Configuring ALi USB card in Windows 2003

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr. Land
  • Start date Start date
M

Mr. Land

Hello,

I'm having trouble configuring an ALi PCI USB Host Controller and was
wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

I should start off by stating that I've already searched Google Groups,
and the Internet in general for help. I've found a few resources and
tried them, but no luck so far.

I'm running Windows 2003 Server SP1 on a homebuilt system:

Processor: Celeron 1.4 GHz
Mainboard: ABit BE6-II v2.0
System BIOS: Award 6.00 PG
Memory: 768MB SDRAM
Video Card: Matrox Millenium G450

(I can supply more detail if necessary).

This motherboard supplies the two "standard" USB ports in the rear, but
I wanted both to add more USB ports and have them accessible in the
front, so I bought an ALi PCI to USB Host Controller to add to the
system. This is a PCI add-in card that provides two additional USB
ports in the rear, and comes with a 4-port front panel assembly that
fits in a drive bay and connects to the card via a ribbon cable.

Here's my story so far:

1. At first I simply (and naively) installed the card and rebooted,
figuring that Windows 2003 would install its own drivers for the new
card. The system booted up and detected the new card, and proceeded to
configure it. After that, it would boot OK, but it would randomly (but
reliably) lock up completely after a few minutes (meaning "frozen"
graphic display, no response to mouse, keyboard, etc.)

2. Next I realized that I had actually added a new PCI card without
reconfiguring the BIOS, so I rebooted and entered the BIOS setup
screen, then enabled the "Update ESCD Data" option. I saw some
seemingly different PCI IRQ assignments flash by on the screen during
the next bootup, which made me hopeful. After some testing, this
seemed to get rid of the random lockup problem.

3. Since the system now seemed to be OK, I next tried to plug an
external USB hard drive into one of the 4 front-panel USB ports
provided by the new card. The instant I did this, the system locked up
hard again. I tested this a few times to make sure it happened
consistently.

4. I started Device Manager to look for possible conflicts. I didn't
see any, but I did notice something puzzling: after auto-detecting the
card, Windows adds what seems to be too many devices for it: under
"Universal Serial Bus controllers", there appear 3 separate devices
named "ULi PCI to USB Open Host Controller" and 1 more called "ULi USB
2.0 Enhanced Host Controller" (all these in addition to the already
existing Intel USB controller.) Of the first 3, 2 are configured to
use IRQ 10, with the third using IRQ 11. The fourth new device uses
IRQ 11 also. In addition to these devices, 4 new "USB Root Hub" items
appear. Three of these seem to provide 2 ports (?), while the 4th
provides 6 (which is what I'd expect: 2 at the rear of the card and 4
on the front panel.) Having this many new devices didn't seem right,
so I manually uninstalled each one, then selected "Scan for hardware
changes" and, as I watched, all of them were reinstalled again.

5. Next I examined the driver CD that came with the card. It did not
list Windows 2003 as an option, but since it did include Windows 2000,
and since I didn't seem to be otherwise getting anywhere, I decided to
run the included driver install utility (an .EXE). It finished,
explicitly stating that a reboot would not be required.

6. I started Device Manager again. This time, I saw two USB
categories: the original: "Universal Serial Bus controllers", and a new
one: "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" (note that the "c" is
capitalized in the new category.) Under the new category, there are
two items "ALi PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller" (using IRQ 05), and
"USB 2.0 Root Hub". Going back to the first category, I uninstalled
all the additional devices there which I described in Step 4 above.

7. Finally, I tried connecting some USB devices (a card reader,
external hard drive). Nothing works at all. The devices never show
up, almost as if the front panel jacks weren't internally connected to
anything.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
 
Try moving the USB card to a different card slot. Some motherboards
have conflicts with some of the control lines (such as bus mastering) which
can pre3vent cards from working in certain combinations.
 
Hello,

I'm having trouble configuring an ALi PCI USB Host Controller and was
wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

I should start off by stating that I've already searched Google Groups,
and the Internet in general for help. I've found a few resources and
tried them, but no luck so far.

I'm running Windows 2003 Server SP1 on a homebuilt system:
Click to expand...

Why? You *paid* for 2003 Server for this???

Processor: Celeron 1.4 GHz
Mainboard: ABit BE6-II v2.0
System BIOS: Award 6.00 PG
Memory: 768MB SDRAM
Video Card: Matrox Millenium G450

(I can supply more detail if necessary).
Click to expand...


