# Any recommendations for a powered usb hub?



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Maybe link showing it?

I now own three such hubs and they all get wonky after being plugged in for long period, meaning anything plugged into them gets wonky. Not initially knowing thiis I now own two handful of mini usb wifi adapters cause I thought they were bad. Nope, its the hub making them act goofy. I now have everything plugged directly into desktop and it all works fine. Using a wifi adapter that I was absolutely positively certain was dead. Obviously its not.

These were like $10 to $15 hubs. Do I need to buy some $40 hub to get one that is reliable? I do like the ones with a switch for each individual port. That is a true convenience.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> These were like $10 to $15 hubs. Do I need to buy some $40 hub to get one that is reliable?


I wouldn't think so. I normally source them from eBay and I've never had any trouble. Sometimes you need to plug in the device directly for it to be found and install drivers, but after that they work fine from the hub.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Really, and the one I am using is a cheap one ordered form Amazon. Never have had any problems with things other than my iPad charges mighty slow, so I have that plugged in directly.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Nevada said:


> I wouldn't think so. I normally source them from eBay and I've never had any trouble. Sometimes you need to plug in the device directly for it to be found and install drivers, but after that they work fine from the hub.


Mine are from ebay too, so guess that isnt good enough selection filter in choosing a hub. Though noticed the last one is also sold on Amazon. That must negate things if on both ebay and Amazon.... 

But seriously if I cant even rely on it not to screw up a mouse or keyboard, whats the point? I have everything plugged directly right now though its a pain with all but two usb ports on the back of desktop computer. Everything works fine plugged directly.

Shame too as this last hub has individual switches for each usb port. That was very convenient.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

arabian knight said:


> Really, and the one I am using is a cheap one ordered form Amazon. Never have had any problems with things other than my iPad charges mighty slow, so I have that plugged in directly.


Check, need to find a cheap one on Amazon, that is not also sold on ebay, and that will solve all my problems! LOL

My notion if a hub even screws up a mouse and keyboard then its a bad hub! Cause all usb works fine plugged directly into usb ports on computer itself.

Now remember the hub initially works ok. Just when its in use for long time that things get wonky. Not sure why that makes a difference, assume maybe heat buildup?

Probably waste time, maybe I should take one of these apart and examine internal connections. Made in China like everything else and their quality control, especially on no-name items kinda lax. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you dont.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

My cheapies seem to get flaky very quickly if I plug in the AC adapter, so I rarely use it. Use the hub unpowered for low-power stuff like mouse, keyboard, flash drives, etc., and plug in directly anything that really needs more power like optical or hard drives.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I guess. One will usually but not always work minus the AC adapter, but its the one without switches. The other two get wonky with or without AC connected. Be nice to know of one specific one that just works as intended.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

The one I have been using for the last 5 years is name Plugable USB 2 10-port hub. https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-10-...=1471626742&sr=8-10&keywords=plugable+usb+hub

If I were to replace this, I'd probably get the 7 port USB 3 hub, but would miss the pop-up ports. https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Sup...d=1471626742&sr=8-2&keywords=plugable+usb+hub


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Belfrybat said:


> The one I have been using for the last 5 years is name Plugable USB 2 10-port hub. https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-10-...=1471626742&sr=8-10&keywords=plugable+usb+hub
> 
> If I were to replace this, I'd probably get the 7 port USB 3 hub, but would miss the pop-up ports. https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Sup...d=1471626742&sr=8-2&keywords=plugable+usb+hub


Thank you! That seems to answer my question. There are no cheapo powered hubs that are reliable. Reliability in a hub costs money. I'll have to make a decision now. See I havent even given over $30 for complete computer in lot years. But I have found its usually better to invest a bit when necessary for things like external hard drives and such that make using that cheapo computer more pleasant. The externals tend to last through several computers so arent that expensive. And thinking about it, if I had bought a $30 hub in first place instead of three cheap hubs.....

A nice hub probably going to wait. I just spent some mad money on a modest SSD drive to play with. I wanted to see exactly how much faster they are than a 7200 rpm hard drive.


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