a problem with 2 of my USB plug in devices

This is on my Dell Inspiron 15-3541 laptop, OS Win 10 home 64bit. I just turned on the laptop, went through the normal Win startup and the normal things that Win does loading drivers and so on. When that is done and the desktop is up. I turn on the external power for the 2nd optical drive and the 2nd HDD, both in USB cases. I then plug in the USB hub that they are plug into along with my b/w laserjet printer. This setup has been working just fine for a long time.

This time the optical drive and the HDD in the external cases aren't responding. The red led on each case that shows that the external 5vdc is on is lit up. but they don't respond. I tried each device direct into the USB port, bypassing the USB hub. The optical drive and the HDD still don't respond. But the b/w laserjet printer does respond just fine, so that tells me that there is no problem with the USB port it self. I also tried the printer through the USB hub and it worked there also. So that tells me that the hub is working. Now when I plug in the USB cable for the optical drive and for the HDD without the external 5vdc turned on the red led is on on each case.
I am out of ideas, I have tried everything that I know. By the way I am typing this post on the Dell laptop in question. So that rules out a problem with the laptop it self as far as I know.

Steve

The optical drive case and the HDD case both have a 5vdc external power pack. The USB hub doesn't have an external 5vdc pack. I don't know why when I turned everything on in the normal order that I have done for a few years now I have no clue as to why the optical drive and the HDD didn't come on. I rebooted the laptop and the optical drive and the HDD in the USB cases are back to normal. Thanks all for your input.

spunk said:

Does the USB Hub have it's own power adapter?
USB ports on laptops are notoriously under powered, USB Mass Storage Devices, like USB HDD's, Optical Drive, Flash Drives, Cameras etc, require Extra power to be recognized. USB Hubs are also very notorious for not providing enough power for Mass Storage devices.
If you use a Hub, be sure you are using the Hubs own External Power Adapter. Do not plug the power plug into a power strip, plug it into the wall directly.
If your hub doesn't have it's own power, then, as has been stated, press the Windows key+X and choose Device Manager. If there are any Yellow Flags, right click them and Uninstall them. Remove the USB cable from the Hub to the laptop, and restart the computer. Make sure USB devices are still powered on. When you come back up, Plug the USB cable into a Different USB port on the laptop. If that still doesn't work, do the above, but plug only one Device, either HDD or Optical drive, in the Hub and see if that works. If so, you need a powered hub or probably a different brand.

I will look into getting a new USB hub with it's own power adapter after I get done with the move and get everything unpacked and setup in the new apt. Thanks, it is a good idea.

spunk said:

I would consider getting a USB Hub with it's own Power Adapter, to avoid these issues in the future.