X40 USB port failure

[Neil]

Well folks, all the USB ports on my X40 have failed. Last week I used this machine a couple of time with a USB wifi adapter as I didn't have a miniPCI card installed at the time, and all seemed fine. I also used a USB flash drive a few times without problem. So today I took this X40 with me as I traveled on the job, expecting to use the USB wifi adapter again but the machine wouldn't ever recognize the adapter. Tried my USB flash drive, and still never recognized a drive. Hmmm...

When I returned home this evening, I dropped the X40 on the UltraBase and...none of the ports on the base would work either! Popped a SD card in the slot just to see if that port would work since I had never used it before, and that works OK. Then slid a PCMCIA USB adapter in, and that works, so I have USB if I need it. Also installed a miniPCI wifi adapter, so my wireless network needs are met.

But, still, what could have happened to stop the function of both onboard ports, and the three UltraBase ports?

Oh! I also checked the BIOS, and the boot from USB option was enabled, so I disabled that just to see if it made a difference, and as expected, it did not. So, anything else I can do/check, or am I just short a few ports? Anyone else ever seen this kind of thing?

[topmahof]

the earlier x40's were prone to usb failures. later ones weren't too bad. the good thing is motherboards are available and relatively cheap. i've seen usb failures on ones with 1.2 and 1.4 processors but i haven't seen one yet with the 1.5 processor.

[Neil]

i haven't seen one yet with the 1.5 processor.

Well looks like we've seen it now. Mine is a 2371-K3U with PM758(1.5GHz) LV CPU. I guess I'm going to just leave it as is for now. Seems OK for my current needs. I was just wondering if it was common at all for the X40 model, and you've confirmed my suspicions.

[dr_st]

Can this be related to the southbridge failure which becomes increasingly more common with T4x units?

[Neil]

RE: dr_st - That is what I was wondering too. But the architecture of the two series is so different that it doesn't seem likely. But, still, I'd like to know what is going on.

[topmahof]

the usb controller is on the southbridge and it is suseptible to static electricity. they usually fail just by plugging in a usb device. at first it acts like the usb is only 1.1 but eventually it fails completely. and they can fail from vibration, falls, jolts, the chip can get unsoldered so i would say yes it is related to the failures of the t4 series. usually though, failure of the t4's is because of the chip itself coming loose.

[topmahof]

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_USB_2.0

here's a link, i had it happen to an x40 with a 1.4 processor.
my current one is pretty close to the op's, 2371-j3u.

i don't think it will work but you could try to reinstall the driver for the usb.

another thing, look inside the ports and see if any of them are missing the little black plastic thing that covers the contacts. sometimes they come out and if you don't notice it the next time you plug something in, it shorts it out. i think they're only in there with glue or something.

[Neil]

Thanks for posting the ThinkWiki link topmahof. I had briefly checked there yesterday, but didn't have the time to dig deep enough to find those pages. Interestingly enough, I'm using Puppy Linux on this X40, ThinkWiki says with Windows the problem usually starts with only 1.1 spec working and not 2.0, and with Linux USB usually just stops completely. That's the way it happened with me.

When I get the time, I'm going to try some of the driver fixes such as disabling or removing ehci_hcd, and see if that does anything. But, that may be a few days away...

Oh, and I checked the ports, and none of them are missing the black plastic insulator thing, but still could have been a static discharge that did the controller in.