Power Surge on USB Hub Port message

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cuppingmaster · #1 Post by **cuppingmaster** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:08 pm

For the last week, I've been getting an annoying taskbar popup that tells me "A USB device has exceeded the power limits of its hub port." This seems to occur whether I have my USB device (Brother MFC-5440) plugged in or not. I can tell it to reset or close the port, but that same message will pop up either immediately or a couple minutes later.

First, I'm wondering what could cause a power surge? I have everything plugged into a surge protecting box and I live in a newer place, so I don't think it's actual power spikes. I have a Sanyo battery so I don't think it's that. After that, I'm stuck.

Any ideas anyone? Anyone has this problem on their R series too?

Thanks

Dngrsone · #2 Post by **Dngrsone** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:51 pm

This is a power surge of a different animal-- the southbridge in the computer, which handles the USB ports among other I/O things, is complaining that a device is pulling too much current through the USB driver circuitry.

That means that something attached to the USB hub is too much of a load for the driver to handle and it will cause damage. Many times, by the time you see this message, the damage is already done and your USB will no longer work.

If you don't have anything attached to the USB ports of your computer and you are still getting this message, then it means that some damage has occurred already. Other, not likely, possibilities-- there is a device internal to the computer that is attached to the USB hub of the southbridge that is defective and drawing current, or one of your USB ports is damaged and there is a small short causing problems.

While USB is designed to be hot-pluggable, there are some chipsets out there (Intel makes a couple I am aware of) that are sensitive to high current draws or spikes caused by plugging in or out. For people who do a lot of plugging in and out or use a lot of devices that draw power through the USB, I recommend using an externally-powered USB hub, which will take the load off the computers drivers.

cuppingmaster · #3 Post by **cuppingmaster** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:32 pm

I got it to at least stop showing me annoying messages from the device manager, but who knows if there's a real overdraw in there or what. My printer, iPod, and flash drive all work fine when connected to either port.

I guess for now, I'll keep it like this until something stops working. Thanks for the info. Do you know of a software that measures USB device power load? Like SpeedFan but for USB ports? Or am I stuck to trying to get a multimeter in there?

Dngrsone · #4 Post by **Dngrsone** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:36 pm

I am not aware of any specialized software apps... it requires hardware that I don't think is integrated with the drivers.

#5 Post by **Kyocera** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:43 pm

I'd seriously start searching the Brother site for any issues with the device or contact their tech support, probably via on line email. If it torches your usb port you may be out of luck getting your TP fixed under warranty.

It looks like in the specs for that machine it has an rj45 network port, if yours has that configuration, use it that way to totally eliminate printing using the USB port.

http://solutions.brother.com/mfc5440cn_all/en_us/

#6 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:53 pm

cuppingmaster wrote:Do you know of a software that measures USB device power load? Like SpeedFan but for USB ports? Or am I stuck to trying to get a multimeter in there?

You can see the power draw in Device Manager. Look under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, and then check each of the USB Root Hub devices to see which one your device is connected to. On the Power tab you can see the current draw from the device.

As an example, my Toshiba 60GB 5400 rpm external USB drive is currently drawing 96 mA at idle.

Dngrsone · #7 Post by **Dngrsone** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:17 pm

My mistake, then.

#8 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:47 pm

Dngrsone wrote:My mistake, then.

This forum is all about learning ...

cuppingmaster · #9 Post by **cuppingmaster** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 9:35 pm

Hmmm... so I checked the draw of the printer and it's like 2 mA. That doesn't sound right. I checked the draw of the flash drive and it's 100 mA, which sounds normal. Though, it has been through the wash a couple times (LOL) but the data on it has survived. Perhaps it's water-logged or something, causing it to draw too much. Says each port can have 500 mA drawing from it.

I'm charging my iPod from drain, and I want to see how much it draws. Otherwise, the ethernet port idea is a good one.

Update: iPod draws 500 mA, but there's also an "unknown USB device" attached to the same hub as the iPod that wasn't there. No power draw, but any idea what THAT could be? And why do I have like 14 ports total between 5 USB root hubs?

Leszek K · #10 Post by **Leszek K** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:22 am

How to check and turn off the USB wich is damaged/doesn't work?

I have the same problem with port i don't use. Could i turn it off ? On other topics i've found that the chipset unsticks from the mobo. Is this the real reason ?

Power Surge on USB Hub Port message

Power Surge on USB Hub Port message

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