USB question

hello, I have a question that maybe could be useful for many other users.

I have built my new pc lately.

asus maximus X hero, i9 9900k, corsair vengeance pro rgb, h150 i pro rgb, rm 850i, asus gtx 1660 ti, 3x corsair sp 120 pro rgb, ls 100.

As you know many devices require an internal usb port to be software controlled but the newest motherboards have fewer and fewer usb 2.0 ports.

I had only two usb 2.0 ports on my mb and I needed more to connect

- at least 1 usb case front port

- rm 8501

- lightning node

- h150i pro rgb

so i bought an internal usb splitter on amazon

"Kalolary 9pin USB header Male 1 to 4 Female Extension Cable Card Motherboard 9-Pin USB HUB USB 2.0 9 pin Connector Adapter Port Multiplier Usb Header Splitter"

that splits a single usb port into 4 female usb ports.

The adapter is cheap but it seems to work well.

However i´m having a lot of issues with my icue controlled components.

At first my ls100 ambient mode stopped working (but it ´s connected to an external usb port) and my lightning node got stuck on hardware mode.

I fixed both the issues uninstalling my latest icue version and re installing an old version.

But today again the lighting node has disappeared from the icue control panel.

The question is: may I have exceeded any usb port limit?

are these splitters supposed to work well ?

if not, how people should connect so many usb devices (rgb light, psu, fans, coolers) if native usb 2.0 ports are so limited??

Thank you in advance for any help :confused:

Did you happen to get this resolved?

My Gigabyte Mobo has 2 internal usb2 headers. This was fine for my h115i & light node pro. But i have added a hx850i so bought a 4 port usb splitter. When connecting the 3 devices into it, they are not found by icue. when i moved the h115i over to the free mobo port, it was found again.

Thinking about buying a 2 port splitter to see if that works, & dont really want to buy a commander pro if a cheaper usb splitter works.

Here is something for you to try TenaciousB. If your motherboard has two USB2 internal headers, that means it actually has four ports, so on the face of it you don't need anything external to run three devices.

Have you noticed how the headers on your board, and the connectors on the ends of your H115i and HXi USB cables have plastic shells with positions for nine connectors, of which four are actually empty?

Your LNPro cable probably only has two spare slots, as the +5v and ground cables are doubled to ensure it has enough power supply in case someone forgets to connect the SATA power header.

Those 9 pin headers on your board actually carry two separate USB ports - of 4 pins each - plus an extra ground for the cable shield. So when you connect the standard cables to your board, you're only actually using one of the ports. That's something you can take advantage of.

The thing to try would be, using a pin or a very thin scalpel blade, carefully lever up the tangs holding the connectors into the H115i cable's plastic shell, and then gently pull the connectors out. Don't pull on the cable until you have lifted the tang - you'll see why this is when you look at them closely. They should come out very easily once you've lifted the tang enough.

Once you have removed them all, insert them into the spare slots in the shell at the end of the HXi's cable, matching the colours of the wires (so red goes in the space next to red, white next to white, green next to green and black next to black). Like this:

That's an H115i RGB Platinum + an AXi PSU dongle twinned together - so basically the same as what you're doing. It works perfectly.

If the cable of the device you took out of its header has five pins, the fifth wire will be the cable ground. It is not essential to connect this to test my suggestion. Just insulate it for the time being.

Once you have both the cables running into the same shell, and have doubled-checked you got the placement right (again, red next to red, white next to white, green next to green and black next to black) plug it directly back in to your board with the LNPro on the other header and see if all three peripherals now play nice together.