USB Ext Help!

m1chael

All-

I ordered a Sabrent USB extender and it stated that it can be used for keyboard, mouse, printer, and webcam extension. Well just got it in today and my webcam will not show a picture? I know that it is only running at the usb standard of 1.1 so not sure if that is the issue or not. I did plenty of troubleshooting. I tried to hook it up to a small piece of cat 5e cable (like 3 feet) and it just shows a black pic. I also made sure that it was not a software issue or anything because when I plug the webcam back into the usb slot on the pc, the pic shows up again. I then wanted to verify that the usb extender even worked. So, I hooked it up again to various size cat 5e cables and instead of hooking up a webcam I hooked up a mouse and it worked perfectly. I am under the conclusion so far that the webcam is drawing to much power or needs to much power and the usb extender can't keep up with it??? Thus why the pic is black or not showing up.

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone else out there has any other suggestions or has some experience with usb extenders...or might know of a different webcam that doesn't draw or need as much power that it might work with?

***Update***

I thought of one more troubleshooting idea and that was to try different software other than what I was using when the webcam was just connected to the back of the pc. So since I have a new microsoft webcam I decided to try the MS software that came with the mouse and it worked (I was using some freeware called Dorgem becse I remotely look at my camera and this software allows you to set it up as a web server). I am not sure why one software works with the usb extender and one doesn't but I need to do more research now and find a software solution that allows me to use it as a web server and will still work with a usb extender attached to it.

Thanks,
Michael

JDMurray

Any USB hub, concentrator, or extender that you use should always have its own power adapter and support USB 2.0. Many USB devices (like Webcams) draw their power from the USB bus. If you use an extender that does not have its own power, it will draw power from the nearest powered USB hub (such as your motherboard) , which may not have enough current for all of the USB devices that you have plugged in.

Try unplugging all USB devices from your computer except the Webcam, keyboard, and mouse to reduce the load. Software can also control the amount of power that a USB device draws, so that may explain why your Webcam worked with one control program and not the other. Also, USB 1.1 is a very old standard and has a very small data bandwidth. If your USB extender is both non-powered and USB 1.1-only, I would say to return it and buy a powered USB 2.0 hub instead.