet.
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01…?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And yeah…costed also 56€ when I bought it 2 years ago. There might be better ones out there, but maybe thats a useful reference.

You didn't say which type of connector the headphones have. Some ports have more power than others. I forget the specification but 3.x provides pins that can generate signficantly higher wattage than (for example) 2.0. The hub might not include all pins (this if frequently the case) hence it is fine for data transmission but not devices that draw power….

Originally Posted by Caddy
I'm assuming this is not a powered USB hub. Try a USB hub with an external power supply.

It is a powered hub.

pibbur

It seems like it's the headphones that is the problem. I connected them to the on-board soundcard (front panel), playing some youtube videp, and especially speech was garbled. Using speakers (digital output) worked fine. And connecting another headset to the Realtek output worked flawlessly.

So I guess it's time to look for another headset.

Or I could use the other headset mentioned above, a Koss Portapro, which is actually very good, considering how cheap they are. The open earpads of the Portapro also makes it possible to hear the wife talking to me. Which may or may be a good thing (depending who you ask).

pibbur whose own opinition depends on who asks him.

Confused - you said the headphones worked fine if you connected them to an internal port. Btw what type of port was the internal port where they worked fine and what type is the port that is front of the case ?

Originally Posted by pibbur who
It seems like it's the headphones that is the problem. I connected them to the on-board soundcard (front panel), playing some youtube videp, and especially speech was garbled. Using speakers (digital output) worked fine. And connecting another headset to the Realtek output worked flawlessly.

So I guess it's time to look for another headset.

Or I could use the other headset mentioned above, a Koss Portapro, which is actually very good, considering how cheap they are. The open earpads of the Portapro also makes it possible to hear the wife talking to me. Which may or may be a good thing (depending who you ask).

pibbur whose own opinition depends on who asks him.