[stickyboi]

Due to the fact that my ageing laptop lacks high-tech hardware components I have been forced to make minor external upgrades in areas such as a wireless adapter for the internet, a bluetooth dongle, an external hard drive, a mouse and the usual printer / scanner / digital camera and iPod connections! All this, together with the fact that one of the two usb ports on my computer is knackered has meant I needed to buy a hub which would allow multiple devices to be connected through the one USB switch <- Almost identical to the one shown here.

Now, I bought it brand new and I am experiencing a problem never experienced until I plugged this in to my laptop. As soon as I have more than one application running (for example if I am browsing the web and I ask to burn a CD or play music) then my computer will just switch off. Before it does this I can hear the fan go crazy and it sounds like its overheating. Could it be this is caused by my USB adapter (and I only think this because I never had the problem before?!)...

[Gigos]

I would recommend you avoid doing yourself with your laptop. Might it was the reason?

[Redmo0n]

I dont think the adapter could cause overheating?

Try removing the adapter and running multiple applications, also check the temperature with speedfan

Download SpeedFan 4.34 - FileHippo.com

[KurrentEweser]

Are you using the AC adapter with the USB hub? It's a must if any of your devices draw power. The poor USB port can't handle 4 loads.

[CalcProgrammer1]

I have an old IBM ThinkPad A21p and I also have to use an external PCMCIA card for WiFi and Ethernet, a USB hub to expand my one port into 4...but it works just fine and doesn't overheat. Adding devices shouldn't stress your laptop's processor, only its battery. Try using PC Wizard 2008 to see what your CPU temperature (and possibly others if your PC supports it) is under idle and under stress. My laptop doesn't support SpeedFan so I recommend PC Wizard 2008, as it finds my laptop's temperature.

My new laptop on the other hand almost always runs the fan at full speed, probably from the stress of folding in the background and the 8600M GS.