USB and lights not working on front of computer

Greetings.

CPU and power light on front of computer don't come on at all, and 2 USB connections at front don't work - plug in USB stick, light on USB flashes for a while, then computer hangs.

Checked MB connections and they seem to be right (had a look at manual), although I'm no expert there.


Motherboard Name Sapphire Axion RS300
CPU Type Intel Celeron, 2600 MHz (26 x 100)

Any ideas appreciated. Merci d'avance

Geoff

 

You probably have a virus on your USB-stick-----some of the viruses corrupt the drivers for USB, HDisks. Take your USB to a new computer that has a good anti-virus system
NOD32 is very good plus have Super-Antispyware,.....other malware detectors installed and functional. When you plug in your USB---if it has malware the resident AV software should detect and isolate. For real safety reformat the USB.
For your PC-----do good scans by several malware systems---use GMER, HooKAnalyz, and some of the other rootkit detection software.
Download and install Wise Registry Cleaner, CCleaner, Glary Utilities, Advanced SystemCare-----Use these to clean and reclean registry for rootkit infections.

It can be very expensive to be infected----I lost more money that most people make in a lifetime this summer because of infections.

Good Luck

Bearpaw

 

Thanks for that. However, USBs work fine plugged in at the back of the computer and on other computers. Also, all USBs I plug in at the front do the same thing.

 

Could be the LED and USB connection pins on the motherboard got loose.
If you know what you are doing then open up your case and check they are properly slotted in

 

Thanks. I have pulled them off and plugged them in again a couple of times without effect. And they seem to be on the right connections, according to the manual.

 

Hi GC,

Did it ever work? Did it work and just up and quit?

Luck, Jim

 

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask also. The front panel lights not working is very strange if they are plugged in correctly. LEDs do not burn out like regular light bulbs do, they can get dim over time, but it is exceedingly rare to have an LED work fine one minute, then not work the next. LEDs must be hooked up with the "+" and "GND" leads plugged in to the correct headers; if they are reversed, the LED will not light up. Regular light bulbs light up regardless of which wire goes where, not so with LEDs. If you're 100% absolutely certain that the front USB ports are connected correctly, they may have failed. The motherboard USB header for the front panel ports will have 2 rows of pins; 5 pins in one row, 4 pins in the other row. I have attached a page from my motherboard manual which shows the standard pinout for USB 2.0. Each row of pins is one USB port; this means the odd numbered pins are one port (pins 1, 3, 5, 7) and the even numbered pins are a separate port (pins 2, 4, 6, 8). Pin 9 is removed or "keyed" and pin 10 is a common ground, also known as the "shield" and also sometimes called the "key". Starting with the first pin in a given USB port (either pin 1 or pin 2), the order of the colored wires is: RED - WHITE - GREEN - BLACK so pin 1 and 2 are RED; pins 3 and 4 are WHITE, pins 5 and 6 are GREEN, pins 7 and 8 are BLACK, pin 9 is missing, and pin 10 is normally left bare unless there's a 3rd black wire (usually a thicker one than the other 2 black wires; may be labeled GND or SHIELD). The front panel LED wires are typically one white wire and one colored wire for each LED. The colored wire is the one to be plugged in to the "+" pin on the motherboard header, and the white wire is the ground.

I hope this helps!

[dlb]

(I added colors to the screen shot to help clarify things a bit )

EDIT- I was just thinking... if there was some type of power spike to the front panel headers, it could 'blow out' the LEDs, and cause USB devices to not function properly; the is possibly what happened; you could use a voltmeter on the USB header to see if it's putting out the correct voltage....

 

Occasionally, black wires will be used instead of white wires on the front panel LED connectors and for the power button and reset button, but will still be the ground, and the colored wires will still connect to the "+" regardless of if the ground wires are white or black.

 

Progress!!!

LEDs now working. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I reversed the wires and away it went. There was no indication on the MB as to which way it should be wired - except for a gold diagonal line in a box in front one of the connectors - don't know if that was meant to mean something.

