Sometimes, I have to switch USB dongle for keyboard and/or mouse from USB power bar to USB on my PC Laptop. Does anyone know what causes this? (3 Viewers)

[Tony Bensley]

Basically, this issue is as stated in the above title, minus the reason, which I will clarify.

Over the last few years with my current setup, sometimes the USB dongle for wireless keyboard and/or mouse will cease to work in the power bar, BUT will function once I transfer it to a USB port on my Acer PC Laptop.

Recently, I got a new logi wireless keyboard/wireless mouse that works on a single USB dongle. I've had it for just about 2 weeks, and until this morning, the USB dongle was in my USB power bar setup, which is connected to my PC Laptop. However, this morning, neither my wireless mouse or keyboard would function, though I didn't realize the latter, at first. Meantime, I did a AA battery switch for my wireless mouse, which of course, proved to be a non issue. Sure enough, it turned out the USB Dongle wasn't functioning in its USB power bar setting. Switching to the spare USB port on my Laptop did return full functionality.

The spare Blue Lit USB slot is where I previously had the USB Dongle for keyboard and mouse connected on my USB power bar:

Where my Keyboard/Mouse USB Dongle is currently connected. This morning, I had to move it here to restore Keyboard and Mouse Function, which had ceased. The USB Dongle is just to the right of the Black & Blue Bell HDMI cable:

My logi Wireless Mouse/Keyboard and USB Dongle setup. The Masking Tape is to cover up the PC sleep button I keep accidentally pressing! :

This issue isn't a new one for me, and admittedly falls under the annoying rather than catastrophic category. That said, I am curious as to what even causes this to occur in the first place? I also anticipate having to do a switch back, at some point.

Has anyone else on here experienced this or similar issues with periodically having to switch between different USB ports with USB Dongles for their keyboard and/or mouse?

CHEERS!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Your external USB hub may be experiencing brief connection interruptions with your PC. While other devices (printers, scanners, etc) can tolerate these interruptions, keyboards and mice can be more sensitive to an interruption.

Is there a reason you cannot simply use a port on the PC for the dongle? I always plug such a dongle directly into the PC.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Your external USB hub may be experiencing brief connection interruptions with your PC. While other devices (printers, scanners, etc) can tolerate these interruptions, keyboards and mice can be more sensitive to an interruption.

Is there a reason you cannot simply use a port on the PC for the dongle? I always plug such a dongle directly into the PC.

How does a brief connection interruption completely cut keyboard and mouse function, though? Especially considering the wireless for the keyboard and mouse isn't Bluetooth, which I've found can be rather fraught, connection wise!

To answer your question, it's a combination of personal preference, and two out of my three free PC based USB ports are already dedicated to my USB power bar, and my main external mass storage device, the latter of which for reasons unknown to me, won't work on said power bar. Just one of those inexplicable annoying things!

CHEERS!

 

[Todd Erwin]

It could also be the USB hub you are using. I have found that more recognizable brands tend to be more reliable than no-name brands often found on Amazon. Also, the more ports on a USB hub, the less reliable the hub can be. Good brands for these types of peripherals that I often purchase from Amazon without much thought are Anker and Sabrent.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

To answer your question, it's a combination of personal preference, and two out of my three free PC based USB ports are already dedicated to my USB power bar, and my main external mass storage device, the latter of which for reasons unknown to me, won't work on said power bar . Just one of those inexplicable annoying things!

CHEERS!

You have another device that has issues with the same USB hub? Maybe the issue is with the hub.

 

[Tony Bensley]

You have another device that has issues with the same USB hub? Maybe the issue is with the hub.

I think I know what happened in this instance.

Just a little while ago while using my Tablet, I discovered that it was only reading its USB-C plug-in, which is also plugged in to the USB power bar, as a charger. The Tablet also would not read on my PC Windows Explorer.

I restarted my Tablet, which did nothing, but restarting my PC did render the Tablet readable on my PC and vice versa. The Keyboard/Mouse Dongle now also works in the USB power bar, once again.

