USB Problem

[FalvinP]

I’m not sure where to begin with my question. The short question is:

Can a mysterious (at least to me) power surge knock out power to a series of USB Ports but yet make them still work?

First, a few basic facts:

I bought a computer from a person who built it. It’s not made of the latest components, but seems to do alright. I’m not sure I would consider it a new computer as it seems to be built of older parts. I didn’t pay much for it, so for what I got I’m relatively satisfied. I bought it as a bridge between replacing my old PIII system and building my own, newer system.

It has a MS-6728-Platinum (Intel 865PE Neo2-Platinum) motherboard with an Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 2.53 GHz. processor. Here is a link to the board specs (not the MSI site):

http://www.eprom.com/home/Microstar/ms6728platinum.htm

The pc has 512 Mb of ram and has a GeForce FX 5500 video card with 256 Mb of ram.

The system is running Win XP Pro.

This story is a bit convoluted, but I’ll try to describe some basic points.

I needed to reposition my Espon C80 (connected via USB) printer from one side of my home office to the other. Without turning off the computer, I unplugged the power from the wall and unplugged the USB cable from the printer and the back of the computer. After repositioning the printer, I plugged in the power and then the USB back into the printer and then plugged the USB back into the computer. Unfortunately, there was little space behind the computer and as I had to get close to the back to see anything, and due to the fact that I wear trifocal glasses, it was very hard to see clearly. I ended up plugging in the USB cable into the Ethernet port which is right next to the USB ports. There is a separate Ethernet pci card to plug the cable modem into.

I don’t know why there is a separate card for the Ethernet, since there is Ethernet support onboard, but that’s a question left for some other time.

After this, things started happening quickly. After the printer wouldn’t work, I finally realized the error of my ways. I plugged in the cable to a USB port and the printer worked.

The problem came in when I plugged in my Creative Labs Zen Microphoto Mp3 player. Normally, when I plug it in to a USB port on the back it goes into a “docked” mode and appears to charge the battery. When I plugged it in this time it appeared to not be getting power and wouldn’t go into “docked” mode. It would turn on and behave as if it was not plugged in the the pc, displaying the normal menus and playing songs etc. When I activate the Creative software to manage files etc, the unit goes into docked mode and appears to be operating normally and also appears to be charging the battery, although I’m not sure if it’s really charging.

I reset the Zen a couple of times by taking out the battery. Same situation occurred.

I have the Creative software and drivers installed on my parents laptop also so I can charge the unit when I visit them. I won’t have access to this computer until the weekend so, for now, I can’t test the Zen on anther computer to eliminate it as the source of the problem.

A couple of times during this debacle, I got an error message indicating a power surge occurred that could possibly damage the USB port. I followed the on screen instructions to disable the port and unplug the unit and start over. Also, the computer was rebooted numerous times.

I checked Device Manager to see if anything was not working properly. I checked everything having to do with USB and everything seemed to be operating properly. The same held true for the Zen Microphoto when it was plugged in. I tried following the trouble shooting guide in Device Manager and still couldn’t get things to behave normally.

Both the Intel cpu utility and cpuz show that the cpu is slightly overclocked…….from 2.53 GHz to 2.60 GHz. I have never seen this before and I’m not sure if has anything to do with the current situation or not.

I thought that perhaps somehow the power to the ports got knocked out……… I have an unpowered Sandisk 8 in 1 card reader that works properly. If there was no power to the ports this wouldn’t work, right?

As an aside………..The pc has two USB ports on the front. When I first got the Zen I plugged it into the front port (after properly installing the Zen etc.) and it wouldn’t charge the battery. I left it plugged in overnight and the next morning the unit was fully discharged. When I plugged it into a rear port, it worked properly. I don’t remember if it went into docked mode when I used a front port.

Now the rear ports are behaving like the front ports.

I’ve tried all the devices in all the rear ports with the same result. Needless to say I’d really like to get the unit charged without getting a separate charger. The unit has a pretty full charge right now, having been charged on another computer, but I’m almost afraid to use it for fear I won’t be able to recharge it.

Sorry for the convoluted story. I’ve tried to anticipate some questions that might be asked of me concerning this situation. From reading these forums, I’ve found that people often don’t give enough information to efficiently deal with their issues.

The big problem, of course, is getting the unit to charge.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[glc]

I don't know if this is what has happened, but there is a weakness in the 865PE chipset involving USB, it's easy to zap the Northbridge chip when you hotplug USB devices, especially into the front ports. It's usually caused by static electricity discharge but a line power surge could possibly cause a similar problem.

One way to try to figure this out would be to get an AC-powered USB hub, plug your devices into it, and try it in the different USB ports.

[FalvinP]

I went out and bought an AC powered Belkin USB 2.0 7 port hub. I plugged the USB printer and the card reader into it. They both worked properly. I then plugged the Zen in one of the top slots on the hub. Same thing occurred. I moved the hub connector between the four USB ports on the rear of the computer with the Zen plugged in. I got sporatic docking on one port, (it docked, then released, then docked etc.) but for the most part the unit operates the same way it did before. Each time I physically plugged or unplugged the usb cord into the hub I heard the familiar Windows "clink" sound.

Any other ideas? Thanks again for your help.

[glc]

That's sounding like a problem with the Zen and/or its drivers.