USB C Extension Cables

[snaphappy7530]

G'day

 

I've been struggling to wrap my head around USB C extension cables. They cause instability in devices like SSDs I plug in.

 

The Setup:

• I have a single USBC port on the back of my MB, on my PC, on the floor.
• I then plug in a ~6ft USBC male to female extension cable. (I actually have tried 2 seperate cables, each rated for 10GBPS and 100W.)
• I then have a Ugreen 10GBPS 4 port USB C/A Hub plugged into the extension cable on my desk.
• I have a card reader and external SSDs all rated at 10GBPS plugged into the hub (only 1 at a time for testing).

 

When I plug card readers or external SSDs into the hub I get unreliable results: sometimes file transfers completely fail, sometimes theyre slow (like USB2 speeds slow) or have widly variable speeds.

I have tried removing the hub all together and just plugging the external SSDs into the extension cable directly and get similar results.

Plugging any device directly into the MB port has no issues: full speed 10GBPS and consistent.

 

I am wondering if its something to do with the chips in the USBC cables causing incompatibility. Sadly most USB hubs have a built in, unremovable cables, otherwise id have the extension cable plugged directly into the hub.

 

Hoping there are some USB experts out there that know these nuances.

Thanks in advance.

 

PC Specs:

 

- MAG B550 TOMAHAWK

- Ryzen 7 5700G

- 32GB Ram

- Nvidia 2060

- Win 10 22H2 64bit

 

- U Green USBC 4 port 10GBPS hub (2x USB A, 2x USB C)

- 2x ~6ft USBC Male to Female cables. Seperate stores and brands

- Samsung T7 1TB drive

- Prograde dual UHS2 SD card reader

- Volans USBC 10GBPS exclosure with a Crucial P3 Plus 2TB PCI Gen 4 NVME SSD

[Alex Atkin UK]

7 minutes ago, snaphappy7530 said:

G'day

 

I've been struggling to wrap my head around USB C extension cables. They cause instability in devices like SSDs I plug in.

 

The Setup:

• I have a single USBC port on the back of my MB, on my PC, on the floor.
• I then plug in a ~6ft USBC male to female extension cable. (I actually have tried 2 seperate cables, each rated for 10GBPS and 100W.)
• I then have a Ugreen 10GBPS 4 port USB C/A Hub plugged into the extension cable on my desk.
• I have a card reader and external SSDs all rated at 10GBPS plugged into the hub (only 1 at a time for testing).

 

When I plug card readers or external SSDs into the hub I get unreliable results: sometimes file transfers completely fail, sometimes theyre slow (like USB2 speeds slow) or have widly variable speeds.

I have tried removing the hub all together and just plugging the external SSDs into the extension cable directly and get similar results.

Plugging any device directly into the MB port has no issues: full speed 10GBPS and consistent.

 

I am wondering if its something to do with the chips in the USBC cables causing incompatibility. Sadly most USB hubs have a built in, unremovable cables, otherwise id have the extension cable plugged directly into the hub.

 

Hoping there are some USB experts out there that know these nuances.

Thanks in advance.

The cable may be rated for 100W but the USB-C port will not be, so having the hub in the middle (assuming it has no PSU of its own) is using too much power.

 

USB drives need all the power a standard USB port can provide, and even with a powered hub may run into problems as they don't always play nice when not plugged directly into the PC port.  Just the extension cable alone may be enough to cause the drive to fail to work.

[snaphappy7530]

25 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

The cable may be rated for 100W but the USB-C port will not be, so having the hub in the middle (assuming it has no PSU of its own) is using too much power.

 

USB drives need all the power a standard USB port can provide, and even with a powered hub may run into problems as they don't always play nice when not plugged directly into the PC port.  Just the extension cable alone may be enough to cause the drive to fail to work.

Thank you.

That is looking like the case, my motherboard (MAG B550 TOMAHAWK) lists the ports under the "AMD Processor" with a 1x type A and 1x type C at 10GBPS with not much information beyond that.

Being something non standard off the chipset I bet it some weird power issue like you said, a shame as it means there isn't much of a work around.

[Alex Atkin UK]

16 minutes ago, snaphappy7530 said:

Thank you.

That is looking like the case, my motherboard (MAG B550 TOMAHAWK) lists the ports under the "AMD Processor" with a 1x type A and 1x type C at 10GBPS with not much information beyond that.

Being something non standard off the chipset I bet it some weird power issue like you said, a shame as it means there isn't much of a work around.

Unfortunately USB is still limited to 900mA at 5v aka 4.5W.  The only way around this is powering the hub, powering the drive, or if you can use Thunderbolt instead.

[snaphappy7530]

3 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Unfortunately USB is still limited to 900mA at 5v aka 4.5W.  The only way around this is powering the hub, powering the drive, or if you can use Thunderbolt instead.

I'm going to buy a dedicated PCI USB/Thunderbolt card which should deliver enough power. An expensive solution but I will report back incase someone stumbles upon this with the same question years later.

[Alex Atkin UK]

9 hours ago, snaphappy7530 said:

I'm going to buy a dedicated PCI USB/Thunderbolt card which should deliver enough power. An expensive solution but I will report back incase someone stumbles upon this with the same question years later.

There's no guarantee it will help, a USB port should never allow more than 900mA at 5v.  In Thunderbolt mode it can output more watts due to using higher voltages, so maybe a Thunderbolt hub as well would help.  I've never used one so no idea how they handle USB devices power.