Inoperative USB port on Hitachi Visonbook 4140X laptop running Win98

[mikeys]

I still use my 1998 Hitachi Visionbook 4140X laptop, upgraded from Win95 to Win98SE. However, I am unable to get the USB port to function. I discovered it wasn't working when a tech person at Verizon tried to help me attach a DSL modem to the USB port. No USB port!

The tech person lead me through all the steps to load the USB hub and controller, but no matter what we did the USB controller never appeared in the Device Manager.

A supervisor at Verizon found a book that said (according to the tech person) that USB doesn't work when running Win98SE on this particular laptop. However, the USB port worked fine when I was running Win95, so it seems to me that there must be some way to get it to work now with Win98SE.

Can someone help m

[NooNoo]

There is a bios update available for your visionbook That could help matters. I THINK this is the correct file, but they don't mention model numbers - you should check with Hitachi about it.

There is a free support number, for Hitachi, they should be able to answer your question 1.800.555.6820

[mikeys]

Thank you, Noo-Noo, for replying and for the heads-up on the BIOS update. It might indeed help, as I believe the issue with USB on the Visionbook was power management, and the linked page you provided says that the BIOS upgrade addresses power management issues. I'll do as you say and query Hitachi about the models (although it does say Visionbook 4000, which I assume means the whole series).

A problem might be that my laptop was upgraded to Windows98 and a new hard drive, with the addition of a Dynamic Drive Overlay (IBM, v9.55) to handle the hard drive. I'll query the tech person who did the upgrades, but do you know if there could be problems with installing the Hitachi BIOS upgrade on a machine that's been changed to Win98 & new hard drive?

[mikeys]

I just spoke with a tech person at Hitachi. She said that the BIOS upgrade won't fix the USB problem, unfortunately. She said the problem is that these laptops were built with USBv1.0, and they won't work with v1.1 or later.

Still, it seems to me that at least the USB controller should list in the Device Manager, which it doesn't. Maybe the Win98SE upgrade can't recognize USB1.0, or hasn't the drivers for it.

Could there be a software work-around? If the op sys can access the USB port, shouldn't there be some way of interposing a new USB v1.1 hub/controller?

[NooNoo]

how about something like this?

[mikeys]

Yeah, well...I know those PCMCIA USB2 plugins exist, but the trouble is that I've got an Ethernet PC card in there (for DSL) that's so thick I can't get a card into the other PCMCIA socket. And continually unplugging and re-plugging these cards isn't a good idea.

I guess I'm going to give up on USB for the laptop, unless you can suggest some way of applying USB v1.1 or v2 to my invisible (by Device Manager) USB port.

[dobkin]

I have a similar laptop, Hitachi Visionbook 4360x that had the same problem of not recognizing the USB port after upgrading from Windows 95 to Windows 98. I've discovered that the issue is with the Windows 98 Plug and Play manager.

Here is a workaround I came up with:

Boot into command prompt using F8 key and replace the PCI.VXD file located in C:\windows\system with the one from Windows 95. Be sure to back up the original PCI.VXD file. When window 98 boots it will properly detect the USB port.

Notes:

1. Windows 98 will detect all devices again. After the detection I found that it put the hard disk controller into MSDOS compatibility mode. After I cleared this by using Regedit to delete the key: "hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\servi ces\vxd\ios\noide"
the hard disk controller worked properly.

2. I noticed that when windows starts the PCMCIA ethernet card does not work properly. I have to remove the card and reinstall it and then it works fine. Now I just boot the system without the ethernet card installed and then install it after Windows 98 finishes booting.

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers Dobkin - good workaround. Hope mikeys still has the laptop!