Now for the front USBs. Not so good, although things appear to have changed. Last time I tried them, light on stick flashed quickly on and off. Now it is irregular - like it's being read. However, it still won't open them.

Tried a Sandisk 1GB - this one is recognised by the computer on 50% of attempts. It appears in the My Computer list. Right click on it and either the computer hangs until I pull out the stick, or on one occasion I got to properties, but it showed the stick as empty (not true).

Tried a 0.5 GB Cruzer - best outcome was the name flashed up once, but then hung. Otherwise, light flashes, but no read.

Various msgs for either stick, something like the following:

Found new hardware - Disk Drive

Your new h'ware is installed and ready to use

Malfunction - Windows does not recognise it. Click msg for more info. This opens panel showing all 6 USBs (2 at back, pins for 4 at front), with one saying 'Unknown Device'.

Found new h'ware

New h'ware might not work.

F:\ is not accessible

Required operation could not be performed because of an I/O device error.


Also, MP3 player now charges on front USB. It wouldn't before. However, trying to load music hangs the MP3 software, but not the computer.


Some history:
I bought the computer 2nd hand. Shortly after, the MB packed up and the vendor put another (different, 2nd hand) one in. Since then, the LEDs and front USBs did not work - they did before. Vendor hard to get on with, so I gave up on him and left it - didn't have time to chase around with problems. Now trying alternative approach (about 6 months later) - asking Major Geeks.

Checked voltages on USB connectors. Power pin to Grnd is 5.2 V. Power to D+ and D- are both about 3.4 V. 5.2 V looks right, but I can't find any info on what the others should be (haven't been able to find a manual either).

Same voltage is being delivered to connectors at front of case.

BTW, there are two sets of USB connectors, each with 9 pins. I've checked all 4 groups.

The wires are grouped with VCC (red), D- (white) and D+ (green) grouped in a block (in that order), and there is a separate Grnd (black) wire. Set 2 wires have white stripe to differentiate from Set 1 (they are also numbered). They were already connected as per your instructions, with nothing on pin 10.

I have tried the various sets on different groups of pins with results as described above.

Another strange thing - for months I have been getting a Scheduled Tasks did not run warning every time I logged on. Tried to get rid of it, but couldn't. Since I fixed the LEDs, that msg has not appeared!!!

Also, I noticed just now that I could start the computer by hitting a key on the keyboard. Just before that, I had been looking in the BIOS, and the switch on option was set to Button Only. Are there deeper problems here than meets the eye perhaps?

Got me scratching my head. Thank very much for your help with this stuff.

Geoff

 

Hi again CG,

More questions: Are the USB connectors from the front panel individiual or in a block. The flash from the device pretty much indicates that the +5 and Grnd are connected correctly. Even a HD will try to log in even if the data cable is not connected or not working. About the only thing, especially if the conns are individual, is that the DATA leads are reversed. D+ is probably the output lead and D- is probably the input. Careful. Try to make sure which is which first. Try your MB manual and the Case info.

Good Luck, Jim

 

If you have an older motherboard, it may not use the USB2.0 standard pinouts, in which case there would be other possibilities for plugging in to the header. There's the Intel spec, and there's a different spec (I know, "different" isn't real technical but I don't think there's a name for it). I have also seen older motherboards with both specs on the same board: the old Intel spec, and the other spec on 2 different headers. this makes matters even more confusing. This type of confusion is part of what the USB2.0 standard tried to do away with. So, if you can't locate the manual, post the make and model of the PC and/or the motherboard and we'll do our best for you!

 

open up the case and check if the led light plugs are in the right place on the motherboard you can try pluging them into random pins on there it's not going to hurt it their just LEDs also there is the possibility that they are pluged in backwards (LEDs are biased a certain direction so the polarity in the pins aren't going through it correctly)

 

Thanks all for replies.
Are the USB connectors from the front panel individual or in a block? The 5V, D- and D+ conns are in a block, and the Grnd is separate. They are all labelled, also. Seems pretty impossible to get this wrong. The 5V is red and is connected on the end AWAY FROM where there is a pin missing (the missing pin being #9, according to dlb).

