USB Hub Not Working

[Susan]

Good Morning - I really hope somebody can suggest a "fix" for my
problem. My USB Hub was working perfectly until yesterday. Suddenly it
just does not function.

Two things happened the day before it stopped working :
1.Windows did an automatic update and fixed some security flaws;
2.We installed an External Hard Disk USB 2.0

Thanks so much for any ideas - Susan

 

[Wayne Wengert]

You might try disconnecting that new USB HDD to see if it is causing the
problem?

Wayne

 

[Susan]

You might try disconnecting that new USB HDD to see if it is causing the
problem?

Wayne

No, Wayne - disconnecting it does not help. If I plug a peripheral
such as webcam, directly into the USB socket, it works. But not
through the hub. I also cannot get the HDD to recognise any USB drive
so naturally it will not function. When I do a USB Interface check for
the HDD, it comes up with "Improved Host Intel 82801 DB/DBM USB 2".
This is a translation of what it says as I have a French XP system so
hope that this makes some kind of sense.

 

[DandyDon]

Is it a 'self powered' hub with it's own power supply?. Is the power status
light active?.
If a plug in hub, does it work on another machine or USB port?.

Here is some tips on troubleshooting USB devices.

Seems like problems with USB are a bread-and-butter Subject line in this
group.

I've had my share too.

Is there some basic flaw in MS's implementation?

Pete:
These USB non-recognition problems have been vexing all of us for some time
now. We've become increasingly convinced that the relatively large number of
problems in this area involving the non-recognition of USB devices that
we've all been experiencing is an indication that there is something
seriously flawed with respect to either the USB 2.0 specifications, possibly
involving quality control issues affecting the manufacturer of these USB
devices as well as supporting components such as motherboards and other
USB-related components. Then too, we've become increasingly suspicious of
the XP OS as it relates to its recognition of and interaction with these USB
2.0 devices.

We have encountered far too many unexplained problems affecting
detection/recognition of these devices and their erratic functioning not to
believe that something is seriously amiss in this area.

We continually encounter situations where a USB 2.0 device - generally
involving a flash drive or USB external hard drive, will work perfectly fine
in one machine and not in another. And, in far too many cases, we're unable
to determine why this is so since we're unable to detect any
hardware/software problem in the balking machine that would cause this
non-recognition effect.

We've put together a more-or-less checklist for troubleshooting these
problems that (hopefully) may be of some value to users encountering this
type of problem...

1. Access Disk Management and see if the USB device is listed. If so, and
there's no drive letter assigned, see if you can assign a drive letter to
the device.
2. If the USB device is listed in Disk Management with an assigned drive
letter, right-click on its listing and select Explore from the submenu.
Hopefully, Windows Explorer will open and the device will be listed.
3. Connect the USB device *directly* to a USB port on the computer, not via
a USB hub. Try different USB ports should your computer have multiple ports.
4. Avoid using a USB extension cable.
5. Try connecting a USB device (that does not contain an auxiliary power
supply) to a USB port both before and after the boot operation.
6. Try alternate powering on/off methods. If the USB device contains its own
power supply, try booting up with its power on, then try powering on only
*after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
7. Try a different USB cable.
8. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
9. If the device in question is a HDD which you installed in a USB
enclosure, jumper the USB external HDD as Master (or Single if the HDD is a
Western Digital disk). A number of users have reported that jumper
configuration corrected their non-recognition problem. In my own experience
it didn't seem to matter how a USB external HDD was jumpered. But it may be
worth a try.
10. If the device in question is a USB external HDD, first check out the HDD
with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. If it checks out OK,
and you can remove the HDD from its enclosure (without voiding any
applicable warranty), do so and install the HDD as an internal HDD to
determine if there are problems with the drive.
11. If the USB device is connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card, try changing the
PCI slot to which it's currently connected to another one.
12. Access the website of the manufacturer of the USB device to determine if
there's any firmware update or info re the problem you're experiencing or
there's any possibility that the USB enclosure itself might be defective.
13. Determine from the manufacturer of your motherboard whether there's a
BIOS upgrade affecting USB device recognition.
Anna

I hope these tips help.

 

[Susan]

Gosh - thanks so very much for all the valuable information! Looks
like we are going to have a busy few days testing it all out to locate
the exact source of the problem.
I will come back singing and dancing with delight to let you all know
when it has been sorted out and I can get the external HDD up and
running, not to mention the flash drive and camera and all the other
little goodies that get plugged into the hub.

 

[Susan]

I have now managed to get the hub working and plugged the external HDD
into it. A message indicating that a new peripheral device had been
found popped up, the peripheral was loaded successfully and all seemed
fine.
Although the HDD appears in the list of peripherals in the USB
configuration, it does not have a letter assigned to it and I cannot
find any way of doing this.
Now we have solved most of the problems of getting the darned thing to
run, this is my FINAL HURDLE.
Once again, any suggestions please on how to forcibly assign a letter
to the drive? Without this of course, the HDD will not function as it
needs to have a valid drive letter to know where to save the data.
Thanks - Susan

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

Although the HDD appears in the list of peripherals in the USB
configuration, it does not have a letter assigned to it and I cannot
find any way of doing this.

See if this article applies:
"How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313348