About to start moving my dongle around a lot ...

[alexis]

I’ve barely handled my dongle for years, but it’s about to get a lot more action.

I’m going to be moving the computer back and forth to a different part of the house (for audio recording), and so all of a sudden the risk of breaking the dongle is going up.

I figure there’s no way to make a back up of the contents before doing this, as that would defeat the idea behind copy protection. But I thought I would ask, does anyone have any recommendations for making life easier if it does break … maybe buy an empty dongle 1st, so if it breaks, at least I’ll have that ready when I call Steinberg for a replacement licence?

Thanks!

[fizbin]

I’ve never had one break, so haven’t had to go through the process. My suggestions for not breaking it…

1. Put it on a small USB extension chord of some kind so it isn’t plugged directly into hardware. The mechanical benefits to the integrity of your USB stick should be pretty obvious here. I have a little cord that splits into 4 (I keep all my dongles on it), like a hub, but you can’t twist at the dongle and break it, cuz there’s nothing really to twist against since its on a cord.

2. If you are on a desktop and not a laptop, and this is your only music computer, you can install a USB PCI card with an internal USB port, keeping the dongle on the inside of your computer case. Virtually impossible to break.

Best,
Jay

[raino]

I keep my dongle on a short USB extension cable which minimizes the risk of breaking it by knocking into the dongle. You could further protect it by wrapping it in padding and taping that onto the cable. Seems you could arrange it so you never handle the actual dongle, just the stuff protecting it.

[alexis]

@raino

I keep my dongle on a short USB extension cable which minimizes the risk of breaking it by knocking into the dongle. You could further protect it by wrapping it in padding and taping that onto the cable. Seems you could arrange it so you never handle the actual dongle, just the stuff protecting it.

All great, ideas, thanks.

I’ve read that sometimes putting the dongle in a different USB port than it was in previously can cause problems (that is what the lit on the Korg MicroKontrol says, for example).

I suppose that the computer would be “blind” as to whether the dongle itself is going into the same port, or whether it is tethered to a USB extension … do you think that’s about right?

[Split]

@alexis

@raino

I keep my dongle on a short USB extension cable which minimizes the risk of breaking it by knocking into the dongle. You could further protect it by wrapping it in padding and taping that onto the cable. Seems you could arrange it so you never handle the actual dongle, just the stuff protecting it.

All great, ideas, thanks.

I’ve read that sometimes putting the dongle in a different USB port than it was in previously can cause problems (that is what the lit on the Korg MicroKontrol says, for example).

I suppose that the computer would be “blind” as to whether the dongle itself is going into the same port, or whether it is tethered to a USB extension … do you think that’s about right?

The computer and the dongle will never know the extension is there.

[raino]

@Split

The computer and the dongle will never know the extension is there.

That’s right. Actually I have a USB hub at the end of the cable with 2 different dongles on it. So on my PC it doesn’t even mind going thru the cable and hub to reach the dongle. I suspect some systems might have issues with the hub though.