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I could use some help with a very odd (and annoying) problem that I am experiencing on my desktop PCs.
I currently have two desktops, both running on Linux. On my main rig, the casing's front USB ports are konked out so I ran a USB extender cable from one of the rear USB ports to a 4-port USB hub. It's a cheap, $1 extender cable you get from those bargain shops.
On this rig, I have nothing but problems with the cable. When the cable is used to power the hub, it handles the mouse, keyboard and USB speaker, but with the occasional sudden loss of signal which requires the cable to disconnected and connected again. if I add a USB device such as my WiFi adapter, phone, or a thumbdrive to the 4th port, the whole thing fizzles out and Linux throws a fit. I tried taking out the hub and connecting just my USB WiFi adapter / thumbdrive to the extender cable, and poof, in a few minutes the signal to the device is lost and Linux starts throwing another hissy fit.
But for SOME reason, if i replace the cheap USB extender cable with another cheap one that came with my USB wifi adapter, everything is groovy. I can populate all 4 ports on the hub without ever suffering any signal drops. Same when I plug out the hub and connect my devices directly to the USB extender cable.
Now you'd think that the issue lies clearly with the cheap $1 cable. But for some very, very weird reason, when I take this cheap cable and plug it into the following:
- A Windows-based notebook
- My Surface RT
- A dual-processor Linux workstation (the 2nd Linux desktop)
the cheap $1 cable works perfectly fine, whether it's a hub or a USB device connected to it. And yet, when I bring it back to my desktop, everything goes haywire.
I am baffled. Even the kernel logs do not report anything. Anyone got any suggestions?
I currently have two desktops, both running on Linux. On my main rig, the casing's front USB ports are konked out so I ran a USB extender cable from one of the rear USB ports to a 4-port USB hub. It's a cheap, $1 extender cable you get from those bargain shops.
On this rig, I have nothing but problems with the cable. When the cable is used to power the hub, it handles the mouse, keyboard and USB speaker, but with the occasional sudden loss of signal which requires the cable to disconnected and connected again. if I add a USB device such as my WiFi adapter, phone, or a thumbdrive to the 4th port, the whole thing fizzles out and Linux throws a fit. I tried taking out the hub and connecting just my USB WiFi adapter / thumbdrive to the extender cable, and poof, in a few minutes the signal to the device is lost and Linux starts throwing another hissy fit.
But for SOME reason, if i replace the cheap USB extender cable with another cheap one that came with my USB wifi adapter, everything is groovy. I can populate all 4 ports on the hub without ever suffering any signal drops. Same when I plug out the hub and connect my devices directly to the USB extender cable.
Now you'd think that the issue lies clearly with the cheap $1 cable. But for some very, very weird reason, when I take this cheap cable and plug it into the following:
- A Windows-based notebook
- My Surface RT
- A dual-processor Linux workstation (the 2nd Linux desktop)
the cheap $1 cable works perfectly fine, whether it's a hub or a USB device connected to it. And yet, when I bring it back to my desktop, everything goes haywire.
I am baffled. Even the kernel logs do not report anything. Anyone got any suggestions?
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