Mobo is (from Everest):

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 11/11/2003-RS300-SB200-6A664PR8C-00
Motherboard Name Sapphire Axion RS300

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel NetBurst
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 400 MHz
Bandwidth 3200 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type Dual DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 128-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 200 MHz
Bandwidth 3200 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type ATI A-Link
Bus Width 8-bit
Real Clock 67 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 267 MB/s

Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name Sapphire Technology Limited
Product Information http://www.sapphiretech.com/mainboard/mainboards.asp
BIOS Download http://www.sapphiretech.com/downloads/downloads.asp


I have found a review and pics of the MB at http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h549.htm

I can’t find any ID on the case at all – unless the label saying ‘made in China’ narrows it down enough for you.http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

A review of the mobo with pics (bigger pic at bottom of article) is at http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h549.htm

The USB pins (vertical black rectangles) are on the left edge about 2/3rds of the way down, to the left of a screw and just above a white connector block. They are both laballed USB. Won't help much on these pics, but you might find a better one.

Thanks some more.

Geoff

PS thanks baron... The LED problem has been solved - you were right though. The connectors were reversed.

 

Here is a full Everest report (I think - can't see it in Preview).

Edit: Can't seem to attach it. Already attached it once in another thread. Tried a few times here. It now says that it's already attached in this thread and won't do it again. I'll try again later if desired.

 

Don't worry about attaching the Everest report to this thread. I see that it is attached in the other thread in the Drivers forum (link: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=178624 ) so I can work with that. At this particular moment, I'm still at work (5.50p PST) but I should be at home online in a couple hours, and we'll see what's up....
:-D

 

Excellent. Thanks.
I'm in Melbourne, Australia. We seem to be 6 hours behind you (or perhaps 18 hours ahead). Just as well someone's working - I'm on Christmas holidays over here. It's actually annual leave, but we close down for a while after Christmas. Hence this hive of activity on teh computer.
(Need to invent a new word "teh". It always comes out that way when I try to type "the". I usually fix them. It's getting to be a pain.)

 

LOL Here in the US kids have been using "teh" for a few years as a twisted form of "the". It was popularized via the web and by text messaging on ye olde cellular fone. Anyway- back to the USB ports. From the research I've done, it appears that the on-board header is a standard USB2.0 format and should work. If the USB devices work OK in the rear ports, but not the front ports, I'd suggest just unplugging the front ports and plugging in a hub to the back ports and stick it on top of the case up front with some velcro or double-sided tape. I haven't been able to find any technical information on your motherboard (including official drivers for the exact model you have, and/or a manual) so I'm just assuming the front headers use a standard USB2.0 format because the reviews I've read state that the board uses USB2.0. So, I'm out of ideas for the front USB ports... wait... one last thought... some newer motherboards have a BIOS setting for the front ports where they can be set for USB2.0 or USB2.0 + 1.1, or disabled. The board you have is fairly old, but maybe it has this BIOS setting....
Good luck!

(at least we got the LEDs working and I found some drivers for you in the Driver forum :-D )

 

Thanks very much for taking so much time on this, dlb.
I checked the BIOS, and all I could find relating to USB was:

USB EHCI Controller - enabled
OnChip USB Controller - enabled
OnChip USB KBC Controller - enabled
Assign IRQ for USB - enabled

I don't know what any of these mean. Also, other things of unknown meaning, that may be relevant:

Onboard Serial Port 2 - disabled
and greyed out (because the previous item is disabled):
UART Mode Select - normal
UR2 Duplex Mode - half

I am very happy to have the LEDs working (I've been looking at them in wonderment all day).

Thanks again. Very much appreciated. http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/wave.gif

Geoff

 

OK, didn't want to give up yet on teh front USB's, so I pulled teh front off the case and pulled out the USB port (or card or whatever it's called).

