Sudden USB Problem

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dd · #31 Post by dd » Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:56 pm

JDSteele................did you manage to sort you problem out?

(Thanks again for the info you posted on "SECURE THINKPADS", which is a thread that I think everybody should read !)

Heres to my other questions:

I have a external 2.5" drive (temporary setup...............and the drive is a Hitachi 7K60.........60 gig 7200 spin). It is only powered by the USB ports............).
Does a external USB 2 connected drive need to be set to slave?

The reason I ask, is that XP recognises the dive.............but when I try and copy files to it...............XP just comes up with some error messgaes "program not responding"

mjfu · #32 Post by **mjfu** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 9:19 pm

Hmm...I had the same problem with my T40 and after reading the link about how dust causes this problem, I blew some air into the USB ports, cable connectors, and fan grille (just because I was too lazy to open it all up to inspect for dust)...and the problem seems to have resolved itself.

Strange. If you're like me and don't have a warranty anymore, try this first.

grapesmc · #33 Post by **grapesmc** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:01 am

Guys, I had this same problem today when I plugged in my iPod Shuffle for the first time ever and after installing SP2 recently. I got the high-speed device non high-speed host error, and began trying to find info on how to fix it. Eventually I got this other forum's topic -

http://forums.windrivers.com/archive/index.php/t-58031

Which led me here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... s%3B873169

Which I followed, while the iPod was plugged in, and then it worked at proper 2.0 speeds (VERY NOTICABLE) and I was happy again.

In case that helps anyone out.

Reese · #34 Post by **Reese** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:41 am

Same Problem on my R50 Thinkpad.

USB Problems started suddenly (high-speed non high-speed error).

Tried nearly everyl solution offered on the internet:

1. Updated all Windows and IBM Drivers (see www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and www.ibm.com) (didn't work)
2. Went into device manager and updated the USB drivers manually as suggested in http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... s%3B873169 (didn't work)
3. Went into safety mode and removed all USB hosts and devices, then restarted. Everything was reinstalled perfectly, but I still got the USB error (didn't work)
4. Tried to repair install Windows with the Recovery CD. Now the fun began. Windows wouldn't start anymore after the install procedure. Due to this problem I had to build a Rescue CD to get all my important data backed up. I was using BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) which creates a bootable live windows CD (the entire OS is running from the CD! great for error hunting or data rescuing). Astonishingly the USB Port worked fine in USB 2.0 mode while booting with the rescue CD. So I thought it had to be a software error. This is why I started IBM Recovery to start all over from scratch. After installing Windows XP everything worked fine for some time. I upgrades to SP2 and it was still working fine. Then windows update automatically downloaded and installed 5 updates. After rebooting I GOT THE USB ERROR AGAIN!!!
Of course I thought it was related to the updates but removing them didn't help. Even using the BartPE Rescue CD didn't help anymore (wich makes it kind of unlikely beeing a software error, since the Rescue CD is a totally different OS and has no updates installed!)

I just don't get it. This is like the only computer problem I cannot solve this far. I cannot even pinpoint if it is software or hardware (or both) related! Of course I don't have warranty anymore, so I cannot get my board replaced, which has worked out for other users having this USB problem.
If anyone ever finds a solution other than replacing the board, pllease let me know and keep this topic alive!

monkey243 · #35 Post by **monkey243** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:36 am

the usb2.0 problem is nothing with the software.It's a bug in southbridge.something is not fine,when intel designed this southbridge.When plug high power consume USB2.0 devices into usb port ,it is easy to make some hardware damaged inside southbridge.So the only solution is that go to IBM to swap the southbridge.

cruzlite · #36 Post by **cruzlite** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:49 am

Post Deleted by cruzlite

Biker2679 · #37 Post by **Biker2679** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:01 pm

I too am receiving this error when I plug my Sandisk Titanium into my T40. Based on what I am reading both here and elsewhere, I am calling IBM to get them to swap the motherboard. I am still under warranty and have thinkpad protection, so I dont think they will give me much trouble. While it may in fact be software related, the easiest resolution for me at this point looks like hardware. I'll give an update when I get the motherboard swapped out.

Biker2679 · #38 Post by **Biker2679** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:41 pm

Ok, the IBM tech just left and the motherboard swap did the job. He stated emphatically that this is a known issue with some of the T series, and that a motherboard swap is the only way known to fix the issue. He said he has replaced a number of boards related to the USB 2.0 problem, but he did say that it does not affect all models and that reinstalling the USB drivers sometimes fixes the situation. Overall, I am very satisfied with the resolution since it cost me nothing and was remedied within a week of me calling.

mjfu · #39 Post by **mjfu** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 10:49 pm

Ok, so for those w/o warranty left, I managed to get my USB2 working by (I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier) disabling the USB1 controllers under "Device Manager".

I figured that if my mobo is getting confused about whether something is USB 2.0 or not, I would help it out by removing the bad choices.

This worked for me and my USB2 devices connected correctly with the USB1 controllers shut off, however, my USB1 devices did not work when plugged in w/o the USB1 controllers turned on.

Anyway, it's worth a shot if you want to see if this does the trick for you. Hope it helps.

zeuice · #40 Post by **zeuice** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:26 am

Hi all,

Just started to have exactly the same problem as many of the posters on this thread recently.

I've had a T41 for about a year now. I've been using various USB mass storage devices with no problem in either of the two USB ports on the laptop for all of that time under linux (and occasionally windows) with no problems.

Now, I get the same problem (USB2 device on a USB 1.1 hub) as the other users on the thread, and the drive intermittently works under Linux (mostly not working, the kernel recognises it, and then never assigns a usb bus id successfully). This is strong evidence to me that this would suggest a problem outside the windows drivers, either a hardware issues, or a bios issue.

