External Hard Drive not enough power

vspulak

Commendable
Jan 3, 2017
4
0
1,510
I have a seagate external hard drive & I am trying to use it to watch movies from it on my panasonic tv. I plug into the usb port and it just continuously beeps at me from what I've read that means its not getting enough power? What can I do to help my tv get my hard drive enough power?
 
Solution
I have an older Transcend portable drive that came with a USB cable that had two outputs. One was signal and power (thicker), the other just power (thinner). That way you could use two USB ports for power or connect a USB power supply.
https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/C2G-inYin-Cable-USB-cable-6-ft/1623851.aspx?cm_cat=GoogleBase&cm_ite=1623851&cm_pla=NA-NA-CTG_US&cm_ven=acquirgy&ef_id=V8X3ywAAAe5f7gnq:20170105194958:s&gclid=CIiAq6bjq9ECFR5XDQod508DnA&s_kwcid=AL!4223!3!61836302419!!!g!18283950120!

vspulak

Commendable
Jan 3, 2017
4
0
1,510
Well I got a self powered usb hub but when i plug that into my tv then plug my external hd into the usb hub nothing happens like the media player on my tv says no device connected.

 

utroz

Distinguished
Nov 9, 2010
90
1
18,610
Self powered hub is not going to have the power to run the hard drive. You need a POWERED HUB (meaning you the HUB will have it's own power adapter plugged into the wall and into the HUB) and then you might have a chance depending on the TV.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
1. Your external HDD probably needs its own power source. If a 3.5" drive, it definitely does. The USB hub power does not count.
2. Your TV probably does not know what to do with an external HDD. A flash drive probably. (yes, they are treated differently)
 

vspulak

Commendable
Jan 3, 2017
4
0
1,510
Oh my goodness sorry for wasting everyone's time after actually using my brain I did as you guys said and read my tv manual and it says right in the manual it does not support USB hdd. Again sorry bout that everyone thank you for trying to help me regardless.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


That is a USB 3.0 interface.
But the real thing is what type of drive is it? Make/model?
 

utroz

Distinguished
Nov 9, 2010
90
1
18,610


Not totally surprised as many TV's do not support USB hard drives. That is why I said something to the effect that even if you did get the drive the power it needs to run that you would only have a "chance" that it would work. Well there are tons of cheap and large USB drives that will work for most TV's. I have been using the Cast feature of Windows 10 with my Samsung TV's with fairly good results as well as a direct HDMI in for the few things that have not worked correctly (had some 1080p rips that are widescreen display on the TV as 4:3 and other weirdness but they play just fine on a computer). I have messed with tons of other setups and many are flaky as heck. TV's tend to only be able to play certain types of media formats while my computer with Media Player Classic and or VLC and play back a plethora of formats (hence why I physically connect a computer to a TV sometimes. I know I am assuming some stuff, but were you trying to get the TV to play movies off of your USB hard drive? Oh and USAFRet has a good point about what exact hard drive it is can play a role. Also I think the way it is partitioned and formatted (and permissions, also if encrypted it would NOT work 100%) can effect if the TV can read the data as well.
 
I have an older Transcend portable drive that came with a USB cable that had two outputs. One was signal and power (thicker), the other just power (thinner). That way you could use two USB ports for power or connect a USB power supply.
https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/C2G-inYin-Cable-USB-cable-6-ft/1623851.aspx?cm_cat=GoogleBase&cm_ite=1623851&cm_pla=NA-NA-CTG_US&cm_ven=acquirgy&ef_id=V8X3ywAAAe5f7gnq:20170105194958:s&gclid=CIiAq6bjq9ECFR5XDQod508DnA&s_kwcid=AL!4223!3!61836302419!!!g!18283950120!
 
Solution

cupitr

Commendable
Jan 5, 2017
8
0
1,520


That's great.

 
Jun 28, 2018
1
0
10
Its seems alot of smart tv's [Samsung U7000 series] are usb 2.0 supplying only 500 miliamps max through their USB ports.

If your external HDD is 3.0 it could demand up to 900 milliamps, and therefore draw too much power from the smart tv, forcing it to power off. The solution seems to be a powered usb hdd caddy. ]I just hope i don't have to reformat the drive ;-[