Try updating the motherboard bios if you hadn't already.
This motherboard supplies the two "standard" USB ports in the rear, but
I wanted both to add more USB ports and have them accessible in the
front, so I bought an ALi PCI to USB Host Controller to add to the
system. This is a PCI add-in card that provides two additional USB
ports in the rear, and comes with a 4-port front panel assembly that
fits in a drive bay and connects to the card via a ribbon cable.
Click to expand...

Frankly, NEC chipped USB cards are better. If this one
keeps giving you trouble you might consider an NEC card as
they're only ~ $15.
Here's my story so far:

1. At first I simply (and naively) installed the card and rebooted,
figuring that Windows 2003 would install its own drivers for the new
card. The system booted up and detected the new card, and proceeded to
configure it. After that, it would boot OK, but it would randomly (but
reliably) lock up completely after a few minutes (meaning "frozen"
graphic display, no response to mouse, keyboard, etc.)
Click to expand...

Anything in Event Viewer or a dump file with some hints at
what's happened?

2. Next I realized that I had actually added a new PCI card without
reconfiguring the BIOS,
Click to expand...

"Realized"? You should not have to reconfigure the bios.
Does the motherboard have a bios that properly supports
WinXP/etc. power management? Do you have any power
management settings, set at short intervals that might
coincide with this issue?


so I rebooted and entered the BIOS setup
screen, then enabled the "Update ESCD Data" option. I saw some
seemingly different PCI IRQ assignments flash by on the screen during
the next bootup, which made me hopeful. After some testing, this
seemed to get rid of the random lockup problem.
Click to expand...

Is the box running in APM or ACPI PM mode?

3. Since the system now seemed to be OK, I next tried to plug an
external USB hard drive into one of the 4 front-panel USB ports
provided by the new card. The instant I did this, the system locked up
hard again. I tested this a few times to make sure it happened
consistently.
Click to expand...

First, don't do that "yet". Determine whether the drive
works at all through the original USB ports and/or the two
permanent ports on the PCI card itself. Rule out the common
variables first before moving on to things like front panels
and correct cabling to them.


4. I started Device Manager to look for possible conflicts. I didn't
see any, but I did notice something puzzling: after auto-detecting the
card, Windows adds what seems to be too many devices for it: under
"Universal Serial Bus controllers", there appear 3 separate devices
named "ULi PCI to USB Open Host Controller" and 1 more called "ULi USB
2.0 Enhanced Host Controller" (all these in addition to the already
existing Intel USB controller.) Of the first 3, 2 are configured to
use IRQ 10, with the third using IRQ 11. The fourth new device uses
IRQ 11 also. In addition to these devices, 4 new "USB Root Hub" items
appear. Three of these seem to provide 2 ports (?), while the 4th
provides 6 (which is what I'd expect: 2 at the rear of the card and 4
on the front panel.) Having this many new devices didn't seem right,
so I manually uninstalled each one, then selected "Scan for hardware
changes" and, as I watched, all of them were reinstalled again.
Click to expand...

Forget about the external drive for a moment and just test
each port with another USB device known to work, for example
a mouse or keyboard. If it works on all ports, leave them
alone for the time being.

5. Next I examined the driver CD that came with the card. It did not
list Windows 2003 as an option, but since it did include Windows 2000,
and since I didn't seem to be otherwise getting anywhere, I decided to
run the included driver install utility (an .EXE). It finished,
explicitly stating that a reboot would not be required.
Click to expand...

Try going into add/remove programs and uninstalling ALL USB
drivers. Reboot. Never assume it's better to not reboot,
than to reboot, even if it claims (rightly so) that you
"shouldn't" need to.

6. I started Device Manager again. This time, I saw two USB
categories: the original: "Universal Serial Bus controllers", and a new
one: "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" (note that the "c" is
capitalized in the new category.) Under the new category, there are
two items "ALi PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller" (using IRQ 05), and
"USB 2.0 Root Hub". Going back to the first category, I uninstalled
all the additional devices there which I described in Step 4 above.
Click to expand...

Why install it if you're just going to keep uninstalling it?
Undo everything you're manually done, get the system back to
the state it was in before you added the card, then add the
card, and plug in some other generic USB device like a mouse
and try the ports... the original motherboard ports and the
card's rear ports. Plugging ANYTHING into the front ports
should be the very last thing you do, after everything else
has tested ok.

