Hi, I'm new here because I have just started to play with NUC's. And have also been playing with USB 3.0 powered hubs because my NUC (DC53427) only has 3 USB ports. 3 are not enough by the time you have a wireless K M dongle plugged in and two ports taken up with a USB attached optical drive leaving no ports free for a flashdrive. A rather useless design but maybe workable. I also have problems in getting wireless keyboards and mice working but a lot depends on which ports you use. Any USB 3 port should be able to work directly from the BIOS and not require drivers to be loaded first but they don't.
I will digress here and tell you a story about CF cards and Nikon D800 cameras. I have found that a lot of earlier CF cards will not work in the camera. Finally I have come to the conclusion that some years ago CF card designers either used beta controllers or even just didn't implement ALL features of the CF card specs. Along comes a camera that uses some of these specs and the CF cards just don't work. There are thousands of users who have had this problem. Not once has a reason been proposed for this. The manf have been very silent.about this but I can tell you that all (at least I think so) CF cards you buy now will work. I think that there was some oversight there but no manf will tell you because there will be so much fuss over card replacements etc that everybody is keeping silent. Back to the USB 3 issue -
Now when you plug anything into a USB 2 slot generally everything works just how you would expect. And I have found USB 2 to be very stable and consistent. It has taken 15 years for this to be the case. BUT with USB 3 I have not yet found a USB 3 attached drive, or powered USB 3 hub, that has the stability of USB 2. By this I mean the ability to take a USB 3 drive and be able to plug it into any USB 3 port and have it work. USB 3 has been around for some years but support from Intel and MS has been almost none existent so far. I have been in the IT industry for 40 years and still won't sell any solution using using USB 3 because it just doesn't work right yet. There are some exceptions to this because there have been times when I have got it to work with specific USB 3 attached enclosures and the USB 3.0 ports of certain motherboards.Great, UNTIL you plug that enclosure into another system, Perhaps to perform an image restoration and then you find that a. the backup software doesn't have driver support for that USB 3 chipset or b. there is a mismatch between the USB chips at both sides. It has been like that for 5 years and I have found no change in the situation. You will hear little or nothing from manfs because they don't suddenly want to have to be changing out millions of motherboards and other assorted devices because they screwed up. I do not sell any backup solution relying upon USB 3 yet and still use USB 2 because it works and the other doesn't.
A USB 3 port should be a simple device yet this forum, and heaps of others, are full of USB 3 problems. It might be that a better driver might fix it for some of us (and only SOME I think) but I suspect that the problem is much deeper and there will be no satisfactory solution for most for a while yet. USB 3 powered hubs are a joke and a total waste of money. Devices with only USB 3 ports will give owners problems unless they only use USB 2 devices AND owners never RELY on any USB 3 attached device working when your reputation is on the line.
This is the 3rd time I have been through hassles where the main outstanding feature has been the total absence of meaning-full dialog from the manufacturers. And it is all to do with liability.
1. The first was wifi and ipads.
2. Seocond was the CF saga above.
3. And now the USB 3 problem (this has been there even before 1. above) but this is the first time it has seriously inconvenienced me because I now need it not to be a problem.