Alleviating load on PSU

  • Thread starter Thread starter frankg
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frankg

An under powered older computer with a 260 watt psu is having some problems
running a few USB devices.
One possibility is exchanging the PSU for a higher watt rating.
But would attaching the devices to a USB Hub with it's own ac power cable
alleviate the load on the PSU ?
 
In frankg <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
An under powered older computer with a 260 watt psu is having some
problems running a few USB devices.
One possibility is exchanging the PSU for a higher watt rating.
But would attaching the devices to a USB Hub with it's own ac power
cable alleviate the load on the PSU ?
Click to expand...

Probably. In other words we can hope so but there's no way to be 100%
certain that they'd lighten the load enough to be effective. Power is, to be
frank, the blood of your system. Without plenty of it and purity in it
there's little hope for maintaining a stable system. Without clean and
plentiful power you'd prone to errors and increased loads and heat and
eventual hardware failures earlier than their expected time. The best option
would be to upgrade to a new PSU as early as you can, the process is VERY
easy and the price of a decent PSU is not out-of-reach for most people.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes
 
Some USB devices need to be run from a powered hub or directly from the
computers USB ports.. passive USB hubs have little use unless the USB
devices have their own power supply..
 
marginal help as the USB is 5 volts dc and a port will supply up to
500ma or 1/2 amp. Since P=IE, not using a port would save at best 2.5
watts or less than 1% of the PSU output.
 
Yes. But, you have to determine if the USB devices can be used on that hub
without failure or being problematic.

Another solution is to use the other busses on the motherboard for
input/output of a given device instead of stuffing it all on one bus method
as USB.
 
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