So there you have it. For some unknown reason, something on my Windows PC was preventing my USB power bar from functioning as anything other than a charger!

Go figure!

Big thanks to everyone for your kind input!

CHEERS!

 

[BobO'Link]

Does that USB power bar have an external power source or does it pull its power from the PC? If from the PC it's very possible you're overloading it with devices. That your external USB storage device won't work on it is somewhat telling that the "power bar" likely can't provide enough power for everything plugged in (if it's powered from the PC then it's splitting the power from the 2 USB ports it's using among all the connected devices - there's a limit at which things stop working, won't work, or get wonky). Storage devices without a power source of their own draw more power through the port than many other devices. One USB to SATA adapter I have uses 2 ports for 3.5" drives due to the extra power they require. If either is unplugged it will not work.

Having devices begin to work after restarting your PC points to USB overload on the computer's USB root hubs and one or more shut down in response.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Does that USB power bar have an external power source or does it pull its power from the PC? If from the PC it's very possible you're overloading it with devices. That your external USB storage device won't work on it is somewhat telling that the "power bar" likely can't provide enough power for everything plugged in (if it's powered from the PC then it's splitting the power from the 2 USB ports it's using among all the connected devices - there's a limit at which things stop working, won't work, or get wonky). Storage devices without a power source of their own draw more power through the port than many other devices. One USB to SATA adapter I have uses 2 ports for 3.5" drives due to the extra power they require. If either is unplugged it will not work.

Having devices begin to work after restarting your PC points to USB overload on the computer's USB root hubs and one or more shut down in response.

The USB power bar does have an external AC power source, so splitting power among the devices shouldn't be an issue, nor should it be the source of my one External Hard Drive not working on that power bar. I do have a different, older External Hard Drive that does work on my power bar.

CHEERS!

P.S. Now, I do remember what the issue was with my one External Hard Drive. It is my lone drive that is set up for USB 3.0, and I would plug it in to my lone PC based USB 3.0 slot. The USB power bar is also 3.0, but this is where it gets weird. When I first got my USB 3.0 power bar, I naturally plugged it into my lone 3.0 USB slot. That worked out fine, BUT for some unknown reason, the one device that wouldn't read on my Windows PC with that setup was, you guessed it, my one actual USB 3.0 External HD device, which would nevertheless only read if the USB 3.0 power bar was plugged into one of the other PC based USB 2.0 slots! At that point, I simply reattached my USB 3.0 External Hard Drive to the USB 3.0 slot, and settled for one of the USB 2.0 slots for plugging in the USB power bar.

 

[BobO'Link]

The USB power bar does have an external AC power source, so splitting power among the devices shouldn't be an issue, nor should it be the source of my one External Hard Drive not working on that power bar. I do have a different, older External Hard Drive that does work on my power bar.

CHEERS!

P.S. Now, I do remember what the issue was with my one External Hard Drive. It is my lone drive that is set up for USB 3.0, and I would plug it in to my lone PC based USB 3.0 slot. The USB power bar is also 3.0, but this is where it gets weird. When I first got my USB 3.0 power bar, I naturally plugged it into my lone 3.0 USB slot. That worked out fine, BUT for some unknown reason, the one device that wouldn't read on my Windows PC with that setup was, you guessed it, my one actual USB 3.0 External HD device, which would nevertheless only read if the USB 3.0 power bar was plugged into one of the other PC based USB 2.0 slots! At that point, I simply reattached my USB 3.0 External Hard Drive to the USB 3.0 slot, and settled for one of the USB 2.0 slots for plugging in the USB power bar.

That *is* odd... a USB3 device should work just fine in a USB2 port - just with slower transfer speeds.

And, yes, with external power there shouldn't be an issue with power splitting. Have you tried other ports for the dongle? It could be as simple as one port having an issue of some type.

 

[Tony Bensley]

That *is* odd... a USB3 device should work just fine in a USB2 port - just with slower transfer speeds.

And, yes, with external power there shouldn't be an issue with power splitting. Have you tried other ports for the dongle? It could be as simple as one port having an issue of some type.