And there... there on the card... in the middle of the card... away from everything else on the card... read the following words...

"USB1"

(with apologies to Arlo Guthrie)

So I guess that might explain my front USB problem. Though why it's a problem is beyond me. Everything's connected in teh right order, and there's nothing there but straight connections. Maybe a USB2 port requires something additional. I wonder what it would take to convert to USB2??? Any ideas?

The strange thing is that these front USBs used to work before we had a replacement MOBO put in (not just me saying it - other users of this computer also say that the front USBs used to work - I am not insane - yet).

Cheers

Geoff

 

You can't convert USB 1 to USB 2.
Apparently the new mobo doesn't support very old technology. USB 1 was around when windows 95 was out. I had a computer with USB ports on the back and I had to download drivers to get them working under windows 95.
Get yourself a new card for the front ports.

 

Thanks plodr.

 

Hi again CG,

Sorry my memory failed me on this one. I had the same experience a year or so ago and had to change the External USB connectors to get it to work on USB 2. I think what plodr means is that if the USB 1 is set up and working a USB2 device will step down and run at USB 1 speed. You did have to find the drivers to get USB 1 it to work with 95 and the original 98. Of course the Mother board first had to be capable of USB2 or you had to add a PCI card to get USB2 to work. Two of my MBs are USB2 capable and the driver was on the MD driver CD but did not load automatically. I had to load them manually.

Jim

 

Thanks Jim.
If a USB2 device would run on a USB1 port, I shouldn't have a problem - assuming that the port is working on USB1. Unfortunately I can't test this as I don't have a USB1 device (that I know of).
Funnily enough, I just found a couple of USB2 ports in my computer odds and ends (I had no idea they were there), so I plugged them in to the USB pins and away they went!!!
This means that either the USB1 port is not working (can't see why not - I took it apart and it seems ok - it is possible that the solder is failing on the connections - I might have to check that, but that's about all I can think of) OR there is something different between USB1 and USB2. I have read that the wires on USB2 have to be shielded - the ones I have just put in are encased in an outer plastic sleeve, but I'm finding it hard to believe that a lack of shielding could make the whole computer freeze when I plug a USB2 device into a USB1 port.
Hmmm... makes me wonder if a short circuit has developed in teh USB1 port wiring - that could do funny things. Better check that too. On the other hand, I am getting the right voltage, so it's unlikely that the short is between the power and grnd. That leaves the data terminals. However, that shouldn't be a problem if I only have one USB device plugged in - unless there are shorts between... getting too complicated. :confused I'll just check.
Cheers
Geoff

 

All connections look good - at the port and from teh port to the connectors at the other ends of the wires. There must be more going on here than meets the eye.:foolish

 

Hi CG,

The only thing I can think of is that the original design for the USB1 ext ports had termination that the USB2 at the higher speed could not tolerate. I saw no real difference in the two devices, but the older one definitely quit working when I loaded the USB2 drivers. The back MB ports continued to work perfectly. A favorite joke around our Electronics lab was "Electronics is capable of 1,000,000 errors per milisecond". I guess they were right.

Jim

 

No I don't mean that at all. USB 2 will run USB 1.1 if that's all the port can handle; I'm not at all sure that USB 2 goes all the waaaay back to USB1 specs.

 

WELL I'LL BE THE MUG...!!! :confused
(an expression that is possibly only used in Australia, and being interpreted as: Now there's an entirely surprising situation!!!)

Jim, you gave me a hint in your last post: "the older one definitely quit working when I loaded the USB2 drivers".

Thinks: So what would happen if the USB2 drivers weren't there?

Thinks again: Control Panel/System Hardware/Device Manager/Universal Serial Bus Controllers - I have seen an Enhanced Controller (which I have read related to USB2 systems), and two normal, everyday, garden-variety Standard Controllers listed. I wonder what would happen if the Enhanced Controller was disabled??? Maybe the front USBs would be forced to run off the Standard Controllers, and the ports at the back would probably stop working. Decided to try.

