Problem with usb-a when conecting two external hard drives in differente ports!

[dreis86]

So i found a problem (maybe) that when i connect a external hard drive to usb-a port and then connect a second hard drive to the other port the first external hard drive disconnects momentarily and then reconnects. Does this happens in your machines too?is this normal? i have a zephyrus g14(22) with a rizen 9 and the Rx6800s

[Biohazard777]

3 minutes ago, dreis86 said:

So i found a problem (maybe) that when i connect a external hard drive to usb-a port and then connect a second hard drive to the other port the first external hard drive disconnects momentarily and then reconnects. Does this happens in your machines too?is this normal? i have a zephyrus g14(22) with a rizen 9 and the Rx6800s

I wouldn't call it normal.
Right now I've got 3 external drives (2x HDD via USB-A, 1x NVME via USB-C) connected to ThinkCentre M720q Tiny (not really a laptop, but pretty much one... laptop like mobo, sodimm, powered via power brick), all work simultaneously without issues. I've also had recently two external HDDs connected to my main laptop (Legion 5 Pro) without any issues/disconnects.

Sounds like your laptop isn't outputting enough amps on those usb ports, or your external drives are built out of spec (using more than 0.9A via USB 3).
Is the external HDD or SSD? HDDs draw more current while spinning up (and not require that much power to keep it spinning).

You could get a nice powered usb hub, that would probably solve the issue for you.

[mariushm]

The drives consume a lot of power when starting up, potentially more than what a single usb port is designed for (0.5v x 0.9a = 4.5w)

Some motherboards use a resettable fuse or some protection mechanism that trips when more than 2-2.5A of current is consumed by a pair of ports at any time. So it's possible that the active drive PLUS the second drive spinning up could go over that threshold and cause the USB ports to reset.

 

 

[dreis86]

6 minutes ago, Biohazard777 said:

I wouldn't call it normal.
Right now I've got 3 external drives (2x HDD via USB-A, 1x NVME via USB-C) connected to ThinkCentre M720q Tiny (not really a laptop, but pretty much one... laptop like mobo, sodimm, powered via power brick), all work simultaneously without issues. I've also had recently two external HDDs connected to my main laptop (Legion 5 Pro) without any issues/disconnects.

Sounds like your laptop isn't outputting enough amps on those usb ports, or your external drives are built out of spec (using more than 0.9A via USB 3).
Is the external HDD or SSD? HDDs draw more current while spinning up (and not require that much power to keep it spinning).

You could get a nice powered usb hub, that would probably solve the issue for you.

one is a  2.5" Toshiba 4TB USB 3.2 Canvio Ready and and the other is a wd elements 1tb , but i try with other external hard drives is always the same results. could it be a faulty pair of ports?

 

[dreis86]

4 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The drives consume a lot of power when starting up, potentially more than what a single usb port is designed for (0.5v x 0.9a = 4.5w)

Some motherboards use a resettable fuse or some protection mechanism that trips when more than 2-2.5A of current is consumed by a pair of ports at any time. So it's possible that the active drive PLUS the second drive spinning up could go over that threshold and cause the USB ports to reset.

 

 

one is a  2.5" Toshiba 4TB USB 3.2 Canvio Ready and and the other is a wd elements 1tb , but i try with other external hard drives is always the same results. could it be a faulty pair of ports? they are connected in diferent ports and after disconecting and connecting they keep connect 

 

[Biohazard777]

6 minutes ago, dreis86 said:

one is a  2.5" Toshiba 4TB USB 3.2 Canvio Ready and and the other is a wd elements 1tb , but i try with other external hard drives is always the same results. could it be a faulty pair of ports?

Perhaps... that really should not be happening since you are not using some exotic external 3.5" dock from AliExpress.

If one of your USB-C ports is free you could try plugging one of your external HDDs into that (you'd need a different cable, not sure if those drives came with  USB-C to Micro USB 3), as I'd expect power delivery to be different to A and C ports. 
 

[Alex Atkin UK]

48 minutes ago, dreis86 said:

one is a  2.5" Toshiba 4TB USB 3.2 Canvio Ready and and the other is a wd elements 1tb , but i try with other external hard drives is always the same results. could it be a faulty pair of ports? they are connected in diferent ports and after disconecting and connecting they keep connect 

 

Motherboard USB ports aren't independent of each other, they are grouped into specific USB controllers, most obviously seen these days by different ports supporting different speeds.  The trick with a problem like this is to try different ports so the drives are on different controllers, or avoid USB powered drives entirely as like mentioned above they tend to have very high startup and write currents. 

 

Most 2.5" drives current ratings are higher than even USB 3, its amazing they work at all and my guess is because those ratings are mostly about the startup current and the fact USB ports are effectively bundled together, each controller can output more than the USB 3 rating - except if you end up with two drives on the same USB controller/power plane.