I have bought an external USB CD/DVD read/write drive (Rated 5v, USB 3.0).

By way of preliminary testing, I've plugged it into a trailling USB 3.0 lead which is connected to a USB 3.0 port on the back of my desktop - eventually, I intend to use it with a tablet+keyboard combination.

I have found that the drive won't spin-up continuously. Its starts to spin-up and then stops and then starts to spin up again. In this configuration, it will play an audio CD, but with no audio ! And it will play a DVD, but jerkily and again with no audio (Obviously the discs being played were tested elsewhere and found to be fine). Any disk inserted will eject normally whether commanded from the player's control fascia or from the desktop keyboard thru Windows.

Windows Device manager, reports it as a device and tells me its only drawing 460ma - well within the 500ma for USB ports.However, if "Properties information" from Device Manager is requested, it is unavailable when the disk is spinning and then comes back when the disk is ejected.

Oddly, when I plug the player/writer into one of those heavy duty USB charging hubs that are used for phones (Rated at 8A total, 2.4A persocket) the drive spins-up correctly as it should and starts to read the disk - but of course there's no data output from those.

I'm thinking the problem is excess electrical draw and that a limiting device (Probably on the Motherboard) is cutting the USB power to the player every time it draws too much i.e when it starts to spin-up.

Is this near the mark ?

Any ideas/experience of similar welcome.

As a secondary, if excess electrical draw is the issue would use of a two into one USB cable sort the problem and be safe, particularly on a modern tablet, where, I understand, a declared rating of USB 3.0 on the package doesn't always translate into a full USB 3.0 power delivery capability ?

Cheers.

Nick

Edited 9 August, 20169 yr by Clunkclick

I have an older USB2 drive; it comes with a double USB header, ie it uses TWO USB ports to draw power; so I suspect you are correct in thinking power might be an issue. Has your desktop got any high power USB ports?? I know mine has a some 1Amp ports, and a single (charge only) 2 Amp port.

 

Are you sure you have it plugged into a USB3 port, as I thought they gave higher power anyway.

 

Failing that, buy and try a double USB cable

The problem could be the length of the cable you are using as there have been reports that some USB3 disc devices, which should include the DVD Drive, suffer read/connectivity problems with leads over 1 metre long.  Worth trying to connect directly rather than via the trailing lead you have and keeping the lead away from any mains cables.

 

This issue was reported in the current issue of Computer Shopper magazine

Since first posting, I discovered that  whilst my premise about power draw was correct, the testing  I did was at fault and on two counts.

 

Firstly, the USB 3.00 cable (Ugreen brand - Chinese), although plugged into  USB 3.00 port, was unable to deliver the power that the CD/DVD drive required.

 

Secondly, the DVD drive didn't like the "Home brew" DVD disk I was using . . . (You can guess) . . . There was an incompatibitilty of codecs which produced jerky delivery of video.

 

All resolved by plugging the CD/DVD directly into a port on the Desktop and using a commercially produced DVD.

 

I've now tried the CD/DVD drive in one of the tablets USB 3.00 slots  (Using the single USB cable supplied and a commercial DVD) and the spin-up problem persists. So I think a double header is required or, with safety in mind, I will use an external powered USB Hub - I understand that the way some motherboards control power overdraw  (I assume the tablet's USB will be 500ma max, although there is a +/- tolerance, up to 10% ) is to use reformable fuses which successive blow and then reform to make the circuit. I presume they will have  limited life, so avoidance and finding out what that figure I is better.

 

Anyway the main reason I bought it is somewhat redundant, as fresh re-install of Windows 10 I was intending on the tablet has been done using a disc image recovery USB supplied by the tablet suppliers UK agent. (Advised them by E-Mail  Monday, USB arrives today - that's pretty **** hot) .

 

Clearly, that's something to watch out for with these Windows powered tablets. Mine came supplied (Nicely cellophane sealed box) with a populated Windows.old folder (Windows 8.1 ?) and Windows 10 as the current OS. This meant that after installing few apps of my choosing, there was less than 1GB left on the main storage (30GB).  Not only was this impractical for further use but it caused the 64GB SD card I had installed to be intermitmently recognised. So I used "Disk Clean-up",  in two passes, first to get rid of the build-up of temporary and log files and, when this failed to yield sufficient free disk space, a second time to delete windows.old folder. And, you guessed it, the next time I re-booted the tablet it failed to load windows with a "Boot device inaccessible" message. So, it looks like that some of the disk related associations created by the previous operating system were still being used by Windows 10 and were broken when I deleted Windows.old. Outstanding. And that's with a machine that for all intents and purposes is fresh out of the factory and supplied by the SAC - And I've had refurbished kit in the past and there's no mistaking it.

 

Interesting couple of days - along with other news.

 

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

The longer the cable the lower the power which a USB device will get.

If a device needs over 1A,the cable should be under 1.5m otherwise you'll have problems. Even with branded stuff.

Just got a USB extension from Amazon. Put a 1m lead in, charges mobile fine at full 2.1A but add anything bigger which I know is good and delivers full power, the mobile reports slow charging (android Marshmallow).