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather!

The front ports started working... AND THE BACK PORTS ARE STILL WORKING!!!

I now have SIX (yes SIX) USB ports working (since I added the two that I found in my stuff). :celebrate

If anyone would care to explain what is going on here, I'd be very interested to know. WHY IS IT SO? :confused

I've seen a lot of questions on the Net about this front USB problem, and one or two solutions - but not this one (assuming it is a solution - see question below). If anyone else wants to try this, go to the USB Controllers in teh Device Manager (path as above) and right click on teh Enhanced Controller (or something that suggests USB2). On the menu that comes up, click on Disable. It will probably tell you that the device will stop functioning if you do this, but tell it you want to do it anyway. You may then get a bubble in teh lower right of your screen telling you that you will lose USB2 speed. Don't worry.

If it doesn't fix the problem, you can re-enable it just by going to the same menu and clicking on Enable. You might do that if it doesn't work, or if you change your mind, or if you click on teh wrong one. Seems like you can't mess anything up here.

Question: The warnings say that doing this will lose USB2.0 speed (which I read is 40 times faster than USB1.1). I opened some word files on teh USB memory sticks I have been using, and they opened fine, and just as quickly as normal, as far as I can tell. Is there some penalty in what I have done, maybe taking longer for larger files or something. I downloaded a 4MB file instantly (a second or two). In any case, this may well be enough for my humble purposes. I do have wireless Internet coming through a USB adapter - it seems to be fine, but could that slow down under this arrangement?

I guess another question is: If there is a slow-down by doing this, is it possible to force teh computer to use teh Standard controller for the front ports (or the pinned connections) and the Enhanced Controller for the original back ports?

The other thing still bothering me is that teh software was able to tell the difference between a USB1 port and a USB2 port. How? It just looks like straight through wires to me! Unless there is something hiding inside the connectors where you can't see. But I checked the connector resistances, and they're all zero - hence no resistors or capacitors in there (these would normally be exposed on a board anyway). I haven't actually checked the USB2 connectors on teh one I found - but they're a molded plastic job - surely they haven't hidden something inside teh molding??? And it can't be that the Enhanced Controller only works the original USB ports at the back, and not the pins, as I successfully used the USB2 ports I dound when I plugged them into the pins.

Can someone put me out of my misery on this last question, or do I go to my grave wondering?? :banghead

Enough rambling for now.

Happy Day

Geoff

 

Hmmm... that last post took significantly longer than usual to upload. Perhaps there is a slowdown here. I'll do some testing.

 

OK. I've just downloaded some UTube videos. They seem to download at the same speed under enhanced and standard system (1500Mbps ADSL Broadband connection).

 

I guess another question is, could it be that the driver for the Standard Enhanced USB Host Controller is the wrong one for my computer. If that's possible, what Driver(s) could I try? The drivers I have at the moment are listed as :
usbehci.sys
usbhub.sys
usbport.sys
hccoin.dll
usbui.dll
File version is: 5.1.2600.2180(xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Driver version: 5.1.2600.0
Driver date: 1/6/2002
I tried updating the driver through Control Panel, but it said that it couldn't find a better match.

 

Hi CG,

Most all devices have info in a rom or similar and report in when the system contacts them. Must be a note there telling the type or speed of the port. Lookin at USB in the System Manager each pair of ports seems to have it's own driver but only one USB2 is mentioned. You may be right about the drivers. I do know that all USB2 drivers are not the same. I have at least 2-3 different ones. All came with Mother Boards on their CDs. I did find a universal driver that came in USB1 or USB2 versions. Makes most any flash drive or card reader stand up and take notice. Both my main comps have 8 USB ports. Don't really know what to use all of them for. I gave up on serial devices about 20 years ago. I do remember thinking that 300 baud was really cooking. Didn't notice until now that you are in Australia. Greeting again.

