Docking station crashes when transferring files

[andrzejlipski]

I have a ASUS ROG G752VS with a Thunderbolt III Over USB 3.1-Type C(Gen 2) port I am plugging my docking station into.I have 2 HP Compaq LA2306x monitors connected to the docking station. 1 is using the HDMI 2k port and the other the DVI port.

I recently bought a Mediasonic USB 3.1 Type C 8 Bay 3.5-inch Hard Drive Enclosure that has a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port. I connect the enclosure to the USB 3.0 port on the front of the docking station. I added 3 8GB HDDs to the enclosure.

When copying files from 1 disk in the enclosure to another I get about 50 to 150 MB/s transfer rate for about 10 to 15 seconds. Then it immediately goes to zero. My file explorer freezes up. My mouse cursor won’t move. My monitors will flicker and my system will sound off the ejection and reconnect sounds for a device connected to the system. This will happen over and over until I forceably disconnect my docking station.

When I connect the enclosure directly to the laptop USB-C port and do the same file transfers nothing goes wrong. I can transfer files between drives in the enclosure with no issues.

I’ve moved the monitor from the HDMI port in the docking station to laptop port but there is no difference. File transfers crash the docking station. I want the plugable to be a true docking station and be a hub for multiple devices but it doesn’t seem to be able to handle a couple of monitors and an external disk

Why does the plugable docking station seems to have trouble?

[Joshua_H]

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Plugable support! Sorry to hear about this issue. I’d be more than happy to assist you.

Some USB drive enclosures may have problems when running through a USB hub, within our dock there are two hub chips connected together. Our dock is also only USB 3.1 Gen 1, so the enclosure is being limited by running it through this dock.

We don’t test with enclosures such as this, so it is our recommendation to not run it through the docking station as we’re not able to guarantee stable operation of such a device. We do test various single drive enclosures through our dock and generally do not have issues. So I suspect you’re encountering a low level chipset incompatibility issue between the dock hub chipsets and enclosure, or the enclosure doesn’t simply doesn’t perform well when being limited to a Gen 1 connection.

Please don’t hesitate to let us know of other questions.

Thanks again for contacting Plugable support and best wishes!

Joshua Henry

Senior Engineer | Product Owner
Plugable Technologies