The USB-C is already starting to become popular among many electronic devices, and hardware components such as motherboards, computer boxes or graphics cards. In laptops, it is a type of port that has been standardized for a long time, but there are a number of aspects about this connector that we must take into account and that many users may not be aware of . And is that ignoring them could have serious consequences for our devices.
The ease of connection provided by USB-C, compared to traditional types A, B, mini USB and micro USB , is a great advantage for users. Not having to be trying to get it right if we place the connector in the correct orientation will always be a plus in our eyes.
And even so, probably due to its “novelty” among users, there are considerations to take into account with this type of connector.
The wrong cable can “fry” your device
This is an aspect that many users are unaware of and it is a problem that usually affects cables that, at one end have a USB C connector and, at the other, a USB A. The problem is that the USB-C has the capacity to supply considerably more power through the cable than USB-A.
If the cable we use is of good quality, it will have internal resistors that will avoid any type of problem with our devices. But, if the cable is cheap and of poor quality, the increase in power that travels through the cable can damage what we have connected.
This is something very common unfortunately in certain devices and cables, where this ends with the battery inflated or damaged after a few months of use with a cable that is not the one it should. Internal shorts can also occur on the PCB and even on the laptop or motherboard connector itself, which could literally go on fire if the power difference is too high.
Be it a smartphone, a tablet, the motherboard’s own USB-C port, or even if we are very unlucky, our own computer. Therefore, if the battery of the connected device in question is hot or very hot after a few minutes, the ideal is that we carefully disconnect the cable and verify the three parts to avoid displeasure.
Not all USB-C connectors are the same
This problem derives from the multiple possibilities that the USB-C connector can offer , but these possibilities may or may not be supported by our cable.
In this regard, it must be borne in mind that many of the USB-C cables on the market actually work as if they were USB-A because they have been developed mainly for powering devices. But, if we wanted to use that same cable to, for example, take an image of a laptop or a graphics card, in all probability it would not be capable.
But, on the other hand, first we must know what are the alternative modes that the USB-C of our device supports. It may be that it supports HDMI or MHL as alternatives, or DisplayPort or Thunderbolt 3. That is, it is the user’s job to make sure that the connections they want to make are supported, both by the data cable and by the device’s connector.
Not all dongles are capable of fulfilling their function well
This problem mainly affects laptop users who only have one or two USB-C ports on their chassis. Since most of our peripherals use USB-A connectors, sooner or later we will be forced to buy a dongle. Furthermore, it is in these dongles where we can find other ports, such as RJ45, if we want to use our laptop connected by cable, instead of WiFI.
But, it may be the case that we connect many peripherals that end up saturating the bandwidth that our laptop’s own port has available, especially if it is USB 3.0 or 3.1 . If in these ports we connect, for example, a Gigabit network card, with a pendrive and we try to get a video signal to a second monitor, it is quite possible that we saturate the port in question. Therefore, we must be very aware of what we are connecting in the dongle so as not to encounter situations in which our peripherals are not capable of performing what they could.
