USB Power Surges. Help please!!

Hi guys. I have an HP Omen desktop that's about two years old. It's been working great so far.

For USB hardware I have TMWH stick and throttle, Saitek Pro Flight rudder pedals, Rift (needs three USB ports, keyboard, and mouse.

My PC doesn't have enough native ports to support all these peripherals, so I use a USB hub for the stick, throttle, pedals, and keyboard.

A few days ago, I swapped out a Rift sensor plug for my Trackir to play another popular sim that doesn't have Rift support. A few hours ago, I swapped back to Rift, and now my keyboard won't work consistently. I can't even type this post on my PC... I'm having to do this on my phone. My pedals, throttle, and stick are also connecting and disconnecting sporadically without touching the connections.

Researching the symptoms shows this to be power surges in my USB ports, but none of the suggested fixes worked. I tried updating/reinstalling the drivers, restarting, shutting down the PC to unplug then replug the connections before turning the PC back on, unplugging and replugging the connections with the PC running, etc.

I'm at a loss. Someone please help!!

Is it a USB 2.0 hub? Is it powered with a separate power adapter?

Try to switch the keyboard to the desktop from the hub. If you need to increase the number of USB ports, get a USB extension card which plugs on the mainboard USB headers.

Is it a USB 2.0 hub? Is it powered with a separate power adapter?

 

Try to switch the keyboard to the desktop from the hub. If you need to increase the number of USB ports, get a USB extension card which plugs on the mainboard USB headers.

Yeah, it's a 2.0 USB hub. It doesn't use an external power supply or anything. You just plug your USB peripherals into it, then plug it into a USB port on your computer.

I'll try switching out the keyboard and report my results.

Does a USB extension card require external power, i.e. from a surge protector? Because I'm running short on available space on my surge protector. Thanks!!

Yeah, it's a 2.0 USB hub. It doesn't use an external power supply or anything. You just plug your USB peripherals into it, then plug it into a USB port on your computer.

 

I'll try switching out the keyboard and report my results.

 

Does a USB extension card require external power, i.e. from a surge protector? Because I'm running short on available space on my surge protector. Thanks!!

Couple of things. He meant do you have a passive hub or a hub that comes with its own power supply. You said passive. But you may want to try an active ones.

As for the USB card, some get all the power via the PCI bus. You can also by a USB "card" that's nothing but USB ports. If you have an open jump/header for USB on your motherboard, you can buy the card and connect the cable to your motherboard.

And finally, you can buy a USB card that gets its power to the PCI interface but also have the capability to connect to extension that I just wrote about. But in that case, it may require a power source from the motherboard via a SATA cable - for power.

Finally, you can try disabling power saving for USB. Google: turn off usb power saving windows 10

Swapping out the keyboard to a motherboard port works, but my stick, throttle, and pedals are still connecting/disconnecting while on the hub.

Couple of things. He meant do you have a passive hub or a hub that comes with its own power supply. You said passive. But you may want to try an active ones.

 

 

As for the USB card, some get all the power via the PCI bus. You can also by a USB "card" that's nothing but USB ports. If you have an open jump/header for USB on your motherboard, you can buy the card and connect the cable to your motherboard.

 

 

And finally, you can buy a USB card that gets its power to the PCI interface but also have the capability to connect to extension that I just wrote about. But in that case, it may require a power source from the motherboard via a SATA cable - for power.

 

 

Finally, you can try disabling power saving for USB. Google: turn off usb power saving windows 10

I'm sorry... I completely looked over your post thinking yours was a previous post.

I'll definitely look into disabling the USB power saving, and the other hardware options. Hopefully it won't come down to spending a whole lot of cash. I'll report my results from the USB power saving options. Thanks!!

Buy a new USB hub that uses a power supply (make sure you buy a decent brand)

USB 2.0 standard is rather limited power wise, hence why I asked.

I had the same problem and have since gotten myself a USB 2.0 hub with an external power adapter. If I use e.g. my two TM MFD's, a Cougar stick, a Warthog throttle and pedals on it, I'd get disconnects from the Warthog throttle without the power adapter plugged in (and even with it it feels like on the edge of its capabilities so I fear adding more devices to it, like Track IR).

I chose a USB 2.0 powered hub due to it being cheaper and to avoid any potential incompatibility with the controllers (as the ports on my laptop are USB 3), but I guess going with a decent USB 3 hub would be a safer choice (higher power available so you won't need the external power adapter unless you go overboard with connected devices).

I'm sorry... I completely looked over your post thinking yours was a previous post.

 

I'll definitely look into disabling the USB power saving, and the other hardware options. Hopefully it won't come down to spending a whole lot of cash. I'll report my results from the USB power saving options. Thanks!!

Not a problem at all! Powered USB hubs aren't expensive, so you'll be OK if it turns out to be that. And you can stick with USB2 since joysticks can't take advantage of USB3.x speeds.

USB power saving seems to help, but not completely eradicate the problem. I still get disconnect/connect tones when I take my computer out of sleep, but they don't seem to persist anymore once I start actually doing anything on my PC.

I'm still going to look into a powered USB adapter just to be on the safe side, but things seem to be workable, at the very least, at the moment.

Good luck!