USB cable length
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From: Metspitzer on 28 May 2010 21:39 I have a WD Passport drive that gets its power from the buss. I ordered one of these and one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000BZ2WA/ref=oss_product http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GGQ2SW/ref=oss_product The reason I did was the drive was acting quirky with the USB ports that came with the case and feed from the mobo. I suspected that the case connections were not truly USB 2 compliant. Well it turned out that the drive had a bad cable. I went to Staples and paid 20 bucks for a 6' cord because I needed to use the drive that day. Well after installing the card and the internal hub I could not get the card or the hub to work with the drive. I could still plug the drive into the back ports that were built into the mobo and the drive would work. The thing that puzzled me the most was that the drive would no longer work at all with the front ports of the computer when they at least worked sometimes before. To make a long story even longer, it turned out that the length of the new 6' cable was too long. Well then I knew that I needed a very short cable like the one that came with the drive. I called WD and they sent me one under warranty. The free short cable was better than the 6' 20 buck cable. Anyway when I got the short cable in the mail, I tried a little experiment. I plugged the drive into the added front hub. It took 10 min to copy a 3.5G file from the WD drive back to the WD drive. I then took the drive and plugged it into the ports that came on the mobo and it only took 5 min. So, even though the front ports work, using the shorter path makes a noticeable difference in performance. The end
From: PeeCee on 28 May 2010 23:51 "Metspitzer" <kilowatt(a)charter.net> wrote in message news:k4r006dioteip77qasct2fsoamfdldcd67(a)4ax.com... > I have a WD Passport drive that gets its power from the buss. I > ordered one of these and one of these: > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000BZ2WA/ref=oss_product > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GGQ2SW/ref=oss_product > > > The reason I did was the drive was acting quirky with the USB ports > that came with the case and feed from the mobo. I suspected that the > case connections were not truly USB 2 compliant. Well it turned out > that the drive had a bad cable. I went to Staples and paid 20 bucks > for a 6' cord because I needed to use the drive that day. > > Well after installing the card and the internal hub I could not get > the card or the hub to work with the drive. I could still plug the > drive into the back ports that were built into the mobo and the drive > would work. The thing that puzzled me the most was that the drive > would no longer work at all with the front ports of the computer when > they at least worked sometimes before. > > To make a long story even longer, it turned out that the length of the > new 6' cable was too long. Well then I knew that I needed a very > short cable like the one that came with the drive. I called WD and > they sent me one under warranty. The free short cable was better than > the 6' 20 buck cable. > > Anyway when I got the short cable in the mail, I tried a little > experiment. I plugged the drive into the added front hub. It took 10 > min to copy a 3.5G file from the WD drive back to the WD drive. I > then took the drive and plugged it into the ports that came on the > mobo and it only took 5 min. So, even though the front ports work, > using the shorter path makes a noticeable difference in performance. > > The end If you pop your PC's case open you will see a 6-12" cable connecting the front USB ports to the motherboard. This is probably what is causing the slow down, ie they add to the length of USB cable. Also it's not uncommon to find those cables are not quite as good as they could be. The USB spec defines a specific number of twists per inch to be USB compliant. I've seen many cases where the USB Motherboard > Front panel port connection is just 4 loose wires wires with no more than one or two twists per 'foot'. Best Paul.
From: TVeblen on 29 May 2010 07:44
On 5/28/2010 9:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote: > I have a WD Passport drive that gets its power from the buss. I > ordered one of these and one of these: > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000BZ2WA/ref=oss_product > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GGQ2SW/ref=oss_product > > > The reason I did was the drive was acting quirky with the USB ports > that came with the case and feed from the mobo. I suspected that the > case connections were not truly USB 2 compliant. Well it turned out > that the drive had a bad cable. I went to Staples and paid 20 bucks > for a 6' cord because I needed to use the drive that day. > > Well after installing the card and the internal hub I could not get > the card or the hub to work with the drive. I could still plug the > drive into the back ports that were built into the mobo and the drive > would work. The thing that puzzled me the most was that the drive > would no longer work at all with the front ports of the computer when > they at least worked sometimes before. > > To make a long story even longer, it turned out that the length of the > new 6' cable was too long. Well then I knew that I needed a very > short cable like the one that came with the drive. I called WD and > they sent me one under warranty. The free short cable was better than > the 6' 20 buck cable. > > Anyway when I got the short cable in the mail, I tried a little > experiment. I plugged the drive into the added front hub. It took 10 > min to copy a 3.5G file from the WD drive back to the WD drive. I > then took the drive and plugged it into the ports that came on the > mobo and it only took 5 min. So, even though the front ports work, > using the shorter path makes a noticeable difference in performance. > > The end I had a similar issue with my Antec Sonata I case. It turned out that the front panel component was defective. I contacted Antec long past warranty about the problem and they sent me a new component without question. Both small circuit boards had USB-2.0 stamped on them, but the original one would not power my external drive but the new one would. You should contact the case manufacturer. |