On 31/05/2026 23:57, Pancho wrote:

My rpi4 UBS 3 sockets failed, I suspect due to feeding power back into
the port from a powered SATA to USB connector.

I use a Pi for a PVR, recording TV programmes to a spinning USB HDD that
is connected to a powered USB hub (so the HDD is not being powered by
the Pi's USB).

When I used a Pi3, this worked perfectly. When I switched to using a
Pi4, with the same HDD and hub, the Pi consistently hung very early in
the boot process. As soon as I unplugged the hub from the Pi (or removed
the hub's PSU) the Pi continued the boot process. (*)

It was a problem mainly if there had been a power cut and the power to
both the Pi and the hub was turned on at the same time (when the power
came back).

Someone suggested back-powering might be the cause, so I made up a
special cable which had its +5V line cut and connected it between the Pi
and the hub. Sadly this made no difference.

Powering the HDD from the Pi's power, via USB, worked fine - but I was
uneasy about drawing so much current from the Pi's PSU in case the
voltage ever sagged to the point that the Pi started to misbehave.

I solved the problem by changing to use a SATA HDD in a caddy that had a powered SATA-USB interface.


So the Pi4 seems to be more sensitive to powered devices than the Pi3.
I'm not sure about the Pi5 as I've only used USB-powered SD cards as
slave drives.



All of this is talking about an HDD that is used as a data disk. I still
boot off an SD card plugged into the Pi's motherboard, in the standard way.



(*) I forget how far the boot got before it hung. It might have been
before there was *any* image on a monitor connected to the HDMI port,
which isn't a great deal of help...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.16
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Hello NY!

12 Jun 26 20:58, you wrote to all:

On 31/05/2026 23:57, Pancho wrote:

My rpi4 UBS 3 sockets failed, I suspect due to feeding power back
into the port from a powered SATA to USB connector.

I use a Pi for a PVR, recording TV programmes to a spinning USB HDD
that is connected to a powered USB hub (so the HDD is not being
powered by the Pi's USB).

When I used a Pi3, this worked perfectly. When I switched to using a
Pi4, with the same HDD and hub, the Pi consistently hung very early in
the boot process. As soon as I unplugged the hub from the Pi (or
removed the hub's PSU) the Pi continued the boot process. (*)

It was a problem mainly if there had been a power cut and the power to
both the Pi and the hub was turned on at the same time (when the
power came back).

Someone suggested back-powering might be the cause, so I made up a
special cable which had its +5V line cut and connected it between the
Pi and the hub. Sadly this made no difference.

Powering the HDD from the Pi's power, via USB, worked fine - but I was
uneasy about drawing so much current from the Pi's PSU in case the
voltage ever sagged to the point that the Pi started to misbehave.

I solved the problem by changing to use a SATA HDD in a caddy that had
a powered SATA-USB interface.

So the Pi4 seems to be more sensitive to powered devices than the Pi3.
I'm not sure about the Pi5 as I've only used USB-powered SD cards as
slave drives.

All of this is talking about an HDD that is used as a data disk. I
still boot off an SD card plugged into the Pi's motherboard, in the
standard way.

(*) I forget how far the boot got before it hung. It might have been
before there was *any* image on a monitor connected to the HDMI port,
which isn't a great deal of help...

I have a pi3 and had a 4 and for both use a secondary Power adaptor where for the 4 bought a laptop adaptor with the correct power outputs.

The 3 uses a HDD and the 4 used a SSD but the adaptor for it will power a HDD.

Basically the supplied power adaptors for these units is does not have enough grunt for the power requirements i.e., amps etc.

Vincent


--- Mageia Linux v9 X64/Mbse v1.1.7/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20240604
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)