I have three of these I've collected over the last 3 years, and none of them work anymore.
Is this the new USB-C future we were promised? With a single-point of failure for everything as the number of ports on laptop decreases year-on-year?
Finding a decent hub is a minefield, but I don't think this is the fault of USBC as a specification. It's just the incentive towards cheap manufacturing.
If watching a load of videos from the legendary bigclive has taught me anything, its that electronics can be built sometimes very well, and sometimes very poorly.
When people buy hubs on Amazon they will consider the features (ports), the appearance (nice and shiny to match the laptop), and the price. What they often fail to consider is what's on the inside.
We can't see what's inside and assume that any hub is as good as any other, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Electronics can be built with a whole load of extra components that go above and beyond the baseline. Extra electronics to do things like help prevent overheating, smooth out rough voltages, or prevent damage to themselves or other electronics they are connected to.
But these components cost money, and so the incentive is to leave them out to keep the price down, while the budget instead goes to making sure the case is shiny and there's a premium-looking braided cable, because those are the external (and often false) indicators of 'quality' people are looking at.
This is very different scenario from when the ports are built into in the computer/laptop itself, because in that situation the equipment price point is already expensive - so the engineers will have leeway and incentive to make sure the ports and surrounding electronics are of high quality.
I'm thankful to bigclive, because now I avoid no-brand cheap electronics like the plague. Even if they function to start with they may not last long, and they definitely aren't being gentle on my connected laptop while they are at it.
If you want a brand recommendation:
brand recommendation
Sabrent hubs have been quite sturdy overall several years of occasional use for me. But any brand name that you can trust will do as well.
Random cheaply made Amazon products are made to fail.
I think fewer USB ports is a terrible trend.
Why would you hide that behind a spoiler tag?
I think they're good, but I'm trying not to sound like a paid advertiser for them. Other brands could be just as good or better.
The info is there for those who need it, but I'm trying to keep from polluting Lemmy with corporate ad-like comments and allow more space for discussion and personal opinions.
Because markdown is lit
Dell docking stations seem to last forever, but are very expensive.
I was gonna say, Dell makes a ton of crap but their dongles are solid. I've been using the DA310 "puck" for over half a decade and it still works like new. I think they're like 50 quid.
The other thing is to just avoid those no-name Amazon ones like the fucking plague. I've worked IT long enough to know that they pretty much all die within a year, that is if they function at all.
No absolutly not, dells docking stations are the worst crap ever. We exclusivly have dell at work and these things are so super unreliable. Every time they do a software update something breaks. I had 3 seperate stations that stopped charging randomly and lost the video signal on random. My colleges dock started its fan up on 100 for no reason sometimes after one specific softeware update but no new version fixed that.
The one in your picture is fine, it cant charge and the usbc cable is a little short but it works for now. But id rather buy any other product than something from dell.
Sorry- yeah I meant the dongles, not the docks. And yeah, no passthrough power on the puck either.
I've had similar experiences as you with the docks, lol.
I found the docks had their flaws, but on the whole they were a decent proposition, especially when sourced second hand.
We did find that for units that the fans went mad on (1 in 20 or so), taking them apart, checking the fan connector, and removing the bottom rubber fixed it.
The power-off-frames bug is infuriating. Thankfully, any decent managed switch prevents it.
Just don't forget to update Firmware. I have two of them and one had stabikty issues with the connected display. FW update solved the issue.
I’m 3 years into my current dell docking station and it seems fine for another few years!
Hey, at least it beats Micro USB.
I'd be lucky if those cables lasted more than a few months before breaking. I threw out literal bin bags full of them last time I moved, not a single one worked at all, no signs of visible damage either.
My USB-C cables have largely lasted, even the one that came with my OG Pixel still sees use, and one for my work laptop charger is literally bent 45 degrees up but still works fine anyway.
While I don't live that dongle life, I've never had one of these fail either, but I bought only one and it was fairly expensive.
I have one, glitches constantly where I have to keep unplugging and re inserting flash drives/other USBs
The answer is, you have to buy a Proper ™️ one.
With active cooling, a power supply, and proper Lightning etc. support.
