RC2 - External USB2 Drives not working properly

[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

 

[Guest]

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.

 

[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.

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

 

[Jeff Daly]

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?

 

[Russell]

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.

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

 

[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.

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