And a USB 3 device should absolutely work on a USB 3 power bar that is plugged into a PC's USB 3 port, yet nope in the case of my USB 3 External Hard Drive!

 

[John Dirk]

BUT for some unknown reason, the one device that wouldn't read on my Windows PC with that setup was, you guessed it, my one actual USB 3.0 External HD device, which would nevertheless only read if the USB 3.0 power bar was plugged into one of the other PC based USB 2.0 slots!

That sounds like a driver issue. The USB power bar may be capable of supporting USB 3.0 but may not have a proper driver installed to do so, causing it to fallback to USB 2.0.

 

[BobO'Link]

That sounds like a driver issue. The USB power bar may be capable of supporting USB 3.0 but may not have a proper driver installed to do so, causing it to fallback to USB 2.0.

Yeah... gotta love USB for *finally* "solving" the lack of drivers issue, eh?

 

[Tony Bensley]

That sounds like a driver issue. The USB power bar may be capable of supporting USB 3.0 but may not have a proper driver installed to do so, causing it to fallback to USB 2.0.

This sounds like the likeliest explanation that I've heard so far. Just how do I get the right driver to overcome such an issue, assuming this is the case?

CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

Yeah... gotta love USB for *finally* "solving" the lack of drivers issue, eh?

This sounds like the likeliest explanation that I've heard so far. Just how do I get the right driver to overcome such an issue, assuming this is the case?

CHEERS!

USB Driver issues may indeed, be the culprit. When plugging everything into the USB 3 power bar with the power bar plugged into my PC’s USB 3 slot, NONE of the USB 3 devices, including my USB 3 External Hard Drive and my External Blu-ray Drive, display on my Windows Explorer Device page. Only non USB 3 devices, including my USB 2 External Hard Drive and USB-C Galaxy A Tablet will read with that setup.

All devices read when the USB 3 power bar is connected to one of my PC’s USB 2 ports. Unfortunately for me, this means slower than necessary performance for my External Hard Drive and Pioneer Blu-ray Device!

Way to go, USB!!!

 

[Tony Bensley]

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[Tony Bensley]

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[Tony Bensley]

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[Tony Bensley]

Sorry about the duplicate posts. Lately, HTF has been stalling and hiccupping on me a lot!!!

 

[Tony Bensley]

USB Driver issues may indeed, be the culprit. When plugging everything into the USB 3 power bar with the power bar plugged into my PC’s USB 3 slot, NONE of the USB 3 devices, including my USB 3 External Hard Drive and my External Blu-ray Drive, display on my Windows Explorer Device page. Only non USB 3 devices, including my USB 2 External Hard Drive and USB-C Galaxy A Tablet will read with that setup.

All devices read when the USB 3 power bar is connected to one of my PC’s USB 2 ports. Unfortunately for me, this means slower than necessary performance for my External Hard Drive and Pioneer Blu-ray Device!

Way to go, USB!!!

After rebooting my PC, which helped with my multiple post issues, a quick google search for my atolla USB 3.0 power bar led me to the device driver page I've posted below:

Sadly, this hasn't solved my problem, although some multiple failed attempts for the app to read my USB 3 devices indicate to me that device drivers are indeed, the culprit!

Way to go with providing "functioning" USB 3.0 device drivers, atolla!!!

P.S. To top it off, the installed atolla USB 3.0 device drivers were somehow preventing the atolla 3.0 power bar from reading anything on the power bar even when plugged in one of the PC's USB 2.0 ports! I had to uninstall atolla's useless crap app just to get THAT working again!!!

 

[John Dirk]

This sounds like the likeliest explanation that I've heard so far. Just how do I get the right driver to overcome such an issue, assuming this is the case?

CHEERS!

Sadly, if the Windows universal drivers don't work you're left to the mercy of manufacturers, who are all too quick to abandon legacy product support. Sometimes you can find drivers on 3rd party repositories such as Github.

I get caught in the duplicate posts loop from time to time too.