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Those pcie x1 to x16 adapters also use one.
Oh man I forgot about these from my mining days! Do people use these for actual pcie expansions? I've never needed more than most mid to high end motherboards offer
I did it once with a mid atx that had only two slots but needed a card to boot and I wanted to put a networking card in the full sized slot so used one of these for the graphics card.
These are so bad for it, it's not even USB.
The blue cable is actually a USB cable but being used for pcie
I have a Type A to Type A cable. It came with a simplified music player for dementia patients that I set up for my elderly aunt. No idea why they chose to do it that way.
What's this music player called? I've been scouring the internet for years looking for a simple spotify enabled "boom box" that doesn't require you to use a phone to operate. Seems like such a simple product that seemingly doesn't exist.
I’ll try to find the info. It’s been almost 10 years since I set it up. Not even sure who has it now, it’s gone from my aunt to another relative in the meantime.
So that you can be frustrated trying to plug in both ends.
Are you sure? A bunch of arcade sticks use a USB A port to plug in an official controller and bypass some chekcs for console support. I assume you actually own this and it came with a male A to male A cable in the box? As in you're not accidentally plugging in a USB A cable going to your computer in the port meant to plug in either a console controller or a bypass dongle?
I am, to be clear, asking for a friend and was never super confused about why my brand new leverless controller wasn't working, myself.
I have a keyboard like this, yes it came with the cable (same A male plug each end) and yes it's used as a USB device.
I have one of these 8bitdo sticks. It performs well, but more importantly, it's compact compared to other fighting sticks with similar hardware. That borderline proprietary cable gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Meh, I have at least two hdd enclosures that use that cable.
Standards don't mean that much when the hardware manufacturer just doesn't care
Entirely likely they figured a cable with Type A on both ends would be a cheap "proprietary" cable.
I have a flashlight that does the same for its charging port. It's also capable of being used as a power bank by plugging another device's cable into that same port. I'm not entirely sure just how much protection circuitry is behind this and I haven't cared enough to subject it to anything heavy duty.
I had a cheapo KVM that came with that A-to-A arrangement
Id love it if more things did tbh. A controller really doesnt need the bandwidth of a proper usb type c cable, and type A would be much more securely attached (physically) to something that moves around IMO.
In what way is type A more secure physically than type B?
I always forget type B even exists tbh. But type A has more friction in my experience
Type B is used for printers most frequently, in my experience, though I do have an old external HDD that uses it, as well as the audio interface for my desktop.
Full size type B is not the only type B that exists. Micro-B also exists, which is a way more popular form of USB B.
You are correct, I always forget about micro lol
this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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