USB hub sold with G4 is not adequate; doesn't work with at least some external drives

**johnk** · 07-13-2007, 10:05 PM

I think that you guys need to choose a different USB hub to sell with the G4.

On my original G4, the USB hub did not work for my Western Digital Passport drive (the drive's power light came on, but was not seen by Windows). I went out and bought my own hub, and it worked fine.

After my G4 was stolen, I decided to try ordering the same hub again, just to see if maybe the first one was faulty. But, no, it fails just like the first one.

**7racer** · 07-22-2007, 02:28 PM

John,

what hub did you end up getting?

**johnk** · 07-29-2007, 06:17 PM

I forget what hub I got with my first G4, but the one I bought at a store recently after purchasing my second G4 also does not work with the external hard drive.

Now that I think about it, I am not 100% certain that I did find a hub that worked with the first G4... I may have only been able to get it to work when using the front USB port. But the hub was stolen with the first G4, so I can't be sure.

**7racer** · 07-29-2007, 06:21 PM

thanks. I don't have anything like a harddrive to power. I just need to power my datalogit for engine/afr monitoring; a track GPS sensor; and the bluetooth wifi. I don't think I will have a problem, but still need to test it out.

Bob

**ABTsportsline** · 09-08-2007, 02:34 AM

i think the problem comes down to power draw from the USB hub. If you are using external drives which are powered THROUGH the USB hub, you might have issues. If you use externally-powered drives, or thumb drives, you should have problem.

**Remford** · 09-26-2007, 09:15 AM

Originally Posted by ABTsportsline

i think the problem comes down to power draw from the USB hub. If you are using external drives which are powered THROUGH the USB hub, you might have issues. If you use externally-powered drives, or thumb drives, you should have problem.

Yep. The drive is going to need power from SOMEWHERE, after all. That means if there's no power directly to the drive itself, any peripheral hub it's connected to is going to have to be powered, especially given the inherently low power design inherent to CarPC's. Even if it's not mentioned specifically in the documentation, it really shouldn't be all that big a surprise.