[SOLVED] Can PC performance be effected by what you have plugged into your motherboard USB slots?

[Lewinho]

I realize that's a bit of title gore, but allow me to explain.

I've been using the same PC that I built for about 3 years now. I'll leave the specs at the bottom. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a wired connection in my house so I use a small WiFi USB adapter. My tower case has USB slots along the top, and for the sake of ease I just put the USB adapter in one of those. Things were fine for a long time, until the last few days my ping has been all over the place so I moved it to the back.

On the back of my PC, all I have plugged in for USBs are my keyboard and my mouse. I've got four slots though, so I plugged it into the vacant one. Instantly my ping was improved (from a fluctuating 50-2000 to a stable 50) so I figured bang, that's it, case closed. However, since then, a few strange things have happened.

First of all, it feels like performance has taken a hit? The main game I've been playing is Guild Wars 2, and before I plugged the adapter into the back I was getting a pretty smooth 60-100fps. Now I sit at about 40-70, and loading is really rough (especially when loading into a place full of other player-characters). Closing out of the game just freezes the game, and makes me crash out of it rather than closing. Additionally, I've had both my keyboard and mouse completely disconnect and not respond to being unplugged and plugged back in. During this time, the adapter also stops working and I get disconnected from the internet.

Could that adapter be messing stuff up? It's plugged directly into the motherboard, and the motherboard is 3 years old at most.

Here's my build:
550W PSU
Motherboard: Asus Z170-E
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 FTW Edition
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K @ 3.5GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR4
Peripherals: Razer Naga Trinity, Razer Ornata Chroma, TP-LINK TL-WN823N WiFi Adapter

 

[Lewinho]

I should also add that my AC is currently broken and it’s about 80° in my room, so I’m sure that’s taking a toll. Although, it’s been like that for about a week and these problems have only started last night.

I’ve also tried plugging the WiFi adapter back into it’s original top of case slot, but with that I hardly get enough internet access to do anything with. For example, I’m writing this from my phone instead of my computer because the speed is so much worse on my computer than it is over my phone, using the same WiFi from the same spot.

 

[Flashgo1]

after constant use i have found that those usb wifi adapters just die after a while. i have seen this done with 3-4 of mine over the years.

might be time for another one.

as for heat. i have gamed in a room that was over 90f and my PC and xbox never had issue. xbox did have helper cooler due to the red ring of death scare.

 

[Lewinho]

after constant use i have found that those usb wifi adapters just die after a while. i have seen this done with 3-4 of mine over the years.

might be time for another one.

as for heat. i have gamed in a room that was over 90f and my PC and xbox never had issue. xbox did have helper cooler due to the red ring of death scare.

Yeah I’ve seen a lot of the adapters die over the years. But should performance be affected by a USB plugged into the back of my computer instead of on the top of my case? My computer’s performance has basically tanked since last night, since I plugged the adapter into the back.

 

[Flashgo1]

find a game that is offline and unplug adapter. if it works great your adapter is screwing with the pc.

 

[Flashgo1]

there are usb sticks out there designed to kill a pc by just pluging it in. so an old adapter that is failing could cause some sort of feed back to the pc