Does the dongle care if it something else borrows its port?

Cubase
1

I’ve ALWAYS had my Steinberg dongle plugged into the same USB port, and nothing else has ever been plugged into that port. Windows XP SP2 here.

I have a piece of hardware (BCF 2000) that says it should be plugged into the computer directly for the first time it is used … after that, a USB hub is OK. Though I’m running out of ports, I can combine my monitor and keyboard via a hub (I think) to free one up temporarily, hopefully no need to use the Steinberg dongle port.

Thinking about this, I remember when I set up the Korg NanoKontrol the directions said there might be problems if it were later plugged into a different USB port than the one it was first plugged into.

I’d never really considered that hardware could be so sensitive about what ports it was using, and it got me thinking … does anyone know - would Mr. Dongle be unhappy if something else borrowed his port for a while, and then he got plugged back into it?

Thanks much -

2

If you mean while running Cubase, then yes. I absent mindedly removed the dongle once and had an instant Cubase freeze.
HTH
J.L.

3

Thanks, Jaslan. I was actually wondering about not during a session - but rather, if something was plugged into the USB port, used, then removed - between Cubase sessions.

4

I use the same port for all kinds of hardware and never had a problem with the dongle/Cubase.

5

IIRC, when you change the port or introduce a new USB hub, you’re prompted to re-install an appropriate driver(?) - then the dongle’s recognised again. That’s one of the advantages of starting off with a USB hub that has several spare sockets that you can reserve for dongles.

(Another advantage is that you can unplug the hub from the cable, with all the dongles still in place, and store it somewhere safe - eg when you’re away on holiday. Imagine someone stealing all your dongles, thinking he’s getting some flash drives, and then throwing them away when they didn’t work as expected. :cry: )

(As Renewal already said) I don’t think it matters if you plug something else in the same USB socket while you’re not needing the dongle - my understanding is that the already-installed driver will be used again when the Cubase dongle’s back in use.