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USB Problem


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#1
tenzi

tenzi

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halloo all,
well couchwife6 suggest me to put my quiries out here, hope to get the solution :- I have pentium II 128 Ram with 20 gb hdd..

1. will adding a new external harddisk improve my system performance?
2. How would i know, what kind of usb port i have i mean the version?

i bought this external hard disk of 40gb from seagate and the case for it was from Intex. I have xp pro installed in my machine.. but the problem is device could not be recognized / some error would pop and it would n't at all find my device attached?

can anyone help me out ? am just left clue less !!!!
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#2
Samm

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By USB version, do you mean whether it's v1.0, v1.1 or v2.0?
If so, you will have version 1.0 on a PII board. NB v1.0 & v1.1 only applies to usb devices not the controllers, so there is no difference between the two.

As far as increased performance is concerned, assuming that you would be using the external drive as a second drive & booting from the internal drive, then no, you won't notice a big increase in performance.

The only way the performance may be improved by having the external drive, is by using it to keep the majority of your data & downloads etc on, thereby freeing up space on the boot drive. You could also move the temporary internet files folder, the temp folder & the virtual memory to the external drive. This should improve performance but relies on the usb drive to be connected & accessible at all times.

As for your problem with the drive not being recognised, can you tell me what motherboard you have (make & model) and whether the drive has been partitioned yet?
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#3
tenzi

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thanks for ur prompt reply samm,
yeah i mean whether it is 1.0 or other. because the external hdd case that i attached to my machine is Hi spee usb 2.0 from Intex.
well i really don't know what kind of mother board i have .. i am having Thinkpad600 2645 45U from IBM... i even tried to looked out for what kinda usb i am having in my machine from the ibm official but i am clueless.
The external Hdd that i have is already been partioned and formatted. it works perfectly fine with other machine which i tried with one my frd desktop. But when i attached to my machine either it says device is not recognized and the small light that is with case keeps on blinking. and yeh the Case comes with usb cable which have 2 usb at one end and 1 at the other end. when attached the smaller in length cable. the light goes green but there dosen't show any new hardware attached.

thnks hope you will mind with my lengthy line.
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#4
Samm

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Ignore the motherboard question, I didn't realise it was a laptop!
Thanks for providing the complete thinkpad model number, it makes life a bit easier.

Theres a few possible reasons why you are having a problem. I've also checked IBMs website for known USB issues but can't anything particularly relevant. At least you have an Intel chipset, non-Intel USB controllers are especially troublesome!

To eliminate the obvious first....

1. Can you go into control panel->system->hardware->device manager and look under the USB Controllers heading.
Let me know exactly what is listed there.
Also let me know if the USB caddy or drive appears anywhere in device manager.

2. Can you explain again about the USB cables/connections on the external drive case?
Do you mean you have more than one USB cable coming out of it or is there more than one USB socket on it? (Failing that, let me know the make/model number of the case & I'll look it up myself on the net)

3. Does the USB caddy have its own power supply going in to it?
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#5
tenzi

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okaiii Under the Universal Serial Bus controller in device manager, it has the following things written when u click on the + sign :-
- generic USB Hub
- Intel®82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host controller
- USB root Hub

2. My Ext. Hdd case is from Intex and its written Hi-Speed (USB 2.0) 480 Mbps. Along with the case they provide a usb cable which has two USB socket with attached one end i mean they both are joined together at one end. Ohh the model number of the case is IT - 25CASE

3. it dosen't have its own power supply.

Thanks for taking strain for me !!!
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#6
peterm

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Hope this helps

usb2 is backward compatiable with usb1

What happen if a USB 2.0 device is plugged into a USB 1.1 system?
The entire bus under the USB 1.1 root hub will slow to 12Mbps. The operating system will probably notify the user about the sub-optimal configuration and recommend for a better course of action.

Will USB 2.0 arrive on mobile computers? Add Your Notes
Yes, but not in integrated solution on laptops. You will need a USB 2.0 CardBus card. Orange Micro. is shipping USB 2.0 compliant 4-port CardBus card. Eventually, notebook vendors will adapt to USB 2.0 technology, and we will see USB 2.0 ports on laptops. This transition won't happen until 2002 at the earliest.

Edited by peterm, 04 May 2005 - 01:31 AM.

