Question USB devices "flapping" during disk activity.

[dave_the_nerd]

I have a powered USB 3 hub, AC adapter is plugged in. Have a USB DVDRW attached. Was working fine. DVD drive also has its own external PSU, but I can hear it "click" when just the USB is plugged in so I think it gets power from both.

Attached an external HDD. 3.5" 4TB. Also has its own PSU. Plugged it into the same hub and formatted it. So far so good. Connected with a USB2 cable (another USB 3 cable is in the mail) so transfers are slow, but I'm not sure that matters?

Now when I read/write data on the HDD, I hear the computer constantly making the "USB device inserted/remove" noise, and I can see the DVD drive disappearing and reappearing in the device manager and This PC windows.

I looked around in the Event Viewer, but don't see any obvious errors or reasons. And I went through the Device Manager and unchecked the "Allow computer to turn this device off" option in the power management tab of all the USB devices that had it. Neither effected anything.

The "Events" tab for the DVD drive, in the device manager, also shows no events since the initial attachment and driver installation.

I also tried a different hub and a different power adapter for the hub, and have the same issue. Nothing else plugged into the except the DVD and HDD; again, same problem.

Any ideas about where I should look for a cause?

 

[mikeymikec]

My first guess is that it's a USB compatibility issue. Does the DVD drive work perfectly while connected to that hub without the 4TB drive connected?

Two different hubs or are they the same model?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

My first guess is that it's a USB compatibility issue. Does the DVD drive work perfectly while connected to that hub without the 4TB drive connected?

Two different hubs or are they the same model?

The DVD works fine by itself, yes.

Two different hubs, different models but both USB 3. (One Amazon basics the other some weird store brand I bought on eBay a million years ago. I don’t like it because it’s got bright lights on it.)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Well... that's weird. I got the package with the new USB 3 cable, replaced the USB2 cable, and it's working fine now.

::throws USB2 cable in the trash::

I'm not sure how/why the HDD's cable would be able to disconnect the DVD drive (unless data errors were causing the hub to disconnect or reset?) but I'm not one to turn down a solution.

Also, it's been a while since I used a computer with a 3.5" HDD. They're not fast, but seeing this one push 190MB/sec writes is.... actually pretty impressive?

 

[mikeymikec]

Well... that's weird. I got the package with the new USB 3 cable, replaced the USB2 cable, and it's working fine now.

::throws USB2 cable in the trash::

I'm not sure how/why the HDD's cable would be able to disconnect the DVD drive (unless data errors were causing the hub to disconnect or reset?) but I'm not one to turn down a solution.

In the last year I've experienced a spate of USB2 A-B cables dying of apparent old age.

Also, it's been a while since I used a computer with a 3.5" HDD. They're not fast, but seeing this one push 190MB/sec writes is.... actually pretty impressive?

The Seagate Ironwolf NAS 4TB drive in my PC pushes a peak of >200MB/sec. I really should have benched the couple of 8TB drives I've rolled out in the last few years to customers (but maybe they just have more platters).

If it wasn't for me wanting a near-silent PC and higher capacity drives being more noisy and that this case very awkwardly mounts 3.5" drives, this 4TB drive's successor would have been a HDD. It's easily enough performance for random media storage.

 

[Jimminy]

Never trust any USB cable, even if it was an expensive brand named item.

USB 2 or lower is fairly forgiving, but anything above that speed, I always suspect the cable first.