If you want a player that'll play pretty much anything regardless of the codec used try downoading VLC Media Player aka VideoLAN

Totally free, no ads/ bloatware/ nasties etc. It's the only media player I ever use.

 

 

http://www.videolan.org/

Have been using VLC as the player for Homebrew DVDs since the peak of peer-to-peer, 12 years ?

 

Nick

The cable I was using was less than one meter. I did discover that the hub (3 x USB 3.00 + 1x RJ 45) has a 2.5mm power-in socket for an adapter - according to the  hub instructions, use of the adapter is not mandatory, only when there's heavy power draw. So I got a generic power adapter rated at  5v 3A (3 x USB @ a min of 900ma each + RJ45 = approx. 3 A ?) , but when plugged-in it caused a power surge in the Desktops USB socket and a message window told me that the socket had been closed down. Luckily no permanent damage done and business s usual restored as soon as the adapter was disconnected and the desktop re-booted.
 

Something not right with the hub ?

 

Nick

Edited 14 August, 20169 yr by Clunkclick

Anyway back on topic, a new powered Hub (This time complete with power adapter) arrived and works fine with the external DVD drive and plays, via the hubs data output, into the tablet.

 

Just to see whether my judgment was well founded on this, I decided to test the external DVD one more time by inserting its USB lead directly into the tablet USB socket - of course, since the last time I did this, I have restored the Windows OS to the tablet (On the prior testing it was only live courtesy of the UEFI BIOS).

 

Lo and behold it works fine.  No refusal to spin up, no Windows generated overload messages coming from the tablet's USB socket. Oh dear, £7 wasted on a new powered hub ? Suggest to me that full electrical management of the USB sockets is not standalone and depends on software !!! Anyway that's that job done.

 

For safety and to preserve the tablets battery life, I think I'll only use the external drive in conjunction with the powered hub.

 

 

Nick

Edited 14 August, 20169 yr by Clunkclick

The cable I was using was less than one meter. I did discover that the hub (3 x USB 3.00 + 1x RJ 45) has a 2.5mm power-in socket for an adapter - according to the  hub instructions, use of the adapter is not mandatory, only when there's heavy power draw. So I got a generic power adapter rated at  5v 3A (3 x USB @ a min of 900ma each + RJ45 = approx. 3 A ?) , but when plugged-in it caused a power surge in the Desktops USB socket and a message window told me that the socket had been closed down. Luckily no permanent damage done and business s usual restored as soon as the adapter was disconnected and the desktop re-booted.

 

Something not right with the hub ?

 

Nick

 

I've never had a problem with a powered USB hub and a PC, perhaps it was because you powered it up while connected. If you want to risk it, you could power up the hub, THEN plug it in.

 

My powered hub-of-the-moment is a ten way Trust model, with two of the ports being "High power" for charging phones etc.

To avoid being dependent on the Tablet supplier (For a disk image on USB) the next time the OS decides to de-link itself without much provocation, and given that most suppliers are now providing disk images on USB's  rather than CDs, I decided to take a look at getting my own capability to generate  disk image on USB.

 

Packages like Nero (@ £80) are a bit dated now and don't have the full range of software to do the full job.

 

So I found the Microsoft Windows pre-installation and distribution package (Windows 8.1 vintage, 2012 and FOC !) on MS TechNet and downloaded it to have a play. Comes with the full range of packages to do the job and more and a comprehensive set of instructions. Plus some pro commentators on Tech Net have provided comprehensive, step by step, running commentaries on how to use it.

 

In particular, I'd like to experiment with installing W10 64 bit on the tablet to see if they're are any advantages over the supplied 32 bit. The processor is a 64 bit, 4 -core Intel Atom, but the UEFI is 32 bit and, officially, this prevents use of a 64 bit OS. However, there's detailed advice on Tech net, including methodology describing a workaround that will enable a 64- bit OS to be installed. There re no other restrictions, i.e. the tablet has the minimum memory necessary for 64-bit operation, so I thought I'd have a go.

 

 

Nick

I could test it again running it from a different USB socket on the desktop i.e. one with perhaps separate control circuitry. If it does go AWOL and overloads, at least it will be the first time for that socket and, with luck, it will be good to go after a re-boot (If the other socket was anything to go by).

 

Ideally, I would have liked to get a power adapter of the same brand the hub, but wasn't possible. So I got a generic.

 

 

Nick

Found out why the old hub wasn't working with the new generic power supply - Amazon had supplied an adapter with a 1.5mm diameter connector, instead of the 2.5mm advertised (And required). So, on insertion the pin wasn't entering the connector, it was just getting forced aside.

 

Still no joy with the old USB 3.00 hub  connected to the Desktop.Re-boot, plug-in,  CD/DVD won't work, either in the unpowered mode or using the adapter supplied with the new USB hub (5v, 1A, 2.5 connector), which got v. warm !. CD/DVD does work when plugged directly into a USB socket, even a USB 2.00 socket.

 

Who knows.

 

The important thing is that the CD/DVD works well with the tablet, either directly plugged or plugged via the new powered hub - providing its running under Windows . It won't work under UEFI only, presumably because the BIOS hasn't been set-up to support a CD/DVD - obviously it was specified only to support USB pen drives..

 

Nick

Edited 14 August, 20169 yr by Clunkclick