Will a PCI Thunderbolt Card & Hub Fix This?

[jporteus]

Hey,

So the issue I have is that, when using a USB 3.0 hub (complete with its own power), my keyboard will just randomly disconnect.  After much research into this relatively common problem, the solution seems to be to find someone with exactly the same hardware as me, and find out which USB hub they bought that solved the problem for them - something that is complicated by most of the posts where the hardware is similar to mine involve USB hubs that are no longer available (my understanding is that I just have too much connected to it - basically, everything gets connected to it, because I have everything on a standing desk except the computer tower, so that was the easiest way to make sure all the cables are long enough).

 

If I were to install a Thunderbolt PCIe card, and grab a Thunderbolt hub, what are the chances that this would fix the issue for me?  I consider myself fairly tech savvy, but I/O standards and compatibilities just confuse me.  Or would that just be a massive waste of money, with a second USB hub dedicated just to the keyboard being a potential fix? (Ideally I just want everything plugged into one thing, so I would rather replace the USB hub with something that would work with all the devices - my understanding is that the problem is one of bandwidth, as my USB devices are mostly pretty high bandwidth items - a portable USB monitor, an audio interface, an HDMI capture card, webcam, etc.)

Edited June 1, 2022 by jporteus
edited to change the word "dock" to "hub" because duh, those are two separate things

[TheStyne]

It sounds like you're hitting a bandwidth limit, as you suggested. I've had a similar problem with my Dell WD15 USB C dock, when I have a monitor connected to it. If you have a wired keyboard, is it possible to just buy a USB extension cable and use that to connect the keyboard directly to the tower? This would avoid shared link bandwidth limitations, and would be pretty cheap to setup.

[Bombastinator]

25 minutes ago, jporteus said:

Hey,

So the issue I have is that, when using a USB 3.0 dock (complete with its own power), my keyboard will just randomly disconnect.  After much research into this relatively common problem, the solution seems to be to find someone with exactly the same hardware as me, and find out which USB dock they bought that solved the problem for them - something that is complicated by most of the posts where the hardware is similar to mine involve USB docks that are no longer available (my understanding is that I just have too much connected to it - basically, everything gets connected to it, because I have everything on a standing desk except the computer tower, so that was the easiest way to make sure all the cables are long enough).

 

If I were to install a Thunderbolt PCIe card, and grab a Thunderbolt dock, what are the chances that this would fix the issue for me?  I consider myself fairly tech savvy, but I/O standards and compatibilities just confuse me.  Or would that just be a massive waste of money, with a second USB hub dedicated just to the keyboard being a potential fix? (Ideally I just want everything plugged into one thing, so I would rather replace the USB hub with something that would work with all the devices - my understanding is that the problem is one of bandwidth, as my USB devices are mostly pretty high bandwidth items - a portable USB monitor, an audio interface, an HDMI capture card, webcam, etc.)

Pcie card?  With a dock?? Docks are a laptop thing and pcie cards are a desktop thing.  I’m confused.

[jporteus]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Pcie card?  With a dock?? Docks are a laptop thing and pcie cards are a desktop thing.  I’m confused.

Hub would probably have been the better word for me to use. My bad.

[jporteus]

2 minutes ago, TheStyne said:

It sounds like you're hitting a bandwidth limit, as you suggested. I've had a similar problem with my Dell WD15 USB C dock, when I have a monitor connected to it. If you have a wired keyboard, is it possible to just buy a USB extension cable and use that to connect the keyboard directly to the tower? This would avoid shared link bandwidth limitations, and would be pretty cheap to setup.

I probably could, but I have always had bad experiences with USB extension cables.  I'd also rather only have one cable for peripherals going from the PC to the desk if possible.

[TheStyne]

Just now, jporteus said:

I probably could, but I have always had bad experiences with USB extension cables.  I'd also rather only have one cable for peripherals going from the PC to the desk if possible.

Fair enough, I've had lots of bad extension cables too. A thunderbolt dock/hub should solve your problem, but it's going to be a pretty big investment to get the card and a decent hub. You should also watch out for hubs that claim to be "Thunderbolt" when they're actually just USB. Because Thunderbolt 3/4 support USB communications, you'll often find hubs that claim to be thunderbolt, but are really just thunderbolt compatible. My Dell WD15, for example, is one of these docks. Just make sure to read all documentation about it before purchasing.

[jporteus]

12 minutes ago, TheStyne said:

Fair enough, I've had lots of bad extension cables too. A thunderbolt dock/hub should solve your problem, but it's going to be a pretty big investment to get the card and a decent hub. You should also watch out for hubs that claim to be "Thunderbolt" when they're actually just USB. Because Thunderbolt 3/4 support USB communications, you'll often find hubs that claim to be thunderbolt, but are really just thunderbolt compatible. My Dell WD15, for example, is one of these docks. Just make sure to read all documentation about it before purchasing.

Thanks, that's what I needed to know.  "Big investment" is ok - I have the good fortune of this being my workstation, so it is tax deductible, giving me a nice little excuse to spend more than I probably need to in order to accomplish stuff like this

[Bombastinator]

45 minutes ago, jporteus said:

Hub would probably have been the better word for me to use. My bad.

Hub is a technical term.  There are USB hubs but for ethernet Hubs are rare and old.  They were replaced mostly by switches.  They’re still used sometimes by network admins to diagnose network traffic problems because they get everything on the network.  They’re not made anymore though which ironically makes them quite expensive.  You probably mean switch or WAP(wireless access point) possibly switching router (which is sort of a switch and a router in one)  this is about hub vs port replicator vs. docking station which makes things odd.  Do you have a laptop or a desktop?  

Edited June 1, 2022 by Bombastinator