hick Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 Well at work they gave me a laptop to simplify programming stuff. I have a linksys wireless usb adapter and when i plug it in it says it will perform better in a powered usb drive. I tried it on all the usb ports on the computer (only 2) and they both say that. So my question is if i get a powered usb hub will that fix my problem? The adapter works but it is REALLY slow. I would also like to be able to use my Zune, and Motorola Razr on it. So would a hub help that or am i just crap out of luck? Thanks OH its a HP Pavilion ze4500 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
romeo55 Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 Yep it should. (You'll need to plug in an AC external adapter into the hub though). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdingeling Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 Well, I used to have an HP Pavilion ze4605ea, which did not have USB 2.0 support, do I'd venture a wild guess and say the ze4500 series wouldn't have any either... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
romeo55 Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 Well, I used to have an HP Pavilion ze4605ea, which did not have USB 2.0 support, do I'd venture a wild guess and say the ze4500 series wouldn't have any either... Didn't even think about that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewr05 Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 (edited) USB 1.0 was powered as well, what does it not being 2.0 have to do with it? Unless you were reffering to: The adapter works but it is REALLY slow.He is referring to the adapter not the onboard usb ports themselves... Which would make sense and I'm an idiot... Them not being USB 2.0 would affect the speed but it SHOULD NOT be that noticeable. I've ran Wifi dongles off of 1.0 USB ports on multiple occasions and it works fine... Max USB 1.0 throughput: 12Mbits Max 802.11 B throughput: 11Mbits (G is 54 max/19 net throughput) Now take for instance the fact that most ADSL offers around 8Mbits it won't be maxed out ever. Most Cable services are frequently around the speed of 10Mbits as well, of course there are higher options... Of course it will be slow for networking but having a faster adapter than you're connection can provide doesn't make it go faster... /rant off... Edited March 9, 2008 by Andrewr05 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcticBirdman Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 I have an old Thinkpad A31p which also only had USB 1.0. I use a 4 port externally powered PCMCIA card which makes a big difference in speeds. Mine was made by OrangeMicro(no longer in business), but you can find others that make something similar. It is important to be powered externally as powered supplied to PCMCIA card is not sufficient to provided power levels required to the USB ports. James Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cchalogamer Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 Them not being USB 2.0 would affect the speed but it SHOULD NOT be that noticeable. Max USB 1.0 throughput: 12Mbits Except you seem forget 12Mbits MAX means just that, in burst, USB 2.0 highspeed whatever the heck they officially labeled it support a max of 480Mbits, yet in reality the average transfer speed is much slower, my experence puts it around 1/2 that with an external HDD that is fully capable of higher speeds when used under firewire 400. So taking 1/2 of 12Mbits you could end up with a VERY slow connection on a netwrk (it's a work laptop used for programming so ill assume backups of everything to a server which will take forever) Now, back to the powered portion of the question, even to date many laptops dont have powered USB ports, or only have a few of them to help in saving battery life and load put on them. So it's entirely possible that the wireless adapter needs more power to boost signal and that would then cause it to have a crappy and even slower connection So in short, the hub should help...but it might not help out a lot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nodgiles Posted March 10, 2008 Posted March 10, 2008 Many laptops, older pc's as well as newer macs, have powered usb ports that just simply dont put out "enough" power for many devices. You can purchase a USB splitter that will allow you to draw power off of 2 ports instead of just one. This is most commonly seen when trying to use external hard drives. The only question is if your laptops USB ports are close enough together to support this option. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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