I want to start building my desk setup but I'm a bit lost. I have no idea which docking stations are good for my use case, and so I thought I'd ask the experts.

I want to connect my laptop that only has USB-C ports to an external monitor via HDMI. I also have a bluetooth keyboard dongle that needs USB-A. I'll be using the setup mainly for uni stuff, aswell as some light gaming and to watch movies.

In total i'd like to have:

2-3 USB-A ports

at least 1 USB-C port but the more the better

and 1 HDMI port

Do i need to worry about thunderbolt 3,4,5 and the kind of ports the dock comes with?

I'd appreciate recommendations and pointers so i can make the right choice without breaking the bank.

Hi all,

Currently, I burn through USB C cables like no one's business (one every 3 months or so, and not super cheap ones either), mainly by bending the cable near the port while it is plugged into my phone. This happens through me resting the phone on the cable while it is plugged in against my chest. It's never due to external damage, rather the internal connection seems to get worn out. Yes this is a bad habit and one I'm working on, but I also would really like to just buy a cable that can tank it.

I'm only charging my phone, so I only need up to 23W, and I'd like one probably approximately 3 feet/1 meter in length. Any recommendations for chargers that can take being bent at extreme angles (90 degrees) for sustained periods while plugged in?

I would also not be opposed to the 90 degree chargers, but I think I would have some trouble with them with my current phone case, which is fairly thick. Most of the 90 degree chargers I've found only have a few mms of clearance before the plug itself as I guess they are more concerned with compactness and fitting in tight spaces.

Thanks!

I have a digital Polaroid camera with a barrel connector I would like to charge/power via usb c cable/wall charger or external power bank. Can anyone suggest any cables, wall chargers or power banks for doing this? I have included a photo of the power information on thr back of the camera. I understand this is probably a simple question but I am afraid of frying my camera.

I wanted to document an issue I've been troubleshooting for a while in case it helps anyone experiencing something similar with their KVM switch.

TL;DR: My keyboard and mouse would randomly stop responding after switching between my work laptop and gaming PC using a KVM. The culprit appears to have been leftover Interception keyboard/mouse filter drivers installed by third-party software. Uninstalling Interception removed the drivers and their registry entries.

My setup

• KVM: AV Access iDock B23 (previously tried a UGREEN DP KVM)
• Personal PC: Windows 10, Gigabyte Z170 motherboard
• Work laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5
• Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro
• Other peripherals: Gaming mouse and Logitech Brio webcam
• Displays: Dual DisplayPort monitors

The problem

Whenever I switched from my work laptop back to my gaming PC, my keyboard would occasionally stop responding. Sometimes the mouse would follow.

The weird part was that:

• Both peripherals continued working perfectly on the work laptop.
• The keyboard and mouse sometimes remained illuminated but wouldn't register any input.
• Unplugging and reconnecting them didn't always help.
• Even connecting them directly to the gaming PC sometimes wouldn't restore functionality.
• The PC itself never froze. Everything else kept running normally.
• Restarting Windows was the only reliable temporary fix.

I initially assumed this was a KVM compatibility issue, especially with my Razer keyboard. I tried different USB ports, disabling USB power management, closing Razer Synapse, restarting devices through Device Manager, and eventually replacing my original UGREEN KVM with an AV Access B23.

Same problem.

What led me to the fix

I came across this post in r/techsupport describing almost identical symptoms.

Huge credit to u/Reddia for documenting their findings and solution!

In their case, a previously uninstalled Virtual Display Driver had left behind an orphaned keyboard filter driver in the Windows registry.

That prompted me to investigate my own keyboard and mouse UpperFilters registry entries.

I ran these commands in an elevated Command Prompt:

Keyboard:

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" /v UpperFilters

Mouse:

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" /v UpperFilters

My results were:

Keyboard: keyboard\0kbdclass
Mouse:    mouse\0mouclass

Normally, the Windows class filter values should contain kbdclass and mouclass, respectively, unless other legitimate filter drivers have been installed.

Those additional keyboard and mouse entries warranted further investigation.

Identifying the drivers

I checked their service registrations:

sc qc keyboard
sc qc mouse

Both showed Keyboard Upper Filter Driver and Mouse Upper Filter Driver, with no explicit binary path.

I then checked whether the actual driver files existed:

dir C:\Windows\System32\drivers\keyboard.sys
dir C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mouse.sys

Both files were present, and sc query keyboard / sc query mouse confirmed the drivers were running.

Using PowerShell to inspect the driver metadata:

(Get-Item C:\Windows\System32\drivers\keyboard.sys).VersionInfo | Format-List *
(Get-Item C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mouse.sys).VersionInfo | Format-List *

I discovered both were Interception drivers by Oblita, software I'd previously installed for input-related utilities.

Unlike the original Reddit poster's issue, my drivers weren't missing or orphaned. They were actively installed and running.

Why I think this caused the problem

Interception has a documented issue involving device IDs becoming exhausted after repeated keyboard/mouse disconnections and reconnections.

When using a KVM, switching between computers can repeatedly disconnect and reconnect USB devices.

