not enough usb ports

[Guest]

hi. first, i come here often and just browse and you people (those of you
who help) are great. Always helpful. Now, for my silly question: Between
the printer, router, burner, ipods, etc, I don't seem to have enough usb
ports. have to unplug something for the kids to be able to hook up ipod. Is
this normal or am I just overlooking additional ports? Thanks for any input.

 

[Guest]

hi. first, i come here often and just browse and you people (those of you
who help) are great. Always helpful. Now, for my silly question: Between
the printer, router, burner, ipods, etc, I don't seem to have enough usb
ports. have to unplug something for the kids to be able to hook up ipod. Is
this normal or am I just overlooking additional ports? Thanks for any input.

Two solutions: either add an internal USB card or (much easier) buy an
external USB hub with as many ports as you need. I *strongly* recommend you
buy one with an external power supply.

 

[Guest]

didn't know they existed. tomorrow i will get one with external power
supply. thanks so much.

 

[Plato]

hi. first, i come here often and just browse and you people (those of you
who help) are great. Always helpful. Now, for my silly question: Between
the printer, router, burner, ipods, etc, I don't seem to have enough usb
ports. have to unplug something for the kids to be able to hook up ipod. Is
this normal or am I just overlooking additional ports? Thanks for any input.

Pick up a usb powered hub.

 

[Gregg Hill]

Be careful what you plug into the externally powered hub. I fried a USB data
drive (512MB "thumb" drive) by plugging it into a powered hub.

Gregg Hill

 

[Jonny]

Too much hardware relying on the same input/output method. Seems more
common nowadays.
Hubs and powered hubs can be problematic with some USB connected hardware.
Adding a USB card uses more than one onboard PC resource that may be already
shared. This can be problematic as well.
--
Jonny

hi. first, i come here often and just browse and you people (those of you
who help) are great. Always helpful. Now, for my silly question: Between
the printer, router, burner, ipods, etc, I don't seem to have enough usb
ports. have to unplug something for the kids to be able to hook up ipod. Is
this normal or am I just overlooking additional ports? Thanks for any

input.

 

[Guest]

Plato,

The advise to buy a powered hub is correct but you need to know why. Do not
be tempted to buy a non powered hub as you have enough usb devices drawing
power already and you you add another usb device that draws power from the pc
you could possibly blow your internal power supply unit. Dont panic-but
better safe than sorry

Mike

 

[Rock]

hi. first, i come here often and just browse and you people (those of you
who help) are great. Always helpful. Now, for my silly question: Between
the printer, router, burner, ipods, etc, I don't seem to have enough usb
ports. have to unplug something for the kids to be able to hook up ipod. Is
this normal or am I just overlooking additional ports? Thanks for any input.

To add to what others have posted, know that some devices won't work
when connected to a hub. You might need to do some fiddling around to
find out what will work where.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

hi. first, i come here often and just browse and you people (those
of you who help) are great. Always helpful. Now, for my silly
question: Between the printer, router, burner, ipods, etc, I don't
seem to have enough usb ports. have to unplug something for the kids
to be able to hook up ipod. Is this normal or am I just overlooking
additional ports? Thanks for any input.

It's normal, if you have enough "etc."

Buy a USB hub, which turns one port into several. Get a powered one. They
are inexpensive and widely available, both in local stores and on the
internet.