Unsupported USB Hubs?

A USB hub is just a USB hub right? Wrong apparently. I'm about to buy an external drive and if I get a USB one I'll need a hub to give me some extra ports. Enter Trust - they have a nice line up of USB ports, quite smart, good price and good reviews. Here's what Trust have just told me...

"We regret to inform you that Trust Computer Products are generally developed for use with Windows® operating systems only, and therefore no drivers or installation instructions for MAC operating systems are provided. Nor is in fact the use of our products with MAC in any way supported."

Since when do you need instructions or drivers for a USB hub - or am I missing something??? Anyone out there using Trust hubs with their iMac?

That is just the generic line by every manufacturer that only tests their products with Windows.
I have called Linksys and been told by a supervisor that their routers don't work with Mac's.

There shouldn't be any drivers required for a USB hub. At least, none that I have ever plugged in to my Win machine.

Check their site and see if they actually have drivers for windows for their hubs. If not, they're just covering their rear.

bobtomay said:

Check their site and see if they actually have drivers for windows for their hubs. If not, they're just covering their rear.

Click to expand...

You're right. Just two of the products have a 'Download Drivers' link which when chosen just give the message "For this product, no special Trust driver is needed. This is because either the product does not need a driver in order to function properly, or the default driver from your operating system should be used." Quess they are living in a parallel universe.

Well I do know for a fact that a USB hub can create incompatibilities with other peripherals, something I never would have believed before it happened.

I needed a USB hub for my iMac G5 and, since I had USB 2.0 ports, I wanted to get USB 2.0, of course.

I went right around the corner to a WinBox store and bought a Vantec USB 2.0 hub. I thought it worked well but then I bought the new Apple Alu slim wired keyboard to replace the Apple keyboard that came originally with my iMac.

At first I thought the keyboard was faulty. The keyboard would become unresponsive for 30 seconds or more or it would stay stuck on a letter and repeat it infinitely till I unplugged the keyboard, etc.

I swapped USB ports for the keyboard and the hub but nothing changed. So I took the keyboard back to the Apple Store to get a new one.

I was dumbfounded to see that the replacement behaved the same way. I unplugged it and used the original keyboard while I was trying to analyse if the conflict could be software related. On a sudden impulse, I decided to try the keyboard without the USB hub plugged in : it worked flawlessly!

So certain USB hubs can create problems with other USB peripherals. I haven't replaced the USB hub yet. But next time, I'll get one from the Apple Store or a Mac store for sure.