In Desperate Need to Fix a USB 2.0 Problem with XP

**daxxus** · August 8th, 2004, 10:52 PM

Hey All -- I'm really freakin' out...

Quick Info:
:::::::::
I've been building custom Gaming Boxes for about 4 years for fun for my friends and friends kids etc.

I'm a WarGames programmer for the Military.
:::::::::

The applicable stuff about my personal box I built about 2 years ago mainly used for a gaming box and an addition to a recording studio:
P4 2.53Mhz
SA7 Abit Motherboard which is the SIS645DX Chipset
I believe it only has either USB 1 or 1.1 onboard.
Windows XP Pro (all updated via Windows Update)

What I recently bought:
An external Western Digital USB 2.0 250Gb drive
An external MadDog Combo DVD burner

Through the integrated USB on the SA7 both devices work solid and fine but are slow (assumably due to the 1.0 or 1.1 USB).

So I bought a cheap ($20) USB 2.0 PCI card and installed all the USB 2.0 stuff I could find via Windows Update etc.

Problem::
Both drives when they are plugged in and working they are fast, reliable etc. However they only stay up for a few minutes. After awhile the USB 2.0 Hard-drive especially, won't write or read, then it just kinda goes away. The DVD burner is a little more reliable but not much.

What in the world is going on? This problem makes me furious because there are no hardware conflicts, I did everything I was supposed to do on the Windows Site, and how do you debug something that makes your USB 2.0 drives "just sorta go away?" And if I cycle the power the Hard-drive usually comes back and says that the device has "malfunctioned."

But again -- it works (slowly) through the integrated USB.

Anybody out there who has had any similar issues or any adivice I would appreciate it greatly if you can respond. I have a project coming up next weekend where I need to use the USB 2.0 hard-drive to stream samples to a sequencer, and I am panic-ing.

I know it is a long post -- but I truly look to the vast knowledge of the community for help.

**NooNoo** · August 9th, 2004, 03:26 AM

Welcome to Windrivers daxxus

This is probably xp helpfully powering down devices that are not in use.... Check in device manager properties, power management tab and uncheck the box to allow xp to control it.

**daxxus** · August 9th, 2004, 09:22 AM

Thanks for posting man.

Yeah -- I tried that -- I thought it was some intrusive thing like that -- but when I un-checked that option it actually made it worse by not coming up at all.

Ack!

**NooNoo** · August 9th, 2004, 10:12 AM

This is still probably a power issue... in that there is not enough power supplied through the card to drive the drive. Do you have a separate powersupply for the hdd? How about the burner?

What slot is the usb2 card in?

**SpazTAstic** · August 9th, 2004, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

This is still probably a power issue... in that there is not enough power supplied through the card to drive the drive. Do you have a separate powersupply for the hdd? How about the burner?

What slot is the usb2 card in?

Sounds like you need external powere or a better power supply. I bet that Usb 2.0 card sucks up a lot of juice using those drives.

Spaz

Get a 500+ Watt from Newegg.com

**daxxus** · August 9th, 2004, 01:38 PM

Both devices have their own power. But does the USB interface alone (like when it is active etc.) actually drain power from the Power Supply? I didn't know that.

I'm not at home right now -- but I think I have a 350W power supply in the box.

The only cards I have in the box is the video (AGP) and that 1 PCI card for the USB 2.0.

It's in the 3rd Slot -- there is 1 empty between the AGP and itself.

**SpazTAstic** · August 9th, 2004, 04:36 PM

Have you Tried another PCI slot????? The slot you are using may be bad.
Spaz

Originally Posted by daxxus

Both devices have their own power. But does the USB interface alone (like when it is active etc.) actually drain power from the Power Supply? I didn't know that.

I'm not at home right now -- but I think I have a 350W power supply in the box.

The only cards I have in the box is the video (AGP) and that 1 PCI card for the USB 2.0.

It's in the 3rd Slot -- there is 1 empty between the AGP and itself.

**daxxus** · August 9th, 2004, 08:58 PM

SpazTAstic : I'm going to try that tonight just in case. Thanks.

Um does anybody know about the USB 2.0 sucking power from the Power Supply?

You guys might have hit on something there if the USB 2.0 does that because I only have a 350-Watt Power Supply, I checked.

Any ideas?