Jim

 

I did wonder about pulling the USB1 port out again and changing the 1 to a 2. Would that do it?

LOL

Yep, I'm from Aussie, just like :tas

 

OK, I've spent 3 hours looking for other USB drivers, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for (or else teh places I've been looking are not helpful).

Any ideas?

Edit: teh enhanced usb controller is Standard, which I read means it's nvidia. I don't know if that's the right one and I don't know how to find out.

 

Hi GC,

If you know the make and model of your Motherboard you should be looking for the maker's site for the USB2 driver. If it's a PCI card get the maker's name and part number off the chip on the card and try them. They supplied the board maker with the driver in the first place. If still no luck try Driversguide.com. If they don't have it you can request it. Like your Tasmian Devil.

More good luck, Jim

 

Thanks Jim.

Unfortunately...

the motherboard (Sapphire Axion with ATI radeon 9100 IGP chipset) drivers seem to be non-existent. dlb (Major Geek) went looking, but came up empty-handed. He did direct me to another motherboard that was similar (at http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=1750 - I installed the chipset driver from that site to solve a SMBus Controller problem), but this site doesn't have USB drivers, or if it does, I can't find them.

It's not on a PCI card

I tried Driverguide.com - I already had it installed - I had had it for a while. When I tried it, I was told it had expired and I should download a new, free copy. I did that and ran it, and I got the same msg. So I uninstalled teh original and re-installed the new one, and still received teh same msg. Then I went searching for a solution to this issue, which was part of teh 3 hours I spent. No luck. I thought I might need a key (one of teh options was to enter a key), and I found through FAQs that I could get one from teh key page. Spent another part of the 3 hours looking for the key page. No luck. Gave up in frustration on that option.

You can see why I ran up the white flag and came back to the forum.

Thanks for your good wishes.

Geoff

PS How's teh weather in your neck of the woods? Summer here, of course.

PPS Mostly when I type 'the', it comes out 'teh'. dlb told me that is common in teh US, so I've stopped correcting it. You will see I gave it a good run in this post.

 

Hi GC,

Sorry I could not come up with anything to help you. I have been real lucky getting drivers.Even sometime find them on CDs that came with other MBs. If you can figure out who made the chip set and maybe get the part nos. off the chips you may have a little luck. I'm a Southern Boy. Been in the poverty stricken North since 1965. My kids think they are Yankees. I have blown snow twice today and about 4-5 times in the last couple of weeks. Thank god for a monster snow blower.

See Ya, Jim

 

Thanks for trying. Nice chatting, too.
Do you ever want to say to your kids, 'Yankees, let's go home'?

Maybe I should switch to the software forum - it's now become a software issue.

Thanks again.

Adios

Geoff

 

Hi Geoff,

If all my 3 Kids didn't still live up here we would think about moving back home. They are all grown up now and not likely to move. Also been good talking to you. Difficult to find anyone as knowledgeable as you. I'm retired home office service department tech for a company that built and/or sold everything from pure mechanical machines to computers.

See you,
Jim

 

Also 3 kids - still at home.
Knowledgeable? Hmmm... I don't think so. I very much doubt that I know as much as you - you are the one who put me on the right track, after all.
Ciao
Geoff

 

Hi Geoff, My oldest is age 50 . He went back to Ohio, 500mi away, to be an Engineer (Railroad) and a tool and die maker. My daughter lives in Elgin, IL 10 mi away and my youngest in Joliet, 40 mi. I repeat my previous comment. Incidently I found the old USB1 connectors I had the problem with. I checked it out and the termination is small capacitors on the in and out lines. Probably that's the difference USB2 didn't like. If and when I find a USB2 to check I'll let you know the difference. Now I'm curious. I have lots of old Mother boards with USB2, but they are very difficult to check out.

Jim

 

Hi Jim.

Mine are 20, 18 and 14 (BGB) and not likely to go anywhere at the moment. I'm happy with that.