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#7
Samm

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Peterm is right, USB2.0 is backwardly compatible with v1.1.
In theory anyway. In practice there are known issues with this but don't worry about that at the moment, hopefully that isn't the problem.

I've looked you usb case up. Very little about it available but its very similar to one I've used before.

You said there was a Generic USB hub listed in device manager. Do you have a hub (or any device other than the drive case) connected to the USB ports?
If you do, let me know what they are. If theres nothing connected, then device manager has at least detected the usb case & listed it as a hub.

Cabling :
From what I understand, you have only ONE usb socket on the caddy but a usb cable that splits in two (giving 3 connectors in total, 2 at one end, 1 at the other)
Let me know if this is correct.

If it is then you have to connect it up as follows :

The cable end that has the single usb plug on it, connects to the external case.
The other end, with connectors, connect to the laptop. This means that it uses two of the laptops USB ports instead of one.

Let me know if this is how you have had it connected.
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#8
tenzi

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yeh i have attached one usb hub as i have only usb port in my laptop. the usb hub is from Tech-Com USB4PORTHUMB (ssd - USB4P ).

Thank you very much, i connect my cable as u have said/written and now its working. finally. But why isn't it working when i put it in my USB hub as i have only one usb port in my machine so without the hub am not able to use others devices.

Any suggestion!!!!

Thank you very much for the help samm i am about to buy other Hdd case thinking may be its not compatible with my laptop.
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#9
tenzi

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You know what Samm! am using the ext. hdd rightnow THANKS TO YOU.


but One things it shows that " the USB Mass Storage Device will function at reduced speed. You must add Hi Speed host Controller to this computer to obtain maximum performace".
Can you tell me how do i add this hi speed host controller to my machine.

Thank You
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#10
Samm

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Glad it's all working for you.
The reason you get that message is because the USB on the laptop is version1.1 & the drive caddy is designed to run at v2.0 (which is faster).

There is no way of upgrading the usb port that is currently on your laptop but you can buy a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. This should provide you with 2 USB v2 ports in addition to the one you already have.

That way you could connect the drive to the pcmcia card & run your other devices from the hub on the existing port.
The link below will show you an example of the card that I'm on about :

http://www.ebuyer.co...oduct_uid=48669

Be aware though that if you continue to run the drive from the laptop's current usb port via the hub & you experience problems with it, you may need to buy a powered hub instead. (ie. one with an external power supply)
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#11
peterm

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A my previous post and as Samm says while you have 1.1 > 2.0
it will only run at 12 & not 480
Cheers
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#12
tenzi

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well Samm,
you know my joy was a short lived cuz again its not working. Talking of the pcmcia, i had PCMCIA LAN Card already attached to it without which i wouldn't be able to surf net.
Yeh the speed was reduced as said by pertem. thanks for suggestion too peterm. So what u think samm, which one would be better attaching a powered hub or one usb which is compatible with my laptop. which one u think would be better..

Thank you .
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#13
Samm

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Hello again,
I know you have a pcmcia card but most laptops have 2 pcmcia slots - one above the other. If you do have a free one, then I recommend the USBv2 2 port pcmcia card as this should not only solve the problem but also provide you with the higher data transfer rate (480mbps instead of 12mbps that v1.1 supports).
The other option if you don't have a spare pcmcia slot, is to get a powered hub. This should provide the extra power required by the external drive which a non-powered hub won't do. If you do get the hub, make sure it is fully compatible with v1.1.
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#14
tenzi

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thanks Samm well as i told am with only one pcmcia slot so i guess i would look out for powerd usb hub. sure i will keep in my mind.
what u think if i buy a hdd case which is compatible with 1.1? will that b okaii which one u think is better the powerd usb or the hdd case which is compatible.?
thanks !!
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#15
Samm

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An external case that only supports v1.1, will probably still have the same problems.
The v2.0 case is running at v1.1 on your system anyway, and will be drawing the same amount of current as a v1.1 device. So no difference in terms of power requirements. There is a very small chance, like I said, that your present case isn't fully compliant with v1.1 despite what it claims - but this is pure speculation.

The only time a 'v1.1 only' compatible case would help, is if it has it's own power supply (eg an external power pack that plugs into the wall socket).Otherwise, I would try the powered hub idea.
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