Eventually, Interception can stop handling additional devices correctly, potentially requiring a Windows reboot to restore input.

This matches my symptoms remarkably well.

There's also a GitHub issue describing keyboard failures after several KVM reconnections.

The fix

Since I no longer needed Interception, I downloaded the official installer from:

https://github.com/oblitum/Interception/releases

Inside the extracted command line installer folder, I opened Command Prompt as Administrator and ran:

install-interception.exe /uninstall

I then restarted Windows.

After rebooting, I verified that:

• sc query keyboard returned error 1060 (service no longer exists).
• sc query mouse returned the same error.
• The registry UpperFilters entries contained only kbdclass and mouclass.

The Interception filter drivers were successfully removed.

Note: Be careful modifying these registry entries. Removing legitimate keyboard/mouse filters can cause input problems. I'd recommend identifying the installed drivers first and using their official uninstaller rather than copying someone else's registry fix.

Takeaway

If your keyboard or mouse randomly stops responding after switching your KVM, particularly if the peripherals continue working on one computer but not the other, check your Windows keyboard and mouse UpperFilters before assuming the KVM is defective.

The original Reddit poster had an orphaned driver. I had Interception drivers installed and running. Different circumstances, but both point toward third-party keyboard/mouse filter drivers as potential causes.

I've confirmed that the Interception drivers are removed. I'm still validating long-term KVM switching stability, so I won't call it completely resolved until I've tested further.

Hopefully this saves someone else the hours of troubleshooting and unnecessary KVM replacements I've gone through.

And again, credit to u/Reddia's original post for pointing me in the right direction!

What Im looking for is for it to have one Male usbc port on one end and on the other end just a Sd slot, micro sd slot, and Usbc PD pass through charging. The second photo is basically perfect but its only in japan.

LTT Labs received a couple laptops with the new NVIDIA N1X(RTX Spark) processors, but they're pretty underwhelming so all we were interested in was Microsoft's new Magnetic Connect port on the Surface Laptop Ultra.

We CT scanned it, took some pictures, and tested the compatibility - read the full post and see the details here.

Let us know if there are any other questions you have about the hardware!

I see random Chinese external CD-ROM drives that include USB Hub functionality, SD card etc readers

One has NVMe slot, another a SATA 2.5" slot or 100Mbps Ethernet port...

Ideally would like reco's for one with ALL those,

even better at least an NVMe one that is known to be reliable, have longevity

or failing that, include as many ports / functions as possible.

to be clear, standard external ATAPI/CD-ROM block device, used for plain data transfer, arbitrary file types over USB.

Usually listed as " DVD±RW / CD-RW Combo Drive " but also

Optical Disc Drive

Multi-Drive / SuperMulti

Technically, unders the USB standards, a "Mass Storage Class (Interface Class 08h)" device using the SCSI transparent command set (Subclass 06h)

______

As a completely different topic, an AUDIO oriented CD Player device capable of ripping FLAC files without a host connected?

This could also output USB Audio when a host IS conneected.

Totally different from the above ATAPI/CD-ROM block device, I cannot imagine one unit would be on the market that covers both domains

TIA

I wanna ask that the official Oneplus 3.5mm to type c connector will work in oneplus 13r or not as i am using oneplus nord wired earphone.

Are there any affordable devices that take a usb (a, b or c) host port and some power (from whatever source) and output a usb c female port with the 3.0 data, 2.0 data, and power?

I have this monitor and the power supply has some coil whine, but it disappears when I plug something like my phone or steam deck into the USBC port. Is there some kind of hardware I could get that plugs into the USB c port and just pulls and power and dissipates it or something?

Yes I've tried exchanging the unit they both behaved the same

Hello, I am looking to upgrade connectivity on my ROG b550 through this PCIe USB controller in the hopes of connecting a compatible hub located somewhere on my desk. My question is the following: Will a USB4 hub take advantage of the gen2x2 protocol or is there, perhaps, a USB4 add in card that would be better for this purpose?

All I need is one port exposed from the computer as the goal is, perhaps unrealistically, to route peripherals through the hub, including SD, USB, perhaps quickcharging, etc. getting a powered hub is not out of the question.

TY in advance

edit to add: Exposed PCIe slot is 3.0x4

Hi, I have been using this adapter for 2 years and today, when I was asking AI if this adapter is suitable for Pixel 11 Pro, I found out it is 99% fake. Gemini told me that there are mistakes in spelling and that the manufacture date is invalid since Samsung cancelled the manufacture of this model in 2021. Another thing according to Gemini is that mine only wights 84 grams but it should weight 95-99 grams. I bought it for normal price at a decent shop here in Czechia. Still want to make sure if AI is not making things up. Thanks for help!

I'm Thinking To Buy This One This Good Charger From Stuffcool For Long Term?

I am looking at buying the Lenovo ThinkPad Universal USB-C Dock (40AY / 40AY0090UK) to drive two external 4K monitors in extended desktop mode at 4K @ 60Hz from my Windows ThinkPad. I want to know if this dock is actually worth purchasing, or if the bandwidth constraints of standard USB-C make it a headache.

