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Chaining USB hubs

GotNoRice

GotNoRice

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I'm curious what sort of experiences people have when it comes to chaining a relatively large number of USB hubs together, especially mixing powered and unpowered hubs.

My setup used to go like this:

Computer to USB KVM. (VERY old, Ports are USB 1.x and even though it is a powered KVM, it doesn't seem to supply much power per port.

I have an unpowered hub connected to the USB KVM, because it's a pain to plug and unplug stuff directly into the back of the KVM.

I have my Logitech G15 keyboard plugged into that unpowered hub. The G15 itself has a built-in hub.

My mouse usually plugs into the USB ports on my G15 keyboard.


That all worked great, but when I recently upgraded to a Logitech G600 mouse, everything started flipping out. After a bit of troubleshooting, I found out that the G600 was pulling too much power, and causing the issues. Even plugging it directly into my USB KVM didn't completely fix the issues. I had to plug the G600 directly into my computer to get it to work. That is fine as a temporary solution but that won't work for any other computer connected to my KVM.

I am considering getting a powered USB hub, and installing that downstream of my KVM, to hopefully be able to provide the power my G600 needs while still allowing me to use the KVM.

Is this likely to work?
 
If the issue is it's not getting enough power directly from the KVM or the Keyboard's USB port then plugging it into a power USB HUB that's connected to either of those will indeed solve the issue.

However if the issue is not enough bandwidth on the USB 1.x port then even plugging it into a power USB hub will not solve the issue. Although I don't think a USB mouse needs more bandwidth than what a USB 1.x port can provide.
 
Why not just get a USB extender cord, skip the hub, and take the G15 straight into the back of your KVM? Or are you constantly plugging/unplugging the G15 from it for some reason?

Theoretically, you can chain a lot of USB hubs, but weakest link obviously applies, and the fewer devices you can have between your peripherals and computer the better.
 
Brian_B said:
Why not just get a USB extender cord, skip the hub, and take the G15 straight into the back of your KVM? Or are you constantly plugging/unplugging the G15 from it for some reason?
Click to expand...

I did try the G15 directly plugged into the KVM (with mouse plugged into the G15), and then after that, both the G15 and the G600 mouse plugged directly into the KVM. I had less issues with the mouse in that configuration, but it would still automatically disconnect and reconnect every 30 seconds or so. Not until I plugged my G600 directly into my computer did my issues fully go away.

One reason I am pretty sure it is a power issue is because both the keyboard and the mouse have lights that can be enabled or disabled. The issues did seem to be more severe with the lights turned on.
 
Well if it's a power issue then a good powered HUB will solve the issue completely.
 
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