For a few years I have been happily printing with 2 or 3 printers connected to a 4-port powered USB 2 hub at the end of 5 metre passive cable.
Suddenly, a couple of weeks ago (actually not long after I installed Nokia PC Suite 7) the printers decided not play ball. Prints would often fail completely or print out a line of gobbledygook or even print the top inch or so of a page before giving up and spewing out the paper. But the USB system still recognised that they were there and bleeped when unplugged.
One of the printers failed completely, so it has been replaced. I now find that if I connect printers directly (i.e. by avoiding the hub) they work – even by putting an A-B cable in the end of the 5m run. Connecting through the hub, neither of the printers wants to know.
Could I expect them to work if the 5m run were an active cable? Or is there a special type of hub that I need to install?
Incidentally I have swapped out the hub and used a different 5m cable (passive; I don’t have an active one). I have even connected up to a different computer. It also makes no difference. Neither is there any difference if I go through an external hub at the PC end of the 5m run or connect it straight into the Mobo USB ports.
I am doing my nut because everything I have tried fails – yet the system has worked perfectly for a long time.
Is it hub? Is it cable? Or is it something else. Grateful for your views!