Interesting to know there are capacitors running the show in your USB1. How visible are they. I can't see any on mine, but there is a small metal junction box at the card end (where the USBs plug in) in which I suppose they could be hiding (there would be a little bit of room at the back of the box), but it would be an odd arrangement, I would have thought. They could have just been put on the card. Anyway, that starts to unravel the mystery. As I said, my USB2 connectors that I plugged in are encased in molded plastic so I can't see what's going on in there.

The other strange thing is they used to work on the other motherboard.

Also meant to say, re having 6 USBs now - I don't need 6, but I do need (like) one or two at the front (much easier to get to), and two at teh back that are not right next to each other. I have a couple of devices that are a bit wider than your regular USB plug (including teh Network adapter for wireless broadband - which stays in all teh time). The built-in USBs are adjacent, so if I put one of these devices in there, I can't easily get anything else in. Before I started trying to sort this out, I only had those two USBs, so I'm much happier now. I also like it when things that are supposed to work do work!

Adieu

Geoff

 

Hi Geoff,

The caps are surface mount about 1/8" X 1/8" X 1/32". They are labeled in the range of C12 and C13 no values given. Must be very small capacity. It's bad to have leads with no or little load on them so the caps are added for termination. They perform no other function. I'm really used to seeing resistors used for that job. Caps would have a much greater effect at higher freqs such as USB2. I'm really just guessing.

I'm the same way about the USBs. Fronts are handy for the many flash drives I have accumulated over the years. I use USB2 for a printer, a mouse and a card reader at the present.

See you,
Jim

 

Interesting. Thanks.
What are the caps mounted on? Are they easily visible, or are they inside something?
What's wrong with having no-load leads, out of interest?
I've put my USB driver question in teh Drivers forum, but I haven't had any responses yet.
CU
Geoff

 

Hi Geoff,

The caps are 'surface mount' which means they lie flush to the circuit board and are flow soldered there. They have metalic ends to solder to pads on the board. A machine flow solders the flow solder components to the board. Larger parts are soldered by a human being. Open or lightly loaded leads pick up interference and can cause errors. I'm sure your OS is at least XP. If it were 98 I have a driver that works with most any USB2 and one for USB1. I left you a 'Private Message' with my EMail address if you want to use it.

See you,
Jim P.

 

Our IT bloke at work says there would be no noticeable difference between USB1 and USB2.0 unless you plug in something like an external hard drive.

 

Hi Geoff,

IT is correct in that the device being used may not notice the difference. He's wrong about HDs as the speed of the HD is pretty well set by the speed that the HD can read and write data. The data is moved to the HD buffer in blocks by USB and both 1 or 2 may be fast enough to fill the buffer as needed. The HD still chugs along at the same speed. Other devices that have no buffer may be greatly affected.

See You,

Jim P.

 

Hi Again Geoff,

Not exactly the same as your request but check out Deise_M, SATA or USB 2.0 Speed. Just a few post after your last one. Pretty close to the info you asked for. One (some) of the guys came up with some detail that might make it easier for you to understand.

Later, Jim

 

So I think we're saying that the performance of USB1 v. USB2 will only be noticeable when the speed of the HDD and the CPU, etc. are greater than the USB1 speed. The other factor would be that the data being transferred would have to be large enough to make time differences noticeable.

I see that the wireless network adapter I have is rated at 54 Mbps (Megabits, if lower case used correctly) whereas USB1 runs at 12 Mbps and USB2 at 480 Mbps. The USB1 would be slower here for an Internet download, but for a 12MB download, the difference would be 10 second (USB1 at 1.2MBps), against 2.2 seconds (USB2 restricted by network adapter at 5.4 MBps) (ignoring all other variables). That would probably be noticeable, but not much, given that other things happen that increase the time by the same amount for each.

My RAM is rated at 3200 MB/s and the chipset at 267 MB/s. Are these the right numbers to be looking at? Couldn't find anything about HDD speed.

 

could be usb and hdd connector round the wrong way try turning them over?

 

They seem OK. Thanks for the suggestion.