7. Finally, I tried connecting some USB devices (a card reader,
external hard drive). Nothing works at all. The devices never show
up, almost as if the front panel jacks weren't internally connected to
anything.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Try running a mature OS instead of Server 2003. Win2k and
XP patches exist for reasons just like this, that eventually
problems get fixed.
 
kony said:
Why? You *paid* for 2003 Server for this???
Click to expand...

No, I had to install Win2K3 in order to be able to work on a
development project from home.
Try updating the motherboard bios if you hadn't already.
Click to expand...
Already did.
Frankly, NEC chipped USB cards are better. If this one
keeps giving you trouble you might consider an NEC card as
they're only ~ $15.
Click to expand...
Sounds good...any board brand names to look for?
Anything in Event Viewer or a dump file with some hints at
what's happened?
Click to expand...

My event logs are far from empty. I'll have to archive them, clear
them out, and retest.
"Realized"? You should not have to reconfigure the bios.
Does the motherboard have a bios that properly supports
WinXP/etc. power management? Do you have any power
management settings, set at short intervals that might
coincide with this issue?
Click to expand...

My BIOS (Award) states that you should enable Update ESCD whenever
changing the PCI board configuration. Doing that did seem to take care
of the first flavor of lockup I was experiencing.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do power management settings have to do
with PCI card configuration (other than possibly powering down devices
after some interval)?
Is the box running in APM or ACPI PM mode?
Click to expand...
Sorry, not familiar with this, will this be in the BIOS?

First, don't do that "yet". Determine whether the drive
works at all through the original USB ports and/or the two
permanent ports on the PCI card itself. Rule out the common
variables first before moving on to things like front panels
and correct cabling to them.
Click to expand...

When plugged into the motherboard ports, the drive is recognized. When
plugged into any port provided by the card, it is not.
Forget about the external drive for a moment and just test
each port with another USB device known to work, for example
a mouse or keyboard. If it works on all ports, leave them
alone for the time being.
Click to expand...

I tested every USB device I have...all work on m/b ports, none work on
card ports.
Try going into add/remove programs and uninstalling ALL USB
drivers. Reboot. Never assume it's better to not reboot,
than to reboot, even if it claims (rightly so) that you
"shouldn't" need to.
Click to expand...

I tried this also (saw it on a website.) Ended up where I'd started.
Why install it if you're just going to keep uninstalling it?
Undo everything you're manually done, get the system back to
the state it was in before you added the card, then add the
card, and plug in some other generic USB device like a mouse
and try the ports... the original motherboard ports and the
card's rear ports. Plugging ANYTHING into the front ports
should be the very last thing you do, after everything else
has tested ok.
Click to expand...
I uninstalled it because I had just installed the drivers from the
supplied CD, and wanted to see if hardware redetection would be any
different in this case.
Try running a mature OS instead of Server 2003. Win2k and
XP patches exist for reasons just like this, that eventually
problems get fixed.
Click to expand...

Not an option for me, really. But thanks for taking the time to
respond and for the helpful suggestions.
 
Gary said:
Try moving the USB card to a different card slot. Some motherboards
have conflicts with some of the control lines (such as bus mastering) which
can pre3vent cards from working in certain combinations.
Click to expand...

Thanks I will give that a try.
 
On 15 Aug 2005 23:05:27 -0700, "Mr. Land"

Sounds good...any board brand names to look for?
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't matter. Get the most current driver from NEC
if windows doesn't get it up & running right.

My event logs are far from empty. I'll have to archive them, clear
them out, and retest.
Click to expand...

??
You may have a lot of problems then instead of one?
Generally anything that looks like an error, is, and you can
simply deal with all recent errors.

My BIOS (Award) states that you should enable Update ESCD whenever
changing the PCI board configuration. Doing that did seem to take care
of the first flavor of lockup I was experiencing.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do power management settings have to do
with PCI card configuration (other than possibly powering down devices
after some interval)?
Click to expand...

What is it that you feel needs "configured", and why are you
presuming that a "configuration" is the problem? By all
accounts, you had the card installed and it showed up in
Device Manager, but then you deleted it a couple times.

Realize that the problem may not directly be getting the
card working... was part of why I suggested trying OTHER USB
devices on it previously.

