front USB ports

[Guest]

Hello,

I have an Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard:

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=0&model=1138&modelmenu=1

I have installed 2 X 1gig sticks of DDR2 ram and an AMD 2X 3800 CPU plus 1 X
DVDRW drive and 1 X 320gig WD SATA2 drive. I am using the onboard video and
sound as well as have all the USB and Firewire ports enabled. I do not have
anyother devices in the machine. The machine also has a 500w PSU.

My problem is with the front USB ports on my case. When I run a memory
stick from them there are no problems, however, when I try and connect a
120gig Samsung 2.5" drive in an unpowered external case, the speed of file
transfers drop to almost zero. (definately not USB2 speeds). Thinking
that it may be a power problem, I plugged this external drive into the
motherboard's rear USB ports and it runs at the expected USB2 speed without
a hitch. I have checked to ensure that the PC case's front USB port
connectors are correctly plugged into the motherboard's internal USB2
connectors.

Is there anything I can do to fix the front USB ports??

Thanks,
Shane

 

[Rod Speed]

I have an Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard:

I have installed 2 X 1gig sticks of DDR2 ram and an AMD 2X 3800 CPU
plus 1 X DVDRW drive and 1 X 320gig WD SATA2 drive. I am using the
onboard video and sound as well as have all the USB and Firewire
ports enabled. I do not have anyother devices in the machine. The
machine also has a 500w PSU.

Where did the front usb ports come from ? Did they come with the case ?

My problem is with the front USB ports on my case. When I run a
memory stick from them there are no problems, however, when I try and
connect a 120gig Samsung 2.5" drive in an unpowered external case,
the speed of file transfers drop to almost zero. (definately not
USB2 speeds). Thinking that it may be a power problem, I plugged
this external drive into the motherboard's rear USB ports and it runs
at the expected USB2 speed without a hitch. I have checked to
ensure that the PC case's front USB port connectors are correctly
plugged into the motherboard's internal USB2 connectors.

Is there anything I can do to fix the front USB ports??

Check that you have got them plugged into the motherboard header
properly, using the correct pins. Try a better set of front usb ports.

 

[Guest]

Rob,

The ports came with the case. I have just re-checked the connections and
all seems ok in that area. When I use my 1gig USB key there are no
problems. However,
I just tried the external drive and, although it is recognised by the PC,
takes an abnormally long time to to configure itself. during the recognition
process. It is as if it is running at USB1 speeds. Thanks for the
feedback.

Shane

 

[Guest]

I have just tried the front ports with a powered USB external drive and it
functions ok (i.e at the expected USB2 speeds for file transfers). It
seems that the ports are not capable of providing enough power to the
un-powered external drive. If that is the case, why can the ports on the
rear of the motherboard can power the unpowered external drive and the
internal ports cannot?

Shane

 

[Clint]

That's interesting... I've seen some similar behavior with portable hard
drives on some other ASUS boards, but the drives were plugged into the rear
ports. But when monitoring the CPU utilization when copying the files onto
the drives, it seems to me the processor was almost spiked, which seemed
really odd to me at the time. I don't have my drive here to test right now,
but I'll watch this thread, and try it on Tuesday. I didn't test with a USB
memory drive, however.

Clint

 

[Rod Speed]

The ports came with the case. I have just re-checked the connections
and all seems ok in that area. When I use my 1gig USB key there are
no problems. However,
I just tried the external drive and, although it is recognised by the
PC, takes an abnormally long time to to configure itself. during the
recognition process. It is as if it is running at USB1 speeds.

You'll probably find that it cant deliver the full 5V
to the drive at the current those drives need.

have just tried the front ports with a powered USB external drive and it
functions ok (i.e at the expected USB2 speeds for file transfers). It seems
that the ports are not capable of providing enough power to the un-powered
external drive.

Yep, and that isnt that unusual with the front USB ports that come with cases.

If that is the case, why can the ports on the rear of the motherboard can
power the unpowered external drive and the internal ports cannot?

Most likely the pcb traces on the pcb that has the front USB ports
soldered to it are too thin and so it cant deliver the full 500mA
that the port is supposed to be able to supply without a significant
sag in the 5V line in the USB port. Or that unpowered case actually
needs more than the 500mA specified, and the rear ports can do that.
Quite a few of those unpowered cases take more than 500mA and
some come with a second USB cable so you can get power from
more than one USB port to be able to supply that.

Thanks for the feedback.

No problem, thats what these technical groups are about.

 

[visions of effty]

I have just tried the front ports with a powered USB external drive and it
functions ok (i.e at the expected USB2 speeds for file transfers). It
seems that the ports are not capable of providing enough power to the
un-powered external drive. If that is the case, why can the ports on the
rear of the motherboard can power the unpowered external drive and the
internal ports cannot?

Shane

I think this is a general problem with unpowered external USB drives. You
nailed it. It just takes forever. It kinda defeats the purpose of having
such a drive larger than 40 gigs or so.

I'm sure some are better than others, but I've had a few such drives and
they're always slower than molasses. For some applications that's fine, but
if you're impatient a powered drive is really the way to go.

The benefit of not having that extra plug is really the only benefit.

~e.

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Rob,

The ports came with the case. I have just re-checked the connections and
all seems ok in that area. When I use my 1gig USB key there are no
problems. However,
I just tried the external drive and, although it is recognised by the PC,
takes an abnormally long time to to configure itself. during the recognition
process. It is as if it is running at USB1 speeds. Thanks for the
feedback.

Shane

Check the 5 volt supply of the disk, those
5volt disks are very particular about that,
at 4.8 they might refuse to work, or become
unreliable. Connecting a supply with 5.2 volts
cured my problems.

 

[Sjouke Burry]

I have just tried the front ports with a powered USB external drive and it
functions ok (i.e at the expected USB2 speeds for file transfers). It
seems that the ports are not capable of providing enough power to the
un-powered external drive. If that is the case, why can the ports on the
rear of the motherboard can power the unpowered external drive and the
internal ports cannot?

Shane

Longer wires, and an already marginal 5 volts.
Also maybe a diffence in connector quality.