I buy Dell WD19TB units second hand from CeX for about £60. New, they cost several hundred.
Even then, they have issues (fans staying on, and a STUPID bug where turning off the machine causes power-off packets to spam the network).
But for general work, they're very reliable.
I have 3 similar ones, over 5 years old. All are working except for the Ethernet port on one of them.
Yeah, I've never had one of those fail on me, I didn't know this was a thing people struggled with. I do make sure to not get the super cheapest brand, it's something in between.
My biggest frustration is that they never really have the exact combination of ports that I'm looking for.
Got any brand names I can rely on? So far mine have all been cheap U-Green and Ident, and Im a bit wary of them now
UGreen are usually fairly reliable. They're not super high quality but they're not just a no-name generic product with a fake name; they should be similar to Anker in general.
It would be worth checking if your hub is still under their warranty.
Email from UGreen
We would also like to solve the problem for you directly, but your order is an FBA order (Fulfillment By Amazon); according to Amazon's regulations, we as a seller have no right to process after-sales problems relating to FBA orders directly. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and we ask for your understanding.
Frustrating! I never recommend Amazon - they dodge tax, underpay workers, throw away tons of goods, and their fulfillment centres mix up real and counterfeit goods. No one wins except their execs.
But since it's already done, have you tried raising it to Amazon?
I know I know, but since Maplins has closed down and when I need electronics, I need them now rather than a few days later, Amazon pretty much wins on that front
My other half just bought an Anker one, I will report back if it breaks.
I've had an Anker one since 2022, still working fine.
https://jsaux.com/products/11-in-1-multi-function-docking-station-hb1101
Maybe this? I have their Steam Deck docking station.
It's maddening how flawed USB-C is. In terms of reliability, I've had to replace the usb port on my phone already after 3 years (at least it's possible to do that with my phone), and I've had every USB-C dock fail on me.
And they're also bad with interoperability. I've got several cables and devices, each of which uses C connectors but quietly refuses to interface with for reasons that are known only to the manufacturers. Is this a data and power cable, a power only cable, or a secret third option? Time to test every single one and promptly forget. And sometimes my devices have further preferences about which power cable will work.
We were all deceived. One standard to rule them all.
A lot of this stuff is just cheap trash that's designed to fail. Definitely worth spending a bit more on these things. You're absolutely right about the lack of standardisation, though. That's an absolute disgrace.
The cable thing is simply due to physical limitations. If you want a data cable with the fastest data rate it will be maximum 1m (or ~3ft for the metric challenged) and quite thick and stiff. A cable exclusively for charging can be quite long and thinner so it can be coiled smaller. Then there are various middle grounds with slower data rates, which sometimes are too slow for certain applications (e.g. Android Auto).
If you buy a short, thick and expensive cable rated for thunderbolt 5 you can use it for everything, but you may not like the form factor.
a couple of years ago you were good if you bought thunderbolt 4 cables, they should support all usb c features. not sure if that is still true
Yep, pretty sure.
40Gbps/240W and highly compatible. Dont even ask the question of compatibility.
The ambiguity is what gets me
I've never had those issues. I quite like USB-C.
If my best experiences with them were the norm, I would too. I love the idea of standardisation in theory, it's the reality that is giving me the morbs.
I have 4, 2 are in constant use in a desk (wfh and office) and 2 on my backpack. Only one of them (the cheapest one, less than $10) has some issues but I use it when working inside a vehicle with a lot of cables plugged in and it gets bent very badly a lot of times. Anker seem to be good
In my first field IT job, I had to use a dock that had a parallel printer port that we used to configure and troubleshoot the ancient line printers the company was still using. Those docks barely lasted a year and they would just straight up quit working no matter what computer you plugged them into.
Especially when you run video through them for extended periods of time, for example work video calls. They get very hot and have a very short life span, I seem to have to replace mine every 6 months or so
I've been running video and power through one of those for over 4 years, 9 hours a day. Got hot as hell, but still working (has since been retired because I changed the setup).
I have one from Ugreen and it works for 3 years already, constantly connected to laptop. I kind of knew I had to choose a reputable brand when it comes to USB devices that have PD feature.
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