Regardless, power management requires the board bios be
capable in some cases and the driver as well. Instead of
asking further questions it would be more expedient (and
productive) to answer those questions posed ... there is no
point in making further suggestions if we dont' even know if
you tried the former or just decided not to try them.


Sorry, not familiar with this, will this be in the BIOS?
Click to expand...

Check Device Manager, System Devices (category). Is there
any mention of "ACPI" or APM?



When plugged into the motherboard ports, the drive is recognized. When
plugged into any port provided by the card, it is not.

I tested every USB device I have...all work on m/b ports, none work on
card ports.
Click to expand...

So then *nothing* happens when you plug any/all devices into
the card's ports? No drive activity or notices onscreen?

Not an option for me, really. But thanks for taking the time to
respond and for the helpful suggestions.
Click to expand...

NEC cards tend to perform better than ALI, something more
important with removable drives than mere
mice/scanners/printers/etc, so you might consider trying a
different card, especially if you have the opportunity to
send that one back to the vendor. Is it possible the card
simply doesn't work? If you're not sure, you might try the
card in another system, one using another (different)
WIndows version would be preferable too.
 
kony said:
On 15 Aug 2005 23:05:27 -0700, "Mr. Land"



No, it doesn't matter. Get the most current driver from NEC
if windows doesn't get it up & running right.
Click to expand...

What I meant was: do any board brand names come to mind that are known
to use the NEC chips that you're recommending?
??
You may have a lot of problems then instead of one?
Generally anything that looks like an error, is, and you can
simply deal with all recent errors.
Click to expand...

Getting my event logs warning and error free is on my todo list.
What is it that you feel needs "configured", and why are you
presuming that a "configuration" is the problem? By all
accounts, you had the card installed and it showed up in
Device Manager, but then you deleted it a couple times.
Click to expand...

Well, in the past, when I've installed new PCI boards into an existing
system and had lockup problems, I've had success with enabling "Update
ESCD" in the BIOS and restarting. My understanding was that the BIOS
assigned IRQs to the PCI boards, and setting this "flag" told it to
rerun the assignment algorithm. So I felt that the IRQ-to-PCI
assignments needed to be reconfigured after adding the new board.


Realize that the problem may not directly be getting the
card working... was part of why I suggested trying OTHER USB
devices on it previously.

Regardless, power management requires the board bios be
capable in some cases and the driver as well. Instead of
asking further questions it would be more expedient (and
productive) to answer those questions posed ... there is no
point in making further suggestions if we dont' even know if
you tried the former or just decided not to try them.
Click to expand...

Well, I could hire someone to fix this, I suppose, but I'd like to try
to fix it myself and, in the process, hopefully learn something. That
is why I ask further questions.
Check Device Manager, System Devices (category). Is there
any mention of "ACPI" or APM?
Click to expand...

I will look as soon as I can.
So then *nothing* happens when you plug any/all devices into
the card's ports? No drive activity or notices onscreen?
Click to expand...

That's correct, nothing at all happens. No "new hardware found"
notifications, no new devices shown, nada. As I stated previously,
it's as if the ports were not actually connected to anything.
NEC cards tend to perform better than ALI, something more
important with removable drives than mere
mice/scanners/printers/etc, so you might consider trying a
different card, especially if you have the opportunity to
send that one back to the vendor. Is it possible the card
simply doesn't work? If you're not sure, you might try the
card in another system, one using another (different)
WIndows version would be preferable too.
Click to expand...

I have another system running XP, I think I might try that card in
there.

BTW if you're getting frustrated by my lack of knowledge, feel free to
stop responding, and I appreciate the help you've been generous enough
to provide up to this point.
 
I managed to get this working and thought I'd post my results in case
anyone else can benefit...

Swapped PCI slots...had to try a couple of different
combinations...seems as if the Ethernet card and the USB Host
Controller card had some bad interactions...found a combo that seems to
work.

Found, downloaded and installed updated ALi drivers...manually
configured the ALi-related devices to use these.

After these two steps, USB devices are properly ID'd and seem to work
fine. The only exception is an external 80GB Iomega portable drive
that's formatted NTFS. Win2K3 detects the drive OK, but doesn't see a
filesystem on it. But I think I have found the answer to this last
snag.

My thanks to those who took the time to keep me from veering too far
off of the right track!
 
Back
Top