HELP! USB External Drive Won't Connect Except Through a Hub

[dmcgibbo]

I have a T42p 2378-DYU with the Intel 855PM chipset and 2 2.0USB ports. I tried installing a USB Maxtor One Touch External Hard Drive but when I connect the drive via USB directly to the PC it says hardware found but then does not associate as a disk drive. The led's on the drive flash back and forth like it's being accessed and the Windows USB driver seems to freeze or something.

It then shows up as Maxtor One Touch USB or Disk Drive in the "safely remove hardware" and as a disk in "Device Manager" but it does not show up as a disk drive in "My Computer" or "Disk Management".

I CAN however connect the drive through a non-high speed USB hub though (whether powered or not). If I connect the hub to the USB port and then connect the drive to the hub, the drive autoplays and is accessed fine. I don't know whether a USB 2.0 hub will work b/c I don't own one.

Can anyone think of why this would be happening or how I can fix this? I've installed it right, it works perfectly fine on my older A30p with same WinXP Pro, and I don't think it's an SP2 problem b/c it doesn't work with WinXP Pro SP1 OR SP2 on the new machine. It seems like it's a problem with the 2.0 Enhanced Controller USB Host from Intel or the Chipset or the Windows Drivers or something. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as IBM doesn't know what to do and Intel/Maxtor/Microsoft do not care...

[hmphargh]

i had a similar problem. i fixed it by deleting the item and then reinstalling it. im guessing you did that already, but if not you might give that a shot

[dmcgibbo]

you mean deleting it in device manager? i deleted all the USB controllers including the one that said Maxtor One Touch and tried to delete the Disk drive under drives in device manager but it would freeze and not let me. When I plugged in the device again, it would go through the found hardware and reassign it, but I would run into the exact same problem of it not making it a disk drive and finishing adding the hardware. When I unplug the usb port while it is "adding hardware" it then says it was installed successfully and to restart but it wasn't really installed successfully and restarting doesn't help. very strange...