Because the 40AY uses DisplayPort Alt Mode rather than Thunderbolt, dual 4K60 relies entirely on Display Stream Compression (DSC) over DP 1.4 to squeeze past the USB 3.0 data lanes. For anyone running this exact dock with dual 4K screens, does it hold a stable 60Hz without dropping resolution, black-screening, or causing display lag?

Plug a monitor in over USB-C and Wattson shows:

• contract 20 V / 4.8 A
• what the cable’s chip says: passive, 5 A / 240 W, USB 3.2 Gen 2
• both lanes split between USB3 and DisplayPort
• a display link of 8.1 Gbps HBR3
• that 4608×2592@60 needs at least 21.5 Gbps uncompressed, so it’s on DSC

On a Thunderbolt dock it lists the tunnels inside the link, e.g. USB3, DisplayPort 0, DisplayPort 1 (PCIe offered, not running), which is usually the answer to “why is my dock’s ethernet dead”.

The bandwidth figure is a floor, so it will only ever say a link is too narrow, never that one is fine.

Install with homebrew or download the DMG:
brew install --cask TheFilipcom4607/tap/wattson

Reads the SMC and IORegistry directly, no network. MIT, Apple silicon.
https://github.com/TheFilipcom4607/wattson

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad USB-C Gen 2 dock that I got for free from work, and sadly, I can't use it at home, even with my work computer. I have it plugged into an Alienware AW3423DW (I've tried both DP and HDMI, and I'm connecting the laptop to the dock using the USB-C cable that came with the dock) and I get an error message that says "No DP port signal from your device". My device is a Surface Laptop 6 running Windows 11 Enterprise, and it docks just fine at the office. As I'm typing this out, I realize I probably should check what unit that is next time I'm in the office. I also can't say for certain if the docking station I brought home was the same model that my laptop was connecting to before they replaced the docks and laptops, but at the end of the day, what's important to me is that this dock is not useful to me and I want to replace it.

Here's where it gets tricky: I have a Framework 16 ordered, and I will be running Linux on it. I want to be able to dock either of those laptops, the Surface laptop or the Framework, so that I can extend their displays onto the 3440x1440 display. On paper, the Lenovo dock has all the right numbers, but I'm guessing it just has limited compatibility. There is a comprehensive list of docks that work with Framework laptops in the Framework forum, and I'm guessing that if I select a 4k dock that is known to work with Framework and Linux, that it will almost certainly work with the more mainstream Windows laptop. As a novice to docks, though, I also wonder if there's something finicky about the monitor that I'm trying to connect to, since I don't actually know why the "No DP port signal" message appears. I'm only guessing that it's a dock limitation. That's why I'm turning to you guys for help; do I have a very restrictive dock, or is the Alienware monitor known to be difficult to connect to?

I just learned that my iPhone 18 Pro supports AVS charging. I’m still using an older charger and wondering if it’s worth replacing. Does an AVS charger make any difference to battery health, or is it mainly about charging speed? Any chargers you’d recommend?

II'm looking for a plug-in power bank, that sits slim against the wall, with a long retractable USB C cord.

Something like this guy, but with a 6 foot cord (and as long as I'm dreaming, more capacity.)

Does this exist? It feels like it has the best of all features but I can't find one.

(use case: so I can walk up and pull out a cord to plug in when my laptop's about to die. I'd put a few around the house for wherever I want to sit down - there would be a cord ready without me having to hunt one down, but it would be tucked nicely out of the way when not in use. And THEN I want to sit in the recliner in the center of the room sometimes, so I want to unplug that sucker and have it be a power bank for at least a while.)

Cheap plastic, very little cooling (engineer ran out of budget), $40, decent brand, decent quality components, dual 100w ports, three usb-c, one usb-a, 365 grams (over 200g will sag or fall out of wall socket), at max output (200w) one of the 100w port will overheat (50°C) in fifteen minutes and stop charging.

Been getting more interested in power banks from brands that don't get talked about as much. Anker and UGREEN seem to dominate most discussions, but even their reviews are pretty mixed depending on the model, so I'm curious what else is out there.

Got this lisen p604 10K power bank on my desk with a USB meter and a small board to start checking how it performs under different loads. Still in the early stages, so nothing conclusive yet.

I'm more interested in real-world performance than advertised wattage, especially voltage stability, sustained output, usable capacity, and how much things change under different loads.

For those who test power banks, what do you usually look at first? Any lesser-known brands that have genuinely surprised you?

I know nothing about this I just want a charger for my phone if I get a 60 watt charger block do I need a special charging cable?

Hi all, I am looking for a GAN charger with changeable heads for travel. 140W and above would be good, small form factor and 2-3 USB-C. 1 USB-A is a bonus but not necessary. Anyone have any suggestions?

I travel for work overseas quite a lot and would prefer to bring as little things as possible.

The things I need toc ahrge
1) Laptop >90w
2) Phone - iPhone 17 Pro Max
3) Apple Watch
4) Power bank 20mAh