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General discussion

USB Hubs: POWERED vs. NON-POWERED

May 10, 2006 4:09PM PDT

I NEED to upgrade my little laptop USB 4-port hub to a 7-port hub. I've noticed there are hubs that are "powered". What are the advantages to getting a powered hub vs. a non-powered hub?

The ports on my laptop are all USB 2.0, but unfortunately, there are only 3 ports. If it makes any difference, I'm on a PC with Windows XP Home SP2 with an AMD Mobile Sempron 2800 processor.

The peripherals to be connected include: printer, flatbed scanner, ipod, PDA, card reader, laptop cooler, and a mouse.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Discussion is locked

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It's a power issue. 500 mA to be exact.
May 10, 2006 11:20PM PDT

The common unpowered hub (a misnomer?) does use the 500 mA given to it on it's host connection. If the devices that you plug into the hub (4 or 7 ports will not matter) exceed this supply then you need a powered hub.

Since powered hubs are cheep on newegg.com or geeks.com if I was getting a 7 port hub I'd get the powered one.

Bob

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USB Power issue
May 18, 2006 8:50PM PDT

I agree with R. Proffit
It is a power issue with USB ports.

Just to be on the safe side always use a powered hub.

I have several PC's on a local network that all have lots of USB devices hooked up to them, so I have run into this problem before.

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powered hub
May 25, 2006 9:40PM PDT

ran across a 7 port hub that was powered...read the review and it need 2 ports to run...one for the connection...the other to access power. i would read every review of every one you are looking to buy...i found the tiger direct and buy.com reviews helpful...and that saved me time and trouble (i hope) purchased 7 port hub for for $21 from buy.com ...primarily because of reviews and price...i have a 4 port that is being outgrown...run turtle beach audio advantage...print driver...mouse...plus flash drive occasionally and we are kidding ourselves to think that all items will be released with anything other than usb connections.