Octopus Overlords

Had a nice aluminum USB3 hub with a switch that I can just turn off/off rather than unplug replug. I am started to get used to the idea of individually on/off ports as I have a USB 3 hub with that and it's very useful in resetting the peripheral without unplugging and replugging. Any way, the device started intermittently disconnecting and reconnecting. At first I couldn't figure out which device, until I noticed my G13 pad is going on/off like clockwork. I unplugged that, but it's STILL going on, which basically leaves that hub as the culprit.

I have 2 more USB 3 hubs, but neither have the nice switches. I'm debating whether I should buy one with the the switches, or make use of the generic Dynex 4 port, and a Hootoo 10 port (both of which I need to find the power adapter, hahaha)

Ehh... My Hootoo turned out to be a 7 port. Hehehe. And I found the power adapter, so it's working now. My keyboard still has some repeat issues, but it's at least not disconnecting periodically.

It wasn't the hub.

Or at least, it wasn't a particular hub.

I thought I got it narrowed down to the mouse, but the problems continue even after I unplug the mouse.

Basically, all of my hubs are randomly unplugging and replugging themselves. And I do mean all of them.

I am using 1 USB2 port and 2 USB3 ports. I have one hub on each.

I was experiencing random "splash" (disconnect/connect) sounds. I couldn't identify what was causing them.

A bit of searching brought me to Nirsoft's USBBLogView, which logs USB events.

Even as I type this, the log informed me that the hub that connected my joystick, my mouse, and other stuff, had disconnected and reconnected within 1 second. WTF?

I was pretty sure it's USB3 related now, as I've moved things around and there are no problems with just my USB2 hub connected with mouse, keyboard, joystick.

But I've swapped peripherals from the 3-4 USB3 hubs I have and they are still going on. WTF?

But with ONLY ONE USB3 port in use, I'm not getting any disconnects.

Maybe my system is just too old.

Could it be power?

Turned off power management earlier. Guess I can try checking the power supply again. But the problem is now resolved, at least for the time being. Haven't had the unplugging sound for 30 minutes now, should not be coming back at all.

I guess it could have been one of my USB3 ports?

Dont know. The big tech guy I used to be got lost and I dont even know if I have USB3 ports now days. Thats kinda sad.

They're blue.

Sometimes I really wish plug-and-play was true, instead of trying to debug things left and right.

I set my Drive XML Image to backup my F: drive and went to sleep

Woke up, it died at 9%, and my drive w/ dock was no longer connected. WTF?!

Tried unplug, replug, unplug, replug, nothing. It gets power, but PC won't recognize it.

Reboot!

Unplug, replug, nothing.

Unplug, SLOWLY push in to replug... nothing.

Slowly unplug... It came back to life. WTF? I pushed in the port too hard?

Besides, it's a PITA to decipher device manager. Turns out there are a ton of "composite" peripherals in your PC. A Soundcard is considered a composite peripheral because it has both an audio in and audio out, and that means it needs its own hub, so it appears as FOUR devices in device manager:

* USB Composite Device
* USB Hub
* USB Audio Out
* USB Input device (microphone)

Argh.

Update.

Not sure WTF is the problem with the hub, but my HD Dock connected to the USB3 hub takes a WHOLE DAY to back up my 600 GB HD. And last two nights, it simply quit at 9%, and magically unplugged itself.

So I tried something different... I plugged the HD dock directly to my PC's other USB3 port, instead of through a hub.

The backup is half done, at only 3 hours spent. WTF, the hub was partly at fault. ARGH.