How reliable are USB3 Extension cables?

patkim

Cyborg Agent
Sometime back I purchased a USB3 extension cable about 1.5M from ebay. It was available for some 350-400 Rs range and I think it was Terabyte brand.
For a first few days it worked fine. Now I find that it works fine whenever I connect only my USB2 devices to it, be it a pen drive or my mobile phone however a few minutes after I plug in my USB3 pen drive the related process in question e.g. Windows Explorer hangs.

I have to plug it out and then the hung process responds. This issue does not occur when I directly plug by device to the back panel USB3 socket.

This makes me suspect that the cable may not be carrying enough USB3 power thru the end. On my mobo there are only back panel USB sockets, no front ones.

Is anyone using USB3 extension cables and how do you find their reliability?
Are there any good versions of such cables, may be some known brand etc?
 

maheshn

Journeyman
Sometime back I purchased a USB3 extension cable about 1.5M from ebay. It was available for some 350-400 Rs range and I think it was Terabyte brand.
For a first few days it worked fine. Now I find that it works fine whenever I connect only my USB2 devices to it, be it a pen drive or my mobile phone however a few minutes after I plug in my USB3 pen drive the related process in question e.g. Windows Explorer hangs.

I have to plug it out and then the hung process responds. This issue does not occur when I directly plug by device to the back panel USB3 socket.

This makes me suspect that the cable may not be carrying enough USB3 power thru the end. On my mobo there are only back panel USB sockets, no front ones.

Is anyone using USB3 extension cables and how do you find their reliability?
Are there any good versions of such cables, may be some known brand etc?

I would recommend Amazon's own brand "Amazon Basics" USB3 extension cable, their cables are much better quality than most.

One possible link is at

Amazon.in: Buy AmazonBasics USB 3.0 Extension Cable - A-Male to A-Female - 3.3 Feet (1 Meter) Online at Low Prices in India | AmazonBasics Reviews & Rating

(Disclaimer: I have used the above item (not continuously) for awhile without any issues only.
I'm not affiliated or linked with amazon in any way.)
 
OP
patkim

patkim

Cyborg Agent
All right @maheshn. Thanks for the input. May be a shorter cable like this around 1M might make a difference. I suspect the current cable is not able to carry enough power thru 1.5M.
 
Top Bottom