Powered or unpowered USB 2.0 Hub question.

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Powered or unpowered USB 2.0 Hub question.

Do I need a powered USB 2.0 Hub? All I can find in stores are powered USB Hubs or mini hubs for labtops with a very short cable. I need one for my G5, but don't want the extra cable (ac power)if I don't need it. Have enough cables cluttering up place. One store told me they don't stock the unpowered hubs any longer because people return them asking for the powered hubs.

G4 Quicksilver

Posted on Feb 28, 2008 6:02 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 28, 2008 6:44 PM in response to Phil J

Hi! Powered hubs work better for most of the devices you'll want to use. the unpowered ones are really left to tasks such as mice and keyboards. Some flash drives will work with unpowered hubs and some won't. You are just asking for headaches using an UN-POWERED hub...get a powered one. Tom

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Answer 2

Feb 28, 2008 6:53 PM in response to Thomas Bryant

Also, many powered hubs will work as unpowered hubs. If the devices you are connecting are all low-power, it may work fine without the AC power brick. If not, just connect the power.

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Answer 3

Phil J Author

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Feb 29, 2008 10:24 AM in response to Thomas Bryant

Thanks for the info. I'll get the one at Radio Shack that I took back, and got a refund. Having never owned a hub, I was surprised they were powered.

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Answer 4

Phil J Author

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Feb 29, 2008 9:35 PM in response to Phil J

I purchased the Radio Shack 4 port USB 2.0 Hub for desktop computers. It's working without the power. Scanner and Printer operating normally.

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Answer 5

Mar 1, 2008 4:27 AM in response to Phil J

Hi! I wouldn't use it with a printer and scanner without having it's power hooked up because they may draw too much power and tripp out your usb ports and they could stop working. There's no reason NOT to use the hubs power supply. Tom

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Answer 6

Mar 1, 2008 6:53 AM in response to Phil J

Hi Phil J-

Tom is correct.

You must power the hub or you will have intermittent USB problems in the future.

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

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Answer 7

Mendette

Level 1

5 points

Apr 15, 2008 12:18 PM in response to Phil J

Can you plug a Belkin unpowered hub into a Belkin powered hub? Would the second hub then draw power from the first?

Basically, can you daisy chain USB hubs?

We have a small office and we use 4 printers, a scanner and two backup firewire drives. We have an Airport extreme plugged into our main Mac, and the powered USB Belkin hub pluged into the Airport Extreme. Trouble is we're expanding and will need two more USB ports and one Firewire. So we're wondering if we got the Belkiin 6 port combo USB Firewire hub, (which is unpowered), would it draw power from the first Belkin powered hub?

TIA

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