usb powered hard drives

[billyo]

Originally Posted by bryant

I have had problems when using a mini laptop when another item (tv-vga converter) was also used in another usb port at the same time. I'm pretty sure at one time I also had a problem with a regular sized laptop in the same conditions (two usb's used at one time).

i've been using multiple usb hardware on my mini laptop ( hhd & mouse ) no problems yet, of course the mouse doesn't really use that much computer power compared to video converter, but on my regular laptops,i just started using 3 of the usb ports, mouse, hhd. and the video converter,( plasma tv, a monitor and lcd tv all plugged in to the converter) and still have not encountered any problems...i think the problem would be if you use one usb port, and plugging in a 4 usb hubs and using all of them, that 1 port may not have enough power to support all the 4 hardware conected to that usb hub..i've had problems using an ext. usb hubs..