Powered USB hub is lighting the lights on my motherboard - is this normal?

[AndyKurtis]

Hi pals, not sure if this is the right section for this but it's kind of motherboard related - I bought a powered USB hub and just noticed today that the power light on my Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard was on, even though the computer was switched off at the PSU. I unplugged the USB hub from the computer and the light went out. Is this normal or has my hub been doing something it shouldn't? Would somebody that has a powered hub and a motherboard with a power light on it please check to confirm whether this happens to them too? Thanks.

 

[Karsten75]

Funny you should mention this. Some weeks (months?) ago I noticed that some of the fans in my rig was running after I powered the PC off and removed the power cord from the wall socket.

Turns out it was my HooToo powered hub doing it. I've not really done much troubleshooting on it apart from pulling the power on the HooToo, but I'm pretty sure it can't be good for the motherboard and is against the specifications for USB devices to send power down the hub connector. I can imagine that cheap units aren't too careful in differentiating the ports and following the specs.

I did at some time have a tremendous energy surge after a lightning strike that took out about 50% of all the electronics in my house (my computer was behind surge protectors and didn't suffer immediate noticeable harm).

Due to the complexity of my setup (the HooToo hub is connected to a USB PCIe card) I've not really done much investigation to determine what components are at fault.

My motherboard is an ASRock Z77 Extreme6 .

The very last component I'd suspect would be the motherboard - I'd first remove/replace the USB hub with one made by a more reputable company, then replace the PCI USB card, then look at the motherboard.