Problem with connecting USB devices to PC

Hello guys,

I hope that some of you have some experience and can help me.

When I try to connect all my racing gear to PC through multiple USB hubs, almost every time some of them doesn't work.
For example: HTC Vive is not recognised by SteamVR or OSW is not responding.

After multiple restarts I got lucky, but lately when I added new rim I can't start racing if I don't unplug some stuff, for example handbrake.

I saw the thread about best USB hubs for connecting gear and I think that I'm fine because I'm using:
ORICO H7928-U3-V1 USB hub.

Order in which I try to connect everything is:
-ORICO USB hub is connected to PC
- to ORICO USB hub I connect:
-HTC Vive link box
-OSW simucube direct drive wheel ( 2 USB-s )
-ProtoSimTech pedals
-wheel rim
-and small USB hub without power supply on which i have connected:
-arduino board for wind simulator
-small numpad keyboard
-SHH shifter
-handbrake

Is there some rule of thumb which I should follow when connecting so many things?
Am I doing something wrong?
Should I maybe change my motherboard or power supply?
My PC specs:
i7-4790K
Z97X-GAMING 3 motherboard
CORSAIR TX 650W power supply which is now 10+ years old or maybe even older
16 GB RAM
MSI gtx 1080

I really don't know what to do anymore and I hope that there is some solution.

Thanks in advance :)
 
How long is the cable from the USB hub to the computer? You've either saturated the bandwidth, or have too much EMI interference.

I would use the the HTC Vive link box direct to the PC if I were you, or on a separate good quality USB 3 extension cable if its too far. I don't have a Vive but know running Oculus plugging into a hub is a big no no. I think VR tracking uses a lot of USB bandwidth.

Also OSWs are renowned for creating EMI interference issues, depending on the design and quality of the cables you have connecting the motor to the control box, you might want to try adding a grounding cable from your rig to the OSW motor, perhaps you may want this run the USB from this direct to the PC as well. You don't strictly need 2 plugged in at all times, as one is just for uploading firmware. The one that is for inputs is the important one.

Another thing to add is to attach a ferrite choke to the usb cable from the hub to the pc. This is a bit hit or miss, however it did solve a monitor signal problem I had before over 5m cables at when operating at high fps so its worth a punt.
 
Is it particular to certain games? For example, rF2 can only recognise 8 devices and anything beyond that would be dropped from the list.

You could try taking some of the components away from the hub and connecting them directly to other free USB ports on the motherboard because that's a lot of stuff for one port to handle with the way you have it configured at the moment.

With the amount of stuff you have, I'd be tempted to add another powered hub like your Orico and split things up
 
Thank you so much for your advices.

I'll try to connect my VR headset directly to my PC and reorganize other stuff.

So there is no need to change motherboard or power supply?

And one more question.

Is it ok to leave every item connected to USB hub and when I want to play just plug USB hub in to the PC, or is it better to plug in every single item one by one?
Just to be sure that I don't burn something :)
 
Thank you so much for your advices.

I'll try to connect my VR headset directly to my PC and reorganize other stuff.

So there is no need to change motherboard or power supply?

And one more question.

Is it ok to leave every item connected to USB hub and when I want to play just plug USB hub in to the PC, or is it better to plug in every single item one by one?
Just to be sure that I don't burn something :)

Your power supply will be fine :)

Some motherboards can be a little fussy when it comes to USB ports and their controllers but they are generally ok if you spread your USB connections across the ports so that you aren't putting all of the work on a single USB controller.

It will be ok to plug the hub into the PC with everything still connected to it as the hub has it's own built in controller chip that will take care of things and bring each device online in a controlled sequence.

I personally leave my hub plugged into the PC permanently and try not to change the order of the devices that are plugged into the hub. That keeps things consistent for me but I know that isn't always possible for everyone.

If you have to unplug your hub, try to make sure you use the same USB port on the motherboard when you reconnect it.
 
USB is a bus. Devices put on the same bus can torpedo each other.

The first thing you need to do is find out which of your external USB ports are on the same bus, and which have separate buses. You can find out in software (Linux lsusb -v, FreeBSD usbconf -vl, I am sure Windows has something), or using the schematics of your motherboard.

On a desktop PC you usually have ports on the mainboard that are not yet external and are often on other buses. Again, the mobo schematics. Make those ports accessible.

Then you put heavy lifters such as Rift on primary ports. Slower devices you all put on a high-quality hub and give that hub its own USB bus (not port, bus). That should leave some individual problematics devices which you try-n-error between leftover ports, the hub, and an own hub for such a device.

Keep in mind that USB was designed by Intel and is a trashy mess. Even a single device can work better when put on a hub, as the only device on that hub.

Myself I cut through this nonsense by putting a PCIe card with 4 ports, which holds all the Rift junk, and the rest of the stuff works fine-ish except for the only Fanatec device I have.
 

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