USB 3 cable issue, Iomega eGo drive

Gyck

Hi,

I've got an Iomega eGo external USB 3.0 drive which is working fine. It came with a rather short USB type A to micro type B cable. Since my main PC doesn't have a USB 3 connector on the front panel I purchased a USB 3.0 extension cable (A male to A female). However the disk wouldn't work with the cable. I figure there is something wrong with it and have purchased a new cable; this time a longer type A to micro type B cable. And this doesn't work either.

So now I'm wondering if the Iomega USB cable is non-standard. Does anyone have any idea if this is so?

Ta.

Overheal

USB 2.0 only transmits a maximum of 0.5 Amps of power. You experience loss in the cable, due to impedance (Electrical resistance, measured in Ohms). The longer the cable, the more resistance the material has. A Standard cable made out of say copper or zinc or whatever, is going to fail to deliver that power after about 1-2 feet. A more expensive Gold-Plated Cable would be fine up to a few feet. USB 3.0 Cables and their ports are capable of delivering up to 0.9 Amps of power. (In "charge" mode they may supply more, but this is only effective for charging, not operating devices)

Basically you need to suck it up and just use the short cable it came with, or buy a gold cable. Or a y-cable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Power

Gyck

Thanks for the reply Overheal.
The new cable is 150cm long; I find it hard to believe that impedence over that distance could cause such a problem (the original cable is 61cm long). Also the external drive is a 2.5" device. I've read that the maximum length for USB 3 cables is around 3 metres, and I'm seeing quite a number of reviews of USB 3 cables (A to micro of the length that I've tried (and a bit longer) that appear to work. Pity I don't have any other USB 3 drives that I can use to to try verify the issue.
I'm tempted to buy an external enclosure to check against...

Overheal

Gyck wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Overheal.
The new cable is 150cm long; I find it hard to believe that impedence over that distance could cause such a problem (the original cable is 61cm long). Also the external drive is a 2.5" device. I've read that the maximum length for USB 3 cables is around 3 metres, and I'm seeing quite a number of reviews of USB 3 cables (A to micro of the length that I've tried (and a bit longer) that appear to work. Pity I don't have any other USB 3 drives that I can use to to try verify the issue.
I'm tempted to buy an external enclosure to check against...

And they are probably high quality cables, like the gold plated ones I was telling you about. You can try all the drives you want but they're going to have this problem. If the cord seems too short to you for whatever reason you can also use a powered USB Hub

Gyck

And they are probably high quality cables, like the gold plated ones I was telling you about.

Perhaps, obviously it's hard to tell from product shot alone, but the pricing on the various sites seem inline with the cable that I got, and the contacts on the cable seem gold plated. Anyhow, I guess I won't know if the cable is the probelm unless someone with an eGo can verify the issue or if I buy another USB 3 enclosure for a 2.5" drive. I've a few of them already and certainly wouldn't mind upgrading the existing enclosures that I already have.

Back to my initial query: is there any chance that Iomega are selling external drives with propritary cables?

Overheal

Gyck wrote: »

Back to my initial query: is there any chance that Iomega are selling external drives with propritary cables?

Not unless WD are doing the same thing and caused me to experience the same problem. 3 years ago.

Not just bull****ting you. Use a short Cable (that it came with), a Y-Cable (which I ended up with), or a Gold cable (which I found later by chance. But they are in practice much more expensive)

Gyck

Hmmm, doesn't sound so good. If its the case that these cables don't work with any disks then I'm surprised that there hasn't been more of a stink made about it...

The Y cable sounds like a good way to go, I'll see if I can pick one up locally.

Thanks.

Iomega Man

Hi Gyck,

Just after buying one of these drives and working fine.
Just something to bear in mind, you need to connect the USB 3 SS to your port.
The standard USB A plug on the Y cable is only to be used if your port doesn't supply enough power.
As such, its the SS plug that I have connected to my MBP and it works fine.
Tried the standard one and it wouldn't work.
Hope this helps.

Iomega M