USB-C Hub for XPS 13 7390

@ABerndt65  Does it fail to recognize flash drives even if you have the XPS 13's charger connected to its power passthrough port?  Multi-purpose "mini-docks" like those types of adapters draw a fair amount of power, and some flash drives can draw a fair amount of power themselves, so sometimes the PC's source port can't provide enough power to run everything.  USB-powered spinning hard drives are even more of a problem.

If you want alternatives, Anker makes a variety of these mini-docks with various capabilities depending on how many of what sorts of ports/functions you want.  And Dell has the DA300 adapter.  If you want a more specific recommendation, it would help to specify what specific functions you want on your mini-dock, e.g. USB-A ports, USB-C data ports, USB-C passthrough charging, Ethernet, SD card reader, HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, audio, support for outputting to multiple displays, etc.

Hi - Thank you for the reply.  I had the USB-C power cord plugged in on one side and the USB-C hub plugged in on the other side.  The main functions I am looking for are multiple USB ports, HDMI port for presentations and an ethernet port for situations where a direct cable connection may be required.

@ABerndt65  Not sure if the “sides” you’re referring to mean you had those devices plugged into different USB-C ports on the system or the hub, but unless you’ve already returned it, you might want to try connecting the XPS power adapter to the power passthrough port built into the hub to see if that makes a difference. It has the added benefit of keeping an extra port free on the system.

But if that still doesn’t work, the Anker hub linked below has all of the functions you said you wanted, and while I haven’t used this specific product, I own a lot of Anker products because they make consistently high quality stuff. This hub does not offer power passthrough, however. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8ZLYLR/ref=sr_1_10

@jphughan I have tried the Anker hub that you have recommended. However, my dell XP 13 doesn’t recognize it. It makes constant noise of connecting and disconnecting when I attach the hub to the computer. Do you have any other suggestions for a hub to connect to an external monitor, card reader, mouse, etc.? Thanks!

@UX That's very strange.  The XPS 13 is specifically mentioned as a supported model.  Granted, that mention doesn't specify a particular XPS 13 generation, but that shouldn't really matter since the hub is just relying on USB 3.x and DisplayPort Alt Mode support from the host, both of which are standardized and available from the XPS 13 7390.  Have you updated your XPS 13's BIOS to the latest release in case this is a firmware issue?  Otherwise, Anker has a lot of these types of USB-C hubs depending on what specific functions you want and how much you want to spend.  I just ordered this one because it has a bunch of stuff and pretty much the latest and greatest version of it -- 10 Gbps USB-C data port, 2x 10 Gbps USB-A data ports, HDMI that supports 4K 60 Hz rather than 30 Hz, power passthrough up to 85W (from a 100W source), plus Ethernet and SD/microSD readers.  But it's obviously more expensive.  Here is Anker's full page of USB-C hubs.  Unfortunately the product names and photos don't make it obvious which hubs support which capabilities, so you might have to just open them all in separate tabs to see more details and then eliminate the ones that don't meet your needs.

But the issue is that there's no reason the hub you have shouldn't be working properly.  Of course there are plenty of cases in the tech world where things that should work don't ACTUALLY work, so this could just be one of those weird interoperability that affects the specific combination of that hub and that system.  But of course that makes it harder to determine whether some OTHER hub will work better, since the one you already have should be working itself.  I guess if you can find a hub with the right set of ports for you and you can get confirmation from another XPS 13 7390 owner that that specific hub works, that would be good, but otherwise if the BIOS update doesn't resolve the issue with your current hub, I don't have a specific alternative to recommend.  Any of them SHOULD work based on what the XPS 13 supports from its USB-C ports.