P4C800 Deluxe problem with USB2/ Firewire external hard drive

[Rodney]

Hello.

I have an Iogear brand 40 GB external hard drive, which connects to my
computer via either a USB2 or Firewire port. The drive is currently
formatted as one NTFS partition. When using either the USB2 or firewire
connection option, writing data to the drive causes the system to hang.
This event usually occurs when copying a group of files or folders, or when
performing a system backup.

I believe the problem may be with my Asus P4C800 Deluxe motherboard. With
this motherboard installed, my system has always had a problem properly
recognizing and working with USB2 devices. As indicated in the most
recently updated BIOS, the motherboard is supposed to recognize up to 8 USB2
ports on my system, but ever since I've had this board, my system has not
been able to properly recognize a USB2 device when its plugged into any of
the available ports built into the board, or the two ports that are at the
front of my tower case.

I bought a USB2 PCI add-on card, and that seems to work OK, in that USB2
devices plugged into it are properly recognized. Using the add-on card, my
system does recognize the drive OK. But the drive still fails when writing
data to it. I believe it also fails when reading from the drive. I get a
"Write Delay Failed" error message when the failure occurs.

I've tested the drive on two other USB2 compatible computers, and it seems
to work fine on them. I recently RMA'd the drive back to Iogear. After a
week or so of testing, they returned the drive back to me to me as being OK.
They either repaired or replaced it, and they also sent me new USB2 and
firewire cables, and a new power cord. But it still fails to work right.
Connecting the drive to the computer via the firewire port results in the
same eroor message.

In the BIOS, I have the USB option set to recognize USB2 and at the Hi-Speed
setting (as opposed to the slower Full Speed).

I also have a new USB2 Epson color inkjet printer (Stylus Photo R300)
connected to the computer via my USB2 add-on card. So far, the printer
works fine on my system (knock on wood.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Rodney

 

[John Tindle]

Hmmmm
I have the same board and have no problems with the USB2 board connections.
My two front case ports however had to be exchanged by Antec as they were
not USB2 compliant.
Did you format the drive or was it pre-formatted. I would suggest that you
format the drive yourself while it is connected to a rear USB2 port.
I assume the cable came with the drive and is USB2 certified.....
Forget the VIA 1394 onboard Firewire. Nothing but trouble. (for me anyway)
My DV camera is connected now to an adaptec firewire card I added after many
frustrating hours with the VIA
What are your USB settings in the BIOS - there are a couple of transfer
rate settings that you might have to tweak...
My external MAxtor works like a charm....

JT..

 

[John Mitchell]

Does your drive have its own power supply or is it trying to get it from
the USB port? I found that my ports wouldn't supply much power and
installed a USB hub that is powered and all is well with external drives.
Hope this helps.

 

[Nickeldome]

Same here, no problems. I use a Maxtor Onetouch 300GB on usb & firwire.
The only thing is that the firewire seems slower than the usb2.0 wich
should be the other way around, but I heard the onboard chip is not
that great. Never had any read/write errors, tho. I suspect your Logear
might not be completely compatible with this board, or more likely, there
is something wrong with your P4C800. Because you've had problems
before with usb also. Have you tried different bios versions ? Try
1016 and up to be shure.

Nickeldome

 

[Rodney]

The Ion drive does have its own power supply.

Also, in response to the previous question of what my BIOS USB settings are,
I have the USB 2 controller enabled and set to High Speed. I also formatted
the drive myself to be NTFS, 40 GB (the drive's total capacity). The drive
came formatted as FAT with 2 partitions, 20 GB each.

Rodney

 

[Rodney]

I have the latest BIOS version of the board, but previous versions didn't
work with the drive either. Why would the drive not be compatible with the
motherboard?

Rodney

 

[John Tindle]

USB1/1.1/2 protocols are governed by set standards, and if the controller
and the device adhere to those standards then all should be well.
Assuming you have XP (SP 1or 2), your drive should work with no problem.
I've seen intermittent USB2 problems running Win2K though.
If your OS is XP, I'm sure the ASUS USB is not at fault. I would suspect
your drive.
As it is an external - take it to another PC and test it there. If it still
fails then you have your answer.
The Iogear drive is ATA-100. The drive enclosure contains a ATA to USB
controller - it might be this controller that is at fault.

JT