USB hubs that don't suck

[DevilsPGD]

I have horrible luck with USB hubs.

I currently have a Belkin 7-port hub sitting on my desk that I'm rather
fond of. It has a relatively large power supply and so it can happily
drive several devices that charge from USB at the same time, it has five
ports pointing horizontally out the back which is great for cable
management and two on top which are helpful for when I need to manually
connect a device.

Until recently this hub was rock solid too, I've connected removable
hard drives and copied hundreds of GBs without skipping a beat.

Lately it has gotten less fun, I'm getting timeouts on nearly any device
connected through the hub, but no problem connecting them directly to
the computer. I've also swapped out the cable and changed to a
different port on the PC just in case, but alas, it looks like the hub
is on it's last legs.

With that in mind I picked up a couple new ones of random flavors at
local computer shops and have had nothing but issues, timeouts, horribly
insufficient bandwidth, or an inability to power multiple devices at
once.

Can anyone recommend a hub physically similar to what I've got that
might make for a good replacement?

I could probably tolerate two 4-port hubs, I actually have a few spare
USB ports on my system, but it's physically inconvenient to access and
my devices don't quite reach directly to the system.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> kony

The above should have read "might be able to find a
regulated switching supply".

I'm an old hat IRC junkie, my brain fixed the typo before I even noticed
it Thanks.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> kony

On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:14:28 -0800, DevilsPGD

Hubs don't wear out so easily, see if there is goop in the
USB sockets and clean those with contact cleaner if there
is. If you have access to an alternate PSU, also try that
as those cheap switching wall warts can have short lives.

No goop, connectors look clean and clear. All but the top ones have
been connected for their entire lives with very infrequent
connect/disconnect cycles except for two weeks when we moved, so they
haven't had much chance to pick up dirt.

I'll grab some contact cleaner anyway and give it a shot just in case,
I'd normally have some on hand, but I just moved and I'm a bit under
stocked right now.

That Belkin (it's named their "economy hub", IIRC) is one
most people have had good luck with. That and a D-Link
DUB-H7,
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=149
would've been my first two recommendations if it didn't seem
you already had the Belkin.

I might grab another just to try it, I happened to see it locally for
$89 at London Drugs *shudders*, or obviously much cheaper if I shop
online, so I might see if I can order one online once I find a place
with a good return policy.

Same can be said for the Belkin, it too was $16 AR a week or
two ago but more now... but may be cheaper again in the
future. I don't recall about the Belkin but the D-Link
takes a standard power plug, 3A @5V... if your Belkin uses a
standard sized barrel jack (like ~ 5.5mm OD, 2.5mm ID) you
might be able to find a regulared switching supply to
replace the one you have... though keeping in mind that
although I suggested the supply is the most likely failure
point, I can't be sure of it. If you happened to have some
spare connectors lying around I would suggest temporarily
wiring it direct to your PC's PSU which would rule out the
hub psu being the problem if it then worked better again.

It uses a small (2.5mm? Not 100% sure) 5V barrel, I was able to find
another in my storage bin for testing, it made no difference. I did
this test with only one device plugged in, my iPhone, fully charged so
the power requirements should have been fairly minimal.

I also tested with an external hard drive with it's own power supply,
this one works through a passive USB hub.

If things are only dropping out on windows, keep in mind
that it IS windows, meaning it can go from a working to
non-working state if the wind blows the wrong way (or a
patch or virus gets in the way).

While true, removing the hub from the equation and my USB connectivity
is rock solid to the same devices, so I'm fairly sure it's the hub.

I've also managed to reproduce the problem with the hub connected to my
laptop, removing the PC completely from the equation.

I might try a warranty swap, but I may pick up a second one to try it
first, until it started getting temperamental it was the best USB hub
I've ever had.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> kony

You might also crack open the old one, maybe it's just
overheating though I don't know why it might start doing
that now unless there are more devices or more heavy traffic
than previously. Maybe it just ran hot all along and they
used cheapo electrolytic capacitors inside?

I could, but it's only $10 to ship it in for warranty service, and
Belkin even cross-ships -- Who knew?

A heck of a lot cheaper then violating the warranty, and since I don't
see any obvious screws, I'd be worried about tool marks or snapped
plastic snaps.

That's assuming
you are still using the same USB cable from it to the
system, sometimes a marginal cable plus a marginal device
can cause a problem, where you might not see the problem
using same cable directly connected to the USB peripheral.

I've swapped all cables out with replacements too. While it's not
impossible that I'd have multiple marginal cables, it's far less likely.

I've swapped both the computer --> hub cables, and hub --> device
cables. In all cases my test devices use different inputs then the USB
hub, so I can't test the computer --> hub cable itself with a high
bandwidth application, but my very first step was to bypass the computer
--> hub USB cable and replace it with a known-good one.

I don't remember when I bought it, but my D-Link is still
working after more than 18 months... though often I just
plug stuff into the front of the system case, being lazy it
means I don't have to reach over the extra 18 inches to
where I shoved the hub back on the desk.

My Belkin appears to be of the same vintage, I'm trying to find the
original date but the receipt didn't get OCR'd (or isn't clear enough to
find the product by name, anyway), but it doesn't seem to matter since
Belkin isn't picky about purchase date.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> DevilsPGD

In message <[email protected]> kony


No goop, connectors look clean and clear. All but the top ones have
been connected for their entire lives with very infrequent
connect/disconnect cycles except for two weeks when we moved, so they
haven't had much chance to pick up dirt.

I'll grab some contact cleaner anyway and give it a shot just in case,
I'd normally have some on hand, but I just moved and I'm a bit under
stocked right now.

I finally got around to exchanging this (well, about a month ago now).
For testing I used a power supply that I already had here, when I got
the new unit I used the same power supply I already owned, all was well
with the new hub.

A month later (and on the Belkin power supply, once I found time to run
the cables) all is well, so oddly enough it was the hub itself that
died.

Kudos to Belkin for a painless exchange process, I didn't even need a
receipt, possession of the dead product was sufficient (as it should be)