"Glen \"Wiley\" Wilson" wrote in
:

Just curious, if you have one of the 4 USB units, does it have enough
power at the ports to drive 4 USB-powered devices at the same time? I
have a USB-powered hard drive; it works fine on some laptops, not at
all on most of them. When I use an external power supply everything
is fine.


I'm using my US Modular 2.2GB USB pocket hard drive from the USB port on
the Gateway with no problems. The drive is $53 from any WalMart
electronics department. It looks like a miniature silver hand warmer with
the silver cap on the USB plug. It also comes with a 2' USB extension
cable in case you have trouble plugging the drive directly into the port on
your system. It plugs direct to any port in the side of the Gateway. It
uses quite a bit of power in my application, watching a new movie at my
breakfast diner, for instance. It gets very warm under continuous access
like this, but I've never heard a complaint from the big 15" notebook's
battery pack.

My 400GB external USB hard drive gets its power from an AC power brick, not
the USB port. Its USB port is the square one without the power drain. I
wouldn't expect any computer to run the 400GB big hard drive and all those
LEDs and cooling fan. USB doesn't have that kind of power output.