USB 2.0 installed in an compaq presario

[jemmett]

I recently purchased a new USB 2.0+ Firewire 1394 Combo PCI Card from
ebay for super cheap. It was from some random company and I already
threw away the box. The firewire works fine, but I can't get the USB
2.0 to work.

1. Are these super cheap USB 2.0 drives available on ebay as reliable
as any other?

2. Can these PCI cards be installed on any motherboard? I am using a
4 year old Compaq Presario.

 

[kony]

I recently purchased a new USB 2.0+ Firewire 1394 Combo PCI Card from
ebay for super cheap. It was from some random company and I already
threw away the box. The firewire works fine, but I can't get the USB
2.0 to work.

1. Are these super cheap USB 2.0 drives available on ebay as reliable
as any other?

Any basic PCI card is cheap to make and cutting out
middlemen or overhead can make it cheap to buy... but it
could be made well or poorly, the latter more likely on
stuff found on ebay.

It's probably fine and the main issue is which chipset and
the quality (and support) from the chipset manufacturer
regarding drivers.

2. Can these PCI cards be installed on any motherboard? I am using a
4 year old Compaq Presario.

Sure. I have to wonder why you'd throw away the box before
you even had it working, but regardless, didn't it come with
a driver CD? Perhaps that's unimportant, your best bet is
to take the card out, write down the markings on the chipset
(largest chip(s) on it), and go to that chip manufacturer's
website and get the latest driver version.

It might be possible your problem is not the card or driver
but windows itself... after you try the newest driver from
the chip manufacturer, if it's still not working then report
back exactly what happens, first sign of a problem during
installation or whatever, and what Device Manager shows for
the card and your USB entries. It might also help to know
more about this Compaq system like the motherboard and how
many (USB 1.1?) ports it supports natively, built-in or via
unused pin-headers on the board.

 

[jiggle it]

Ok, I did as you said. The chip has this written on it

ali
m5271 a1
0504 ts05
eka48951000c1

and I updated to the latest ali m5271 driver. I also updated my bios
to the latest update. I decided to work with my Dell Dimension instead
of the compaq. Here is the configuration as I found it on the Dell
website

1 01YRJ PROCESSOR, 80526, 733, 256, 133, FIBER CHANNEL, B0
1 7157X CARD (CIRCUIT), PLANAR (MOTHERBOARD), W/VID/CAP, DIMENSION,
LXXXCXR
1 5120P CORD, POWER, 125V, 6FT, SPT2, UNSHIELDED
1 2811D MOUSE, PERSONAL SYSTEM 2, 6P, 2BTN, WHEEL, LOGITECH
1 2317Y PAD, MOUSE, DIMENSION, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION
1 463CD KEYBOARD, 104, 6P, UNITED STATES, NMB, RUBBERDOME, SMALL BOX
1 3395D DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 256, 100M, 32X64, 4K, 168
1 2709D ASSEMBLY, CABLE, IDE-2, 2DROP, DAVINCI
1 8300V COMPACT DISK DRIVE, 128K, I, 5.25" FORM FACTOR, 20/48X, LITEON
1 8506P KIT, SPEAKER, MULTI-MEDIA, 120V60H, ACS340
1 181UR CARD (CIRCUIT), MULTI-MEDIA, AUDIO, CRTV-4780, FRONT AUDIO JACK
1 57589 CABLE, AUDIO, MOLEX TO MOLEX
1 688EN DISPLAY, MULTISCAN, COLOR, 17, DUAL, M781S, DELL AMERICAS
ORGANIZATION
1 6709D ASSEMBLY, CABLE, FLOPPY DRIVE, 1DROP, DAVINCI
1 9886C FLOPPY DRIVE, 1.44M, 3.5" FORM FACTOR, 3MD, NO BEZEL, NEC
CORPORATION
1 3828D ASSEMBLY, CABLE, ATA66, 1DROP, DAVINCI
1 49EKD HARD DRIVE, 20G, I, 7.2K, ATA100, 3.5" FORM FACTOR, WD-INV
1 818WD KIT, SOFTWARE, NAV-MLNM, 5.25" FORM FACTOR, ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT
MFGR., ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 3357U KIT, SOFTWARE, WKS-STE2K, 5.25" FORM FACTOR, ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT
MFGR., ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 74UMJ CARD (CIRCUIT), NETWORK, ETHERNET, PC INTERFACE, 3C905C, 8 PIN
PHONE CONNECTOR
1 01XDG KIT, SOFTWARE, AOL5.0, BACKUP, 1YR, 5.25" FORM FACTOR, UNITED
STATES

Once I installed the driver and bios, I plugged in a usb 2 device.
