USB Port Connection

[BillP2]

My motherboard has four USB 2.0 ports built into the back panel group of ports plus two USB two port headers on the board itself.

I ordered up two brackets with two USB ports each and connected them to the two headers on the motherboard.

When I connect a USB 2.0 device to these additional ports, I get an on-screen message that the device would work faster if it were connected to a USB 2.0 port.

Since the extra ports are simply USB connectors with a cable leading to a plug to go onto the board's headers (no electronics involved), is there anything inherently USB 1.0 about them?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

------------------- Bill

[lenti_75]

it's either the bios, or your windows....this in case that you do have usb2.0 on your mobo.

[Video Head]

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/bus/USB/USBFAQ_intro.mspx

Your profile lists Win98 SE. Not certain if that OS supports USB 2.0 and MS has ended support for it. You may want to consider upgrading to XP or Vista.

VH

[BillP2]

Thank you bothh for the suggestions.

I guess it's time to update my profile to reflect that I have changed to XP Home, SP2, plus other computer upgrades.

The motherboard manual states that the headers I've plugged the extra USB ports into are USB 2.0 headers.

The USB ports built into the back plane connection panel do function as USB 2.0 ports. It's just the extra ports I've connected to the motherboard that seem not to support USB 2.0.

I've looked through the BIOS settings, but do not find anything specific to setting up the headers for the extra USB ports.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

--------------------- Bill

[Video Head]

Read the Microsoft info on USB on the web page I linked previously. Run devmgmt.msc to update your USB drivers. Also check your BIOS set-up. Most do have a setting for USB 2.0 = on/off, check to see that it is on. Also look in device management to see if your USB controllers have issues - marked in yellow. You need to run devmgmt.msc and update the drivers to fix this.

VH

[BillP2]

Thank you for hanging in there with me.

Last night, I went through the BIOS setup again and I do not find a switch for USB 2.0.

I also went through all of the USB section of the Device Manager and all 13 USB entries (generic USB hub, mass storage device, printing support, 5 root hubs, 4 universal hast controllers and an enhanced host controller ) say they are operating properly. There are no yellow flags to be found.

I'll go ahead and run the driver update, but it still seems to me that as long as the back plane USB connectors are indeed running as USB 2.0, the mother board USB headers should be proerly configured for USB 2.0 also (just like the manual says they are).

I'll let you know what happens.

------------------------- Bill

[BillP2]

OK, I've followed through with the link you provided and at the end of the process, there was no better driver than the one already in use for the enhanced controller.

Since (I think) the enhanced controller serves all of the USB ports, I just don't understand why some work as 2.0 and the others don't.

I can live with this, but it really bugs me.

------------------- Bill

[SLK001]

How long are your cables? If the link isn't good enough, the controler will drop back to 1.1 standards. Are you sure that they are connected correctly?

[BillP2]

The runs from the headers to the brackets on the back of the computer are about 9" long. The cable from the back of the computer to bring the connection out to the device is about 30" long.

I think the connections to the motherboard headers are correct. Would they work at all if they were not correct?

---------------------------- Bill

[oldandinthe way]

I've seen this on other systems. The USB ports on the left side of my Lenovo notebook give this error, the USB ports on the right do not.

I believe the different groups of ports are on different USB controllers.

In spite of the message I see no performance difference and have decided to ignore the message.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Is there a physical jumper or switch on the motherboard itself?

[BillP2]

There are no jumpers or switch to select the speed of the motherboard's USB headers. They are specified as USB 2.0.

------------------- Bill

[Video Head]

XP SP2? Known bug:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873169

Follow the instructions and update the driver for each usb connection. Even though your system says it has the latest driver it does not recognize it. Update the drivers for each USB connection and this will be solved...

VH

[BillP2]

Thank you for the suggestion.

I followed the instructions twice - once off-line and once on-line connected to the Microsoft support site. (The on-line runs took longer as the Device Manager appeared to go out to the support site during each search ion addition to searching the local hard drive.)

Both times, every USB device was reported as having the latest driver already installed.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

--------------------- Bill

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

--------------------- Bill

How about "screw it!"?
Are the devices you're connecting to the front really going to suffer that badly performance-wise by connecting them to a slower USB port?

I know -- 'it says USB 2.0 dammit, I want 2.0'. That would be my stand on the issue if it were me, but eventually I would probably just give up... :P
After all, it's just USB. Right?

[BillP2]

In spite of the message I see no performance difference and have decided to ignore the message.

How about "screw it!"?
Are the devices you're connecting to the front really going to suffer that badly performance-wise by connecting them to a slower USB port?

I'll have to do a test to see if there is a performance difference.

I do know that there is a major performance difference between transfering a 2 gig SD card full of photos through a USB 1.0 card reader vs. a USB 2.0 card reader. If the USB ports giving the message are truly running at USB 1.0 speed, I'd have time for a beverage break while the transfer is running.

------------------- Bill

[Video Head]

If you are absolutely certain that you have updated the drivers since installing SP2, then the next step would be to try a different cable from the board to the header and to verify that the MoBo jumpers are set to enable 2.0 for that controller. Otherwise the MoBo may be spaz and you will have to live with the problem. The difference between USB 1.0 & 2.0 are huge when connecting a USB 2.0 High Speed device...my 250GB USB 2.0 High Speed Hard Disk can transfer 4.7GB of data in 3 minutes connected to USB 2.0. On 1.0 it takes over 60 minutes to transfer the same data...your results may vary.

VH

[BillP2]

Well, I guess that I'm right back where I started.

I'll have to tryand find some other cable/bracket combination to attach to the motherboard annd see if it works any better.

Thanks to all for their thoughts on this matter.

------------------------ Bill

[turk690]

Cable/bracket combinations do not have anything to do with whether or not your h/w is really USB2.0 with the appropriate drivers to support it. Connectors for 1.0 & 2.0 are identical.

[AlanHK]

One way to sort out whether it's software or hardware problem is to get a bootable Linux CD.
Eg, Knoppix.

Then plug in some simple devices (eg, thumb drive) and see what happens.

I also connected a plate to the mobo to give me some extra USB ports at the front, under Windows about half the devices (that work in the original ports) work from these, half don't. Under Linux, no difference.