Oculus killing my Tablets? In dire need of help

[Malijep]

I am in dire need o f help.

I think my brand new top-spec Alienware 15 laptop OS: windows 10. has killed 4 wacom tablets...Thats right..4! My profession is concept art, so its a true existential problem.

What happens is the tablet works some time and then at some point it stops being recognized by the computer. I then unplug then replug and it works for another 45 minutes and then the computer stops recognizing it again. Then I again unplug/replug eventually it works for another 30 minutes. You see the pattern. It works all the way down to 5 minutes and then eventually not at all. If I wait a day it will start to work again but follow this same pattern up until a few weeks go by and it completely unrecognized by the pc.

I've been to geek squad and they said there was nothing wrong with my computer. It's new after all! And that it's just my tablet that dead. I have done loads of research and have few suspicions. 

1: Alienware systems. Somehow overcharging the USB ports and frying the tablet

2 Oculus Rift. This is one that I am leaning towards for two reasons. All my tablets seemed to stop working around the time I started using the oculus rift. The oculus sucks so much energy my external battery plugged into the wall can't keep up with it and after 50 minutes of use my computer turns off, sucking the battery dry. Now I bought another tablet 2 months ago, all has been good. Then last night I used my oculus for an hour or so and the next day my Wacom tablet pro began to not be recognized by the computer. The same symptoms and patterns from previous times. Could the computer still be sending the oculus amount of power to the tablet, frying it!?

This is driving me made and broke. Please if anyone could help 

[Anonymous]

Hey there!
I just posted this: https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/69615/oculus-refuses-to-work-with-the-usb-port-it-previously-worked-with#latest
Now I doubt you are having that problem, however the section where I talk about not wanting to use a different port cuz of trying to balance power over host controllers.. that might be affecting you.

Basically if you have too much power-hungry stuff plugged into the same branch, it will overload your usb controller constantly resetting it.. You can observe this behavior by opening the device manager and you'll notice that it refreshes by itself like every 1-2 seconds as if you plugged in something... 
That constant resetting (basically taking away power for a millisecond then reapplying it) 'could' be killing your tablets.. 
I suggest not having your tablets plugged in while you have the Oculus plugged in and vice-versa... or getting a high quality powered usb hub and plug the HMD and maybe a sensor into that so it has an additional source of power..

Now, all of this is pretty much much just a guess.. as I don't use tablets.. so it could be anything else.. but it may be worth a try..

Cheers

[TwoHedWlf]

Malijep said:

I am in dire need o f help.

I think my brand new top-spec Alienware 15 laptop OS: windows 10. has killed 4 wacom tablets...Thats right..4! My profession is concept art, so its a true existential problem.

1: Alienware systems. Somehow overcharging the USB ports and frying the tablet

2 Oculus Rift. This is one that I am leaning towards for two reasons. All my tablets seemed to stop working around the time I started using the oculus rift. The oculus sucks so much energy my external battery plugged into the wall can't keep up with it and after 50 minutes of use my computer turns off, sucking the battery dry. Now I bought another tablet 2 months ago, all has been good. Then last night I used my oculus for an hour or so and the next day my Wacom tablet pro began to not be recognized by the computer. The same symptoms and patterns from previous times. Could the computer still be sending the oculus amount of power to the tablet, frying it!?

This is driving me made and broke. Please if anyone could help 

1.  Unlikely, USB ports aren't chargers and you can't overcharge a USB port.  They're simple power supplies putting out 5v.  It's possible the voltage is too high, you can get testers that will show voltage and current draw and even have a variable load.  They're only $10-20.  Or you could use a multimeter to test the voltage.

2.  The computer can't send an oculus amount of power to the tablet.  The computer doesn't control the amount of power that's being sent, the device drawing the power controls the current it draws(Well, USB does allow a higher power mode, but that's still the receiving telling the USB controller to allow it to draw more power before switching off)

The Rift doesn't draw a lot of power anyway.  5-10 watts, and almost none when not in use.

I'd try your tablets on another PC, I suspect it's your laptop at fault. 

[Malijep]

Thanks for your feedback. I will look into all the above. xevyr, your last point sounds destressingly plausible. Yet I don't have my tablet and oculus plugged in at the same time. I do however have a orbweaver (gaming keyboard) a mouse, and two monitors plugged in. Is there a solution to this I can try out? 
I've  tried these tablets on other computers to no avail. I first thought it a usb driver problem or something similar, as the most common problems with these tablets have to do with reinstalling or resetting drivers.

But this is completely new to me and seemlingly eveyone I know, people who know computers. So my next step would be to look even deeper into the Alienware preinstalled software...

thanks you all for the help. I'm in the dark and it's good to hear some wiser prospective on the matter. 

Ill keep you updated- Someone else is suffering through this with me.