Two SSDs and the Wifi Stopped Working

[Sowden]

Hey ho guys. So I just finalized the setup for two SSDs running off of only two USB ports. And I've found with two connected, it stops the wifi from working. Now I've seen this problem before with two HDDs, and I discovered a solution I wrote about here

https://gbatemp.net/threads/my-wii-u-wifi-stopped-working-and-what-i-did-to-easily-fix-it.601039/

I found that by simply separating them seemed to solve the issue. But that doesn't seem to be working here. Does anyone have any experience with this? I've read elsewhere that if you open your Wii U and apply tinfoil somewhere that it would help. I'm considering getting a LAN adapter, but I dono.

 

[jeannotte]

And I've found with two connected, it stops the wifi from working.

just a little info:

on the forum, I saw people having placed their external hard drive on the console prevented the wifi from working, so move the external hard drive next to the wii U and it worked

 

[Sowden]

on the forum, I saw people having placed their external hard drive on the console prevented the wifi from working, so move the external hard drive next to the wii U and it worked

This worked great. I had bought two of these USB SSD cables and the cables were just too short

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073SXTY64?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

They both worked, but it did stop the wifi. So in my closet, I had two USB 2.0 extension cables. So I put one up on a top shelf, and another one far away on the bottom shelf. Turned it on, wifi worked, and so did both SSDs. Even though both SSD cables are USB 3.0, the Wii U only reads 2.0, so those extension cables worked fine. Thanks for your help dude!

 

[Blythe93]

As far as I know, USB 3.0 cables that you use to connect your SSDs to your Wii U generate frequency noise that causes intereference on the 2.4 GHz band, used by Wii U's Wi-Fi. It's especially noticeable if you place your HDDs atop of the console. At some point, I plugged my USB cables into the front USB ports and my console's Wi-Fi worked in that case.

 

[V10lator]

@Blythe93 That interferrence thing is interresting, do you have some more data? Cause to my knowledge a USB 3 cable should work exactly the same as a USB 2 one when connected to a USB 2 port: The extra data lines will just be floating (or maybe beeig grounded? But grounding should help against interferrence, not the opposite).

 

[Blythe93]

Unfortunately, I do not. I've found out about that while I was trying to figure out why my Wi-Fi stopped working while I was downloading some content via your homebrew app, NUSSpli, and the culprit were those USB 3.0 cables that I recently purchased, which were placed in the near proximity to the Wii U's Wi-Fi antennae. Sorry I can't be more of a help.

 

[Sowden]

@Blythe93 Do you happen to have a SSD USB 3.0 cable you would recommed buying that doesn't have this 2.4 GHz interferance?

 

[V10lator]

@Sowden Simply use a USB 2 cable? The Wii U is USB 2 anyway, so using a USB 3 cable has no benefits.

In case the HDD facing end of your current USB 3 cable looks like this: A normal USB 2 micro plug will fit into the HDD.

//EDIT: Also don't use the cheapest cable you can find but a shielded one.

 

[jeannotte]

As far as I know, USB 3.0 cables that you use to connect your SSDs to your Wii U generate frequency noise that causes intereference on the 2.4 GHz band, used by Wii U's Wi-Fi. It's especially noticeable if you place your HDDs atop of the console. At some point, I

what I said may not be true ==> to be confirmed?

perhaps by the usb 3.0 data transfer which goes faster and interferes enormously with the wifi interference of the wii U. or the usb 2.0 and 3.0 cables really too close to the console.

 

[V10lator]

perhaps by the usb 3.0 data transfer which goes faster

The thing is: The Wii U is USB 2.0, so nothing gets faster by using a USB 3 cable. As I said previously:

to my knowledge a USB 3 cable should work exactly the same as a USB 2 one when connected to a USB 2 port: The extra data lines will just be floating

So yea, I'm still interrested in getting more data and confirmation of this weird behaviour with USB 3 cables. Not that we see at the end that all was just coincindence and the real root was the HDD itself, sitting near / on top of the antennas.

//EDIT: Or maybe it's shielded vs unshielded cables and that it seems to be USB 2 vs 3 is just coincidence? There's still a lot of data to collect to get the real root.
Note that I'm not doubting the experiences users made. I just say it sounds a bit weird and there might be other reasons.

 

[Blythe93]

Or maybe it's shielded vs unshielded cables and that it seems to be USB 2 vs 3 is just coincidence?

Could be both, I guess. 6/6 USB 3.0 cables of mine caused the interference with Wi-Fi, while 2/2 USB 2.0 cables didn't cause any issue. I still have 2 USB 3.0 cables that I can test and see whether they'll cause interference or not (those are the ones that were included with HDD enclosures but I haven't used them with new SSDs as they needed extra power.

Note that I'm not doubting the experiences users made. I just say it sounds a bit weird and there might be other reasons.

Totally understandable. ^^

 

[Sowden]

Note that I'm not doubting the experiences users made. I just say it sounds a bit weird and there might be other reasons.

It could also be excess heat. USB 2.0 delivers 5V at 500 mA for a total output of 2.5 watts. USB 3.0 goes at 5V at 900 mA for a total of 4.5W. So if the SSD is outputting 4.5W because it detects a 3.0 USB cable, but the Wii U is only drawing 2.5 because that's it's upper limit, that means 2W are radiating out and could cause signal interference.

 

[V10lator]

USB 2.0 delivers 5V at 500 mA for a total output of 2.5 watts. USB 3.0 goes at 5V at 900 mA for a total of 4.5W.

Stop right here. Again: The Wii U is USB 2. Not only this but Nintendo decided to put a hard limit on the standart, so when you try to get more than 500 mA from a USB port an IC will just cut the power.

This is the whole reason you need Y cables to begin with.

So if the SSD is outputting 4.5W

The SSD isn't outputting anything. It's not a perpetuum mobile but needs extrernal power. Thermodynamics say you can't output more energy than you input.
A hardware mod for the Wii U exists to remove that artificial limit Nintendo putted in place (simply bridge over the ICs which are cutting the power) but that's a bit off topic and really just so you don't need a Y cable anymore.