external hard drive device drivers issue

[NoBob]

Hi,

Am getting frustrated now. And am not sure if this should go in the hardware branch or the software branch. I'll move the thread if necessary.

I bought a Seagate 160 Gb (usb 2.0 only) external hard in late April. It's plugged into an IBM Thinkpad T41/Win XP Pro SP2.

It's worked fine (mostly) up til now, running at usb 2.0 speeds. The problem is that transfer rates have dropped to
USB 1 speeds and no matter how many times I uninstall the device drivers (MY Computer>Properties>Hardware>Device
Manager) I can't get it back to USB 2.0. It's happened before but uninstalling the drivers has fixed it.

The Seagate support online disk checker just says that the disc is fine. It doesn't says anything about usb transfer rates.

After uninstalling the drivers (in both safe and normal mode) and then plugging in the Seagate again, Windows displays popups:
Seagate>ST316002 3A>disk drive>USB Mass Storage Device and then "This USB device driver can perform faster...plugged
into a USB 2.0 port". It's already plugged into a USB 2.0 port (in Device Manager it shows that the host controller is 'enhanced')
but windows still tells me to plug it into one of six usb ports that are USB 2.0. The USB laptop slots and the external High-Speed
USB Hub I use are both usb 2.0!

I get the same problem (Windows' recognition of the hardware device name but only USB 1 speed) when I plug my 40Gb
Tripper (USB 2.0) into the external external High-Speed USB Hub.

I work on large TIFF files so USB 2.0 is a must.

In Bios (checked when booting up) there is only the option to enable or disable USB. Not much help there.

Should I reinstall SP2?

Thanks,
NoBob.

[GomJabbar]

Shooting in the dark here...... My USB 2.0 works fine. See if your settings seem simular to mine. When I check the USB controllers in Device Manager on my T-42, it shows 4 USB devices. Each of the 4 devices has a unique PCI/VEN number.

The first device is listed as a USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller. It uses resources: Memory range C0000000-C0003FF, IRQ 11. Driver is listed as Microsoft version 5.1.2600.0 on the driver page, and has the following drivers under the driver tab: usbehi.sys, usbhub.sys, usbport.sys, hccoin.dll, usbui.dll - all listed as Microsoft drivers version 5.1.2600.2180

The next 3 devices are listed as USB Universal Host Controller. They use resources: Memory range (1) 1800-181F, (2) 1820-183F, (3) 1840-185F, all three IRQ 11. Driver is listed as Intel version 4.0.1001.0 on driver page, and has the following drivers under the driver tab: usbhub.sys, usbport.sys, usbuhci.sys, usbui.dll - all listed as Microsoft drivers version 5.1.2600.2180.

[NoBob]

Thanks for that.

After posting my first message I downloaded USB Info and ran it. It shows that all the USB 2.0 devices I have are run by the 1.1 controllers. Even when I uninstalled all the drivers except for the 'enhanced controller' and plugged in the Seagate, Windows still went ahead and installed the 1.1 drivers and hooked the Seagate up to one of those.

Totally stuck now.

NoBob.

[GomJabbar]

Any chance you have a bad USB cable? You might try another one you know is rated at USB 2.0. Also you might check the contacts at the USB port(s) and make sure they're clean. If you have (2) USB ports on your T-41 are both of them 2.0 ports?

A reinstall of SP2 might fix it. If you're up to it, you could try deleting all references to the Seagate drive in the registry, then after a reboot, plug the drive back in.

If you haven't already, you could remove the USB controllers in device manager, then reboot. Windows should find the USB devices and install the drivers automatically.

I don't know if this would happen with USB or not, but I once had a CD/DVD reader in a TP600E. The drive worked great when I first installed it, but once, when I restored the hard drive from a backup, the DVD player was reading the DVD slowly and with many hesitations. I discovered that DMA mode was turned off for the DVD drive, but I was unable to turn it on in Device Manager. After doing some Google searches I found someone that had solved that problem by uninstalling the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in device manager, then rebooting. I was leary of trying that, but I did. Windows reloaded the Controllers on boot up, and now DMA was an available choice. I now had my DVD reader up to speed again.

What I'm saying is, is that perhaps the USB controller taps into the IDE controller. I don't know enough about computer hardware configuration to say. You could try removing the IDE controllers in Device Manager, then reboot.

[NoBob]

Thanks GomJabbar. Was going to try uninstalling the Secondary IDE next but...

Passing on the good news...

Fixed the problem by downloading the IBM Software Installer and updating the Bios and other drivers.

Checked the USB set up using USB Info tool, which shows that everything now works off the USB 2.0 controller.

NoBob

[NoBob]

I unplugged the Seagate (using the eject tool) and the external USB hub to take it downstairs and when I plugged everything in again...it's all back to usb 1.1 !!!!!!!!!! I don't believe it!!

I also uninstalled the secondary IDE, but that didn't work.

NoBob

[farna]

Try UNINSTALLING SP2. That might work! If you don't need the firewall and security features I can't find a good reason to install all of SP2. I use McAfee security and have only installed a select few updates from SP2 (directly from the MS website). I have heard of to many people having problems after installing SP2 to install the whole thing.

Isn't it great to have an OS that takes complete control of your system away from you?!! If it would just remember setting instead of reconfiguring half the stuff on your computer when you reboot it would be nice. That's "plug-n-play" though. Now there's an idea! Reinstall everything and get it working, then go into the BIOS and disable "plug-n-play". That should keep it from reconfiguring the system. If you install new hardware you might have to reenable pnp. Not sure how it will affect things like thumb drives -- only one way to find out.

[NoBob]

Thanks for responding farna.

Since I posted that last message I logged in in safe mode as Administrator and uninstalled the seagate in the system devices and all the usb drivers, then unplugged everything except the seagte from the computer and rebooted normally. Well, it worked and I got usb 2.0 back. Then I plugged in just the external hub, the mouse and finally the keyboard, which I think is what's causing the problem. It's only usb 1.1, and maybe -- maybe -- it's dragging everything else down to its speed. Am going to buy a usb 2.0 keyboard.

NoBob.

[Ground Loop]

Checked the USB set up using USB Info tool, which shows that everything now works off the USB 2.0 controller.

Good to know.. where is the USB Info Tool found? Is it an IBM or XP widget or something you dowloaded?

I have no idea what speed my USB devices are running at, or if they have connected to the UHCI or EHCI hubs.

[GomJabbar]

Since I posted that last message I logged in in safe mode as Administrator and uninstalled the seagate in the system devices and all the usb drivers, then unplugged everything except the seagte from the computer and rebooted normally. Well, it worked and I got usb 2.0 back. Then I plugged in just the external hub, the mouse and finally the keyboard, which I think is what's causing the problem. It's only usb 1.1, and maybe -- maybe -- it's dragging everything else down to its speed. Am going to buy a usb 2.0 keyboard.

I think you're onto something there. If you plug a USB 1.1 device into a USB hub (regardless of rating), that's the fastest the hub can operate, so all USB devices connected to the hub will run no faster than 1.1 speeds. On the other hand, if you have (2) or more physical USB ports on your computer, one port can operate at 1.1 speeds while the other operates at 2.0 speeds (assuming the computer has USB 2.0 capabilities). At least that's the way I understand it.