RC2 - External USB2 Drives not working properly

  • Thread starter Thread starter Russell
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Russell

Just moved from RC1 to RC2 and a couple of nagging problems are still present:

1) I use external USB drives to store digital photos and the drive is not being
recognized unless I reboot the computer with the USB2 drive connected. Works
fin with XP-Pro SP2. When I turn on the drive in Vista RC2 (and previously RC1)
nothing happens. If I reboot the drive appears. I also have a Sandisk CF card
reader that does work properly. I hoped that RC2 might resolve the issue but
it's still there. Any ideas what might be causing this behaviour?

Intel DP965LT mobo / Core2Duo E6600

2) In the Device Manager there's an entry for a 'PCI Simple Communications
Controller' that's missing its driver. But this motherboard does not have a
built-in modem ?? Is this someway connected with the 1st problem?

Thanks

Russell
 
Hi Russell,
I have been using RC1 and now RC2 (on two computers) with both external USB
drives and Camera cards with no problems. I did do anything special after the
install. I know this doesn't help your problem but at least for some systems
it appears to work.
 
Hi Russell,
I have been using RC1 and now RC2 (on two computers) with both external USB
drives and Camera cards with no problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul. I submitted a beta report to MS. My suspicion is that
it's an issue with the Intel motherboard drivers. There have been
issues with XP as well..

Russell
 
This may or may not be the same problem, but I have times when my external
isn't being recognized and I have to switch in OFF and back ON again and
then it works. I should probably *bug* it, huh?
 
I use external USB drives to store digital photos and the drive is not being
recognized unless I reboot the computer with the USB2 drive connected.
Click to expand...

I've found the cause and a woraround.

The External USB drives are connected to the PC via a Hub. If I
connect a drive to the PC's USB port directly it works fine. When
connected via the Hub it is not recognized unless I *Disable* and then
re-*Enable* the Hub in the Device manager (Generic USB Hub under
Universal Serial Bus Controllers).

If I switch the drive off and then on again it's not recognized unless
I repeat the disable/enable of the Hub in the Device Manager. It's an
easy fix that I can live with. But it would seem that Vista does not
like this USB Hub and perhaps others.

Russell
 
1) I use external USB drives to store digital photos and the drive is not being
recognized unless I reboot the computer with the USB2 drive connected.
Click to expand...

Problem solved -> the new DP965LT motherboard was defective.

The floppy drive controller was found to be defective when I tried to use it as
part of an XP Backup. The drive appeared in My Computer and claimed to be
"working properly" but as I rarely use floppys I was unaware of this additional
problem. The shop where I go tested it and agreed that the mobo was defective
and the 1st one they've seen with a defect (they've been building a LOT of
systems with 965 Intel boards).

With the new motherboard the whole system *feels* better and all the USB issues
disappeared in Vista as well as in XP. ie: a Bytecc 'USB.2.0 Drive Mate' used
to take about 30-60 seconds for an attached IDE drive to be recognized. It now
appears in 4-8 seconds as one would expect.

It's a bummer to have a defective mobo that seems to work but exhibits small
issues that make you wonder if it's the OS install, a driver, the device
itself...

All is now well :-)

Russell
 
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