Tech Support Guy banner

USB 2 not working with ext harddrive

2899 Views 34 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Rich-M
Win xp pro service pack 2
mobo: gigabyte 8sq800 ultra

I've read similar problems to the one i've got but i think they differ slightly.

I've got a problem when connecting my Western Digital 'My Book' ext harddrive to my pc. Once connected it says it could work much faster if connected to a usb 2 port. As far as i'm aware it is usb 2. The mother board disc came with usb 2 drivers and i've tried updating as much as i can manually.

When i plug a small usb mem stick in it confirms that its usb2. But the harddrive dont like it. I tried all the usb ports with no luck, and tried it on 2 other machines and it works fine there.

Any ideas?
Status
Not open for further replies.
1 - 3 of 35 Posts
Let's try my USB driver refresh procedure.

First step, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Create a restore point and name it something like "Before USB Fix". This is to bail you out if something goes wrong during the following process and makes things worse.

Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG
-------------------------- Use text after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]

"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"
-------------------------- Use text before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.

When this is done, reboot TWICE.

Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.

NOTE: If you have a USB keyboard and/or mouse, you'll have to modify the instructions and leave enough parts for those to function. I don't have one yet, so I haven't had time to modify the instructions.
See less See more
Not an awfully uncommon issue. I stick with the NEC chipset USB expansion cards for that reason. Of course, when they're built into the MB, you have to take what they give you. :)
A PCI <-> USB 2.0 card is totally independent of the MB chipset. I'm going to disagree with Rich here, I stick to the NEC chipset, they've never failed me. They were also the first ones with a USB 2.0 chipset, and established the model that Windows programmed for, probably why they work so well. :) I do confess that I've never used the TI chipset, so it may be quite reliable, I just happen to know for sure the NEC chipset is.
1 - 3 of 35 Posts
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top