**SpazTAstic** · August 9th, 2004, 09:37 PM

What Video Card do you have?? A 350 Watt Power supply is cutting it close. My older PC uses a 350 watt. If you have a video card like a 9800 Raedon or 5950 Geforce FX you probably need somthing between 400 and 450 watt. Also you PCI slot may work, but the power to it could be bad. Ie. THe power Supply may not supply a constant flow of current to that card. You willl need a volt meter to test that.

Spaz

Originally Posted by daxxus

SpazTAstic : I'm going to try that tonight just in case. Thanks.

Um does anybody know about the USB 2.0 sucking power from the Power Supply?

You guys might have hit on something there if the USB 2.0 does that because I only have a 350-Watt Power Supply, I checked.

Any ideas?

**daxxus** · August 9th, 2004, 09:54 PM

SpazTAstic : DUDE!!??!!??

Man thanks for helping -- I'm totally freaking out... ... ... ... ...

I'm building a box for a buddy and had a 450-Watt here so I tried it -- it still screwed up... no difference...

I tried 3 different slots... no difference...

This is sooooo nutz...

I have a GeForce 4 TI-4600 128Mb (I'm getting a nVidia 6800 when Halflife 2 comes out).

I don't get it at all.

My wife found others with the problem but no solutions... What about a powered USB 2.0 hub? Would that help?

**SpazTAstic** · August 9th, 2004, 10:00 PM

Hmm I dont know. If you look at the other USB post I started I am having a huge problem with XP also. I think XP has a lot of bugs with USB. MAybe you should try Windows 2000. One more question is your PC a AMD or Intel. Cause I have 2 AMD computers with the same USB problems. All my intels work fine.
Spaz

Originally Posted by daxxus

SpazTAstic : DUDE!!??!!??

Man thanks for helping -- I'm totally freaking out... ... ... ... ...

I'm building a box for a buddy and had a 450-Watt here so I tried it -- it still screwed up... no difference...

I tried 3 different slots... no difference...

This is sooooo nutz...

I have a GeForce 4 TI-4600 128Mb (I'm getting a nVidia 6800 when Halflife 2 comes out).

I don't get it at all.

My wife found others with the problem but no solutions... What about a powered USB 2.0 hub? Would that help?

**daxxus** · August 9th, 2004, 10:31 PM

Wow man...

Yeah -- it's an Intel P4 2.53Ghz

You've heard Win2k is more solid on the USB 2.0? I might have to...

**SpazTAstic** · August 9th, 2004, 11:17 PM

I am on Microsofts Website and you can downlaod SP 2. It is not up yet for Windows Update, just do a search for it.
Spaz

Originally Posted by daxxus

Wow man...

Yeah -- it's an Intel P4 2.53Ghz

You've heard Win2k is more solid on the USB 2.0? I might have to...

**NooNoo** · August 10th, 2004, 12:59 AM

A word on powersupplies....
The power supply unit MUST be able to a supply CONSTANT voltage/wattage.

Ruslan (Windrivers Guru of all things motherboard and power) has written extensively on the subject.

You can have a power supply that is rated at 250W and it will run all your devices just fine. This is because the rating actually reflects the the constant the psu is able to give....

A 400 or 500 watt sounds really good, but often these are only rebadged 250w power supplies, rebadged to show their peak rating, not their constant rating.

If the power supply was a) cheap and b) doesn't weigh much, then it is likely that it's not much good.

Known good psus are by antec, enermax and a couple of other companies.

Right now onto the usb supply - some people have reported that they get more stable usb functionality by upping the 5v voltage to 5.1 - this of course is not available on all bios setups.

The card itself will draw power from the motherboard, which inturn draws from the psu. If the slot is poor, or the motherboard is poor, the usb card will not get the power it needs. It has to be said that a cheap usb card may not provide the power the device needs, despite having the correct supply from the motherboard.

Win2k is not more stable on usb in my experience.... it has just as many problems.

**tommo666** · August 10th, 2004, 11:59 AM

I think the word here is "cheap". I bought a cheap usb 2.0 drive enclosure off ebay and it works after a fasion. It worked ok on my old msi mobo at 1.1 but not on the usb2 on my new nforce and it failed miserably on my laptop(win2k)

At the time i needed it most, to ghost the laptop hard disk before it finally died. I bought a belkin usb enclosure, expensive but it did the job. 5 hours to ghost across at 1.1 and 4.5 hours back. It's been hooked up to my desktop ever since without any issues.

I would say get a good quality card from a vendor that has decent tech support.