Using USB 3.0 drive directly causes side effects

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#1

Issue

I have multiple issues. all concerning usb3.0 drives when connected to my system.

  1. When connected directly to the system via usb3.0 port, the drive works, but network packets over wifi are dropped 80-90% of the time.

  2. When connected to the system over a usb3.0 hub network, the drive works as expected but communication to the mouse that is attached to the same hub becomes intermittent.

My assumptions

Regarding the first point, I honestly have no idea why this might happen…

The second point on the other hand, my guess is that powering the nvme drive over usb3 restricts the amount of power to the wireless usb mouse causing the receiver to have issues. That being said, I have no idea if this is true or not.

Question

Does anyone know, or have any idea why:

  • The drive being plugged directly to USB3.0 might affect WiFi?
  • The drive being plugged in via an USB2.0 adapter works without side effects?

If anyone has any experience with something like this or knows where to look for solutions, that would be wonderful!

#2

Can you give more details of the hardware?

My guess here is that the wifi card is attached internally to the same USB 3.0 bus as the external port, and it just doesn’t have bandwidth for all that. (lsusb might give some clues.)

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#3

@mattdm Thanks for the reply!

lsusb has the following output.

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 010: ID 05e3:0612 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp. Bluetooth wireless interface
Bus 002 Device 059: ID 152d:0583 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JMS583Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 Bridge  #  <-- USB Drive
Bus 002 Device 054: ID 12d1:107e Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. P10 smartphone
Bus 002 Device 053: ID 056e:7019 Elecom Co., Ltd 
Bus 002 Device 052: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 002 Device 057: ID 056e:010b Elecom Co., Ltd M-BL21DB Mouse
Bus 002 Device 056: ID 1a81:1012 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 055: ID 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 002 Device 047: ID 0bc2:a013 Seagate RSS LLC Backup+ BK
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The USB Drive in question (labeled above) currently connected through usb2.0 hub which is connected to the same 3.0 port for which it causes issues if connected directly. (any usb3.0 port causes issues with any of my usb3.0 drives when plugged in directly though)

Additional question, If a USB2.0 device is connected to a 3.0 hub does it bring the speed of the hub down to 2.0? If so it may explain why my drive seems to work properly when connected through the USB3.0 Hub (albeit causing issues with my mouse)…

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#4

Interfaces generally are very “social”, they will keep the speed of transmission always as fast as the slowest interface can transmit/receive. Otherwise communication would be impossible.

Does the drive you use get power over USB? If yes just have a look that you use the interface on the motherboard it self and not one of the cabinet. Because this way you will avoid power loss too.

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#5

This would indeed explain the mouse issues! too bad connecting it directly to the motherboard causes the Wifi to experience severe packet loss.

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