The "Active" cable I have is not the same standard/term like the normal ones. The cable is active according to 3 different "Bullets" than can be connected to the cable. The included psu for this cable is not affected of powering the cable, it works also without(passiv) - I just noticed the psu was not plugged in for it, while listeningA comment on the active USB cables. A main purpose is to extend maximum usable cable lenght above a typical 5m by regenerating frames. Do you need it?
The same when using USB 2.0 hub. In fact, there is a hub chip inside the cable. A hub is seen in Device Manager, change a view "by connection" to see how it is inserted between a DDC/DAC.
If you plug external power supply to such cable, it helps redirecting ground loops, the same (again) as a self-powered USB 2.0 hub do. So essentially you have very expensive a single port self-powered USB 2.0 hub. Ifi has a similar USB regenerator under a different name, but I always recommend to use iDefender instead, as is cheaper.
In your case (I recall you had to deal with AMD chipset problems during firmware upgrade) using USB 2.0 hub is recommended. It doesn't interfere with asynchronous data transfers, so you don't need to worry about what Kingwa wrote on the website. The same is expected with this cable. If you see any improvements, remember that the same can be achieved with self-powered USB 2.0 hub.
And yeah I hat problems with the USB Blaster and Device Manager not registering the Altera driver. Simple usb hub solved the issue.
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