USB Extension Hell

macintoshme · June 25, 2018

Update: Solved after typing all this up. Figure I would post it for posterity.

Mobo: Gigabyte AB350N Gaming Wifi

Using a long usb extension cable, the USB3.1 Gen1 (USB 3.0) ports were having intermittent issues with devices at the end of an active USB 3 extension cable. This wasn't an issue with another older computer. Went through the troubleshooting below. Last thing I hadn't tried was to use the USB3.1 Gen2 ports. I tried that without the other hub and the original issue disappeared.

Original post:

In lots of good stories, there is a time when a character flashes back and reflects on when their or someone else's life went horribly wrong. Someone will look back at this forum post a decade from now and said this is where @macintoshme started his descent.

I am not a huge fan of wireless peripherals, but they are, at times, a necessary evil. I do my best to eliminate them from my setups as they seem to hinder my productivity and often require troubleshooting beyond what I want to do (2.4 interference, maintaining batteries, dealing with range). In my living room, I have what I consider a very respectable setup. I setup a gaming computer which had a usb3 powered extension cable running behind my TV and couches to a rear couch with a powered usb3 hub on it. I felt very clever having the hub there as it fixes all the issues with the extension (low power) and allows us to charge our phones while on the couch.

This setup worked fine with my ga-z77-ud3h rig that I sold a few months ago. After I sold it, I thought I just wouldn't have a media computer as I can stream everything with the TV, no big loss as I rather game at my BattleStation. The ITX bug bit me and I ended up with another higher end spare gamer which is even more at home in my living room as it has bluetooth and an integrated Xbox One receiver. However, I just went to plug the old extension cable in and it said it could not recognize the device at the end of the chain (Aukey USB3 Hub). I plug a crumby old dell mouse in and it works. I tried a Dell Keyboard with an integrated hub and I get the same warning. I tested the hub, it works fine.

I have moved the extension around to different ports and found that no matter what when plugged into onboard, it gives that error for anything other than the mouse. I figured it was likely a power issues. I then grabbed another hub I had, put it in front of the exension, now most everything in the downstream hub is working, however that mouse is now jumping off and on. I moved it over to the Dell's keyboard USB ports and now it is stable.

This is driving me nuts. I had this working Mobo -> Extension -> Aukey USB3 Hub with my old Gigabyte board. Now I am doing Mobo -> Small Aukey 3.0 Hub -> Extension ->Hub ->Dell Hub-> Keyboard and Mouse. Gagtastic.

Fixed the issue, right at the end of typing all this up I had and idea: I think the USB 3.1 Gen2 is an actual different controller, trying that.