This is what has happened between working and not working:

Recently for work I was forced to use windows more or less full time, and when reinstalling it I used the lenovo thinkpad update utility. This utility updated the bios (something I had not been able to do under linux).

Unfortunately after this, I was in the position where running the lenovo thinkpad update utility and windows update in very close proximity to each other I had no reference point to distinguish what caused the problem. I've since re-installed windows and linux, and they are both behaving the same pre-SP2 XP doesn't work, post SP2 XP doesn't work. There is only one common theme here: The BIOS update.

I've tried multiple devices and they all behave the same (I’ve used devices with no cable, so this eliminates the cable as being at fault).

Today I put the 3.05a BIOS and 3.02 Embedded controller on to the laptop in that order (I don't remember what version was there before). This has NOT Fixed the problem.

Funnily, one connection between the external drive and the laptop was at full speed today, but after unplugging and re-plugging it was back to 1.1 speeds. This is a very intermittent problem.

Everything was fine for a year, and now it's all gone wrong. The main culprit from my point of view is the BIOS firmware.

Can other people on this list confirm whether this problem occurred after a BIOS update? Or just it just "happen" (In which case it's most likely an unlucky hardware fault that has developed for each of us).

#41 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:00 pm

It could be a hardware problem, but I would tend to suspect a bad entry in the registry. Try uninstalling all USB devices in Device Manager, then reboot and see if it works.

zeuice · #42 Post by **zeuice** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 4:54 am

If the problem I'm having is related in any way to the problem other people are having on this thread then I suspect it can't be a registry/windows driver issue. The problem on my machine has nothing to do with windows drivers as I have had consistent usb problems recently both under linux (ubuntu & koppix) and windows.

This has happened to my knowledge only since running a bios update.

I've tried going back to the delivery bios version (2.14 (can't find this version so used 2.11) and I still getexactly the same problem.

Am going to try compiling and running "lshw" under linux to see what it reports.

Since going to 2.11 BIOS I've lost all bluetooth connectivity aswell

#43 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 6:20 am

Somehow I missed your reference to Linux in your original post. It's probably something flaky in the hardware. If you are covered by warranty, now would be the time to use it. IMHO it will require a new system board.

EDIT: If you are not covered by warranty, you might consider getting a Cardbus USB 2.0 card to add USB 2.0 back to your laptop. They have some cards that are flush with the side of the PC card slot, but require a dongle. And there are other cards that stick out an inch or so, and get thicker at the end where you plug in the USB cable (no dongle required, but may block the other slot).

zeuice · #44 Post by **zeuice** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:59 am

After a bit more investigation under linux I think I've got some pretty good evidence that this is a hardware problem (and have since logged a fault with IBM to book the laptop in for repair - they think the motherboard will be replaced if it's not a firmware problem, lucky it's under warranty).

The drive completely stopped working (again, intermittantly) under linux (not even USB 1.1 speeds) and this is partly what really threw me. After thinking about the problem it occurred to me that the linux driver system isn't massivly sophisticated, and there are seperate drivers for USB1 & USB2. by default the USB2 driver was always loaded and I decided to unload that driver and see what happened.

guess what? the drive works fine under linux now, as long as the USB2 driver isn't loaded. This suggests a possible problem that someone mentioned about the south bridge chip not working properly (possibly by power overload, or maybe a firmware update). Linux reports the USB2 bus as being present, but it never takes over the bus when I plug a USB2 device in.

I read this somewhere:

> The 82801DB I/O Controller Hub (ICH4) contains three USB 1.1 (UHCI) > controllers and one USB 2.0 (EHCI) controller, supporting up to six > ports. Whether a port is controlled by one of the UHCI controllers or by > the EHCI controller, and therefore whether or not it supports Hi-Speed, > is up to some internal routing logic. I think the six physical ports > (external to the ICH chip) can each be run either by the appropriate > Universal Host Controller or the Enhanced Host Controller independently > of all the others.

> The EHCI driver is responsible for setting up the routing to the EHC or > the UHC as appropriate. Either it's not detecting the speed correctly > initially, erroneously routing the hi-speed device to the UHC, or there's > a fault in the hardware or driver.

Anyone can use the following test to see if they have the same problem by using a knoppix live cd to boot up with. Type all commands without quotes (")

1.) boot up with knoppix, get a terminal windows open (as root user).

2.) insert the drive in to the usb bus

3.) here to confirm it's broken type "tail -f /var/log/dmesg", you'll see messages telling you that the device is being assigned a bus id over and over again, but you'll never see anything else.

4.) remove the drive

5.) unload the usb2 driver: type "modprobe -r ehci_hcd"

6.) insert the drive in to the usb bus

7.) here to confirm it's working (you'll probably see an icon appear o nthe desktop representing the drive) type "tail -f /var/log/dmesg" you'll see lots of messages from the kernel about the usb device and also something about a device called /dev/sda (or /dev/sdx if you've already got a scsi sda device)

dd · #45 Post by dd » Sat Oct 15, 2005 3:55 pm

Hello

I tried this solution which seems to help a little:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330174&sd=RMVP

a. In Windows Explorer, right-click your hard-disk, and then click Properties.
b. Click the Hardware tab.
c. Click the hard disk, and then click Properties.
d. Click the Policies tab.
e. Click to clear the Enable write caching on the disk check box

Maybe I should look at getting a firewire card. Anybody have any sugestions on which ones work well with T41p . . .I would like a backup drive that works flawlessly!

Sudden USB Problem

USB2 No longer working.

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