Did I blow my USB ports?

mtroxmtrox Minnesota
edited December 2006 in Hardware
Plugged in my external hard drive to the two high speed USB ports on the front of my cheap desktop. One is the data port, the other just feeds the drive power. All hell broke loose.

All I heard was all sorts of USB thunking noises, like some kid was plugging and unplugging a flash drive. Then I got a message that it could not install my USB device (its only been plugged in about 11ty billion times), blah, blah, blah.

So, I went into device manager and blew away all my USB stuff. Rebooted. Still nothing on the two front USB ports. So now I plug into the four on the back and I get the message that "this device could run faster" despite the fact I have USB 2.0...or used to.

So I did a system restore. The fronts light up my flash drive, but don't detect anything. Plug into the back 4 and I get that message. Device manager shows Enhanced USB Host Controller.

Do I just have to run out and buy a new PCI USB hub?

Comments

  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    Sounds like you may have lost power to the USB ports.
    Are they all off of the same controler? Are the ports on the mobo on a different controler?
    You may need to buy a USB2 card.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited December 2006
    I haven't had it apart yet. I'm not sure how/where they plug into the mobo. How would I tell if they are all off the same controller?
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    well, if they plug into the same header on the mobo chances are its on the same controller. each header supports two ports, and I believe that eacher controller usually has 4 ports, but I may be mistaken.

    If there are any open headers, I'd switch them out and give it a try, otherwise just get a USB2.0 card with internal header(s) and that should get you all fixed up.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited December 2006
    I'm not going to screw around with it. There's a PCI card with 4 ext and 2 int USB 2.0 ports for $20 with a $10 rebate.

    Did I do that by plugging in the data USB cable on an external hard drive before I plugged in the power USB cable?
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    well, even if you buy a pci card your going to have to detach the cables from the header on your mobo to the header on the pci card. its not hard, only 8 cables. V+/V- and D+/D- for each port. Two ports on a header.

    Unless you want to not use your front usb ports. I've never actually seen a usb hdd that used two usb ports, but ok, I'll go with that. This thing must gobble up the power. I'm surprised it didn't use an ext. power adapter.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited December 2006
    No I'm sure it's not hard to swap out the cables and plug 'em into the card......the hard part is unplugging everything from the back of the 'puter and then getting it all back between the desk and wall with all my stuff on top of it and the cables in some kinda of order.
    airbornflght wrote:
    I've never actually seen a usb hdd that used two usb ports, but ok, I'll go with that. This thing must gobble up the power. I'm surprised it didn't use an ext. power adapter.
    I've seen a few actually. The second cable has more of a small barrel type plug at the hard drive. All it does is steal some more power from the second USB port.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    lol, I don't even bother keeping my computer out of the way. I just have all my cables zip-tied up to keep the orderly, and then I need to open the frankenstein up its not bad.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    Yes, I would always go with power first. If it tries to run off of the single line it may drop the voltage and run the current way up.

    Here is a thought. Run an extension cable from the back of the card to the front of your machine. Then you can plug power into the back and signal into the front, maybe the power load not all throught the same connection would help.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited December 2006
    I'm just going to get that $10 USB card and be careful to plug in the power cord before the data cord. For $10 and a half an hour its not worth spending more time on.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited December 2006
    OK, so I get this $10 PCI USB card I was talking about. Plug it in the slot, then find that my two front ports don't have regular USB plugs on the mobo side so I can't plug 'em into the new card. Some other %$#@! plug that goes into the mobo. So....I saw another unused USB receptacle on the mobo and just plugged the fronts into that one.

    What I thought I would get was USB 2.0 on the four new ports on the PCI card itself, and still the same old crippled USB 1.x on the original 4 on the mobo on the back. Didn't know what, if anything, I'd get on the front two. Instead I now have USB 2.0 on all 10 of my USB ports.

    So tell me hardware guys, does that mean that what I really blew was the USB controller.....and all the USB ports are now using the new one buildt on the PCI card I just plugged in?
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