Desktop PC USB Ports

[valkyrie]

I just bought a new Dell G5 Desktop PC. Nice powerful machine but no internal optical drive. I use my PC to rip Audio CDs so bought a cheap external drive. Tried it plugged in to one of the front USB ports and it didn't work. Could read the file names okay but dbPoweramp couldn't rip any of the tracks on numerous CDs. Before sending it back to Amazon I read the drive instructions and they recommended using one of the USB ports on the back of the PC. I did and it worked! While I'm happy I've got a solution I'm really intrigued now as to why the front and back ports don't behave the same. Any ideas? Both were USB 3.0 ports.

[philip]

I would guess the front ports cannot supply as much current/power. USB only guarantees a relatively low power, higher powers are optional. Motherboards may prioritise the rear ports because they are essentially complete and known, while front ports rely on non-motherboard components.

[grams]

The ports on the front are probably connected with spindly high-resistance cables which means if you draw a significant current the voltage coming out of them is considerably less than 5V.

[Afasoas]

USB ports on modern devices are driving me nuts.

There are now around 11 different specifications for power delivery alone. It maybe the rear ports support the USB 3.1/3.2 standard and the front ports are USB 3.0/3.1.. Or it could be down to power delivery as other posters have already said.

Between laptop, dock and hub, I seem to have around five different types of port to contend with. Add to that, some ports will continue to charge devices whilst the laptop is turned off. Others won't. Some will accept a charge. Others won't. Some are multi-lane. Some support display port/HDMI alternate mode. I figure it's now a case of know your ports.

[Ham]

So many standards. We need a new standard that we can use to make all of those old ones useless.


(and a subsidiary rant aimed at google, one of the early advocates of USB C - why the holy fuck do your Nest hubs have dedicated non-standard power supplies??)

[Greenbank]

So many standards. We need a new standard that we can use to make all of those old ones useless.

https://xkcd.com/927/