USB Ports & Hubs . . .

[khushy]

I thought I would ask anyway.

Are USB 1.0/1.1 cables different to USB 2.0 cables?

Reason for asking is that on my PC I have 4 onboard USB sockets at the motherboard - I have a couple of extesnion cables running from these and I recently bought an MP3 player for my wife.

When I plug it into the end of the ext cable, where there is a mini 3 USB hub, it works fine 100% as a slow device - and winxp keeps telling me that it would be faster in a High Speed port.

When I remove the hub and plug the MP3 player directly into the cable end - it only works intermittently - you can hear it being recognised - but nothing appears in win explorer.

I discovered yesterday that if I remove the ext cable and plug the MP3 player directly into the USB socket on the motherboard - it works perfectly at the right speed!!!

Very Very odd!

Have I just got the wrong extn cable?

System Summary . . .

ASUS P5WD2-e Premium
Corsair XMS2 PC8500 2Gb RAM
Pentium D 955 Extreme

with ALL the latest BIOS

All other devices work fine with/without the mini hub!

Khushy

[olf]

Maybe that cable is faulty? There is no difference between USB1 and 2 cables though.

[voyds9]

Cables are the same for 1.0 and 2.0

?faulty cable
?cable too long
?faulty port/power pin

[khushy]

i am off to PC world - woooooooo bleeeedin hooooooo - to get 2 x new cables + a hub!

Will post the results

Thanks for looking anyway.

[scorp]

The hubs for usb2 are different to usb1 hubs, the cables are the same.

[aldi]

USB2 cables are rated for higher current and speeds than USB1 cables, they tend to be physically thicker.

[mcflurry]

I would change the hub first, using the existing cables...

[aldi]

Get a *powered* hub and USB2 cables, don't get them from PC World though they charge about £10 per cable last time I was there. dabs.com has them @ £2-3 each. (trade they're about 30p )

[munky]

Belkin do a good 7 port powered hub, with 2 ports on top - handy for USB keys and things that yuo often want to plug & unplug. Got mine from amazon IIRC..