USB Swap Shop

Barewolf · 25-10-2007, 23:19

I have 2 ports on the back of the PC. I freed one because on the front i have a Card reader with a USB, so to save time i usually put my webcam in there, and swap it to put my Digicam in. Now though i have a new GF tablet plugged into it so i put cam in the rear USB but it wont pick the camera up. Is it assigned to the Card reader when I installed it? And if so can i change it? It wont let me re install the cam in the slot in the rear, So confused here.

jonifen · 26-10-2007, 00:02

Devices aren't tied to particular USB ports, but I have come across problems where devices won't work in particular ports. My USB flash key (for example) won't work in the front USB ports unless its plugged into an extension lead (all of a sudden, a flash key + extension lead doesn't seem quite so portable!) so I have to plug it into the back instead.

I don't have a clue what the reasons are for this happening like this. Out of curiousity, you don't happen to have a Gigabyte motherboard do you? As I do, and my partner used to have one and she had USB issues also... yet she doesn't anymore on her new PC!

26-10-2007, 00:11

try an active hub(on front usb) should be able to pick on up cheap but buy and active one not passive

other option maybe would be to uninstall the root hubs in system and allow windows to refind them

Stuart · 26-10-2007, 01:33

I've found that different USB sockets provide different maximum currents. I know that they all offer the same current in theory, but I find that if you have a device that uses nearly (or even slightly over) that maximum current (such as a bus-powered hard drive), it may not function properly.

Although I find that the rear ports (assuming they are mounted directly on the motherboard) tend to cope with high current better than the front ports.

Barewolf · 26-10-2007, 03:02

front port works great for anything, got 8 on the monitor but cant seem to get that working, try that tomorrow but i dont want a hub if i have 8 on the monitor, will that work or do i need to rigg up monitor software? i assume its not going to plug and play?

26-10-2007, 09:46

The front sockets are on a different root hub to the rears. Sounds like there is a config problem on the root hubs at the back a refresh of these could sort it

The monitor will need a cable id imagine going from the hub on there to a socket on the tpwer. Have a look and see if there is a usb port on the monitor somewhere

TheNorm · 26-10-2007, 12:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barewolf

... Now though i have a new GF tablet plugged into it ...

Is that a new girlfriend, or does she have a new tablet?

dragon · 26-10-2007, 14:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barewolf

I have 2 ports on the back of the PC. I freed one because on the front i have a Card reader with a USB, so to save time i usually put my webcam in there, and swap it to put my Digicam in. Now though i have a new GF tablet plugged into it so i put cam in the rear USB but it wont pick the camera up. Is it assigned to the Card reader when I installed it? And if so can i change it? It wont let me re install the cam in the slot in the rear, So confused here.

Maybe becuase windows is to stupid to relise that if you plug the device into a different port its STILL the same device and that it Does not need a new driver for it.

Number of times i've had the pc out to do some work (i.e add a new card) put it back only to get "found new hardware" prompts for various usb devices because I happened not to plug them into exactly the same ports they were in beforehand.

With the card reader the drivers are built into windows and therefore it will just install them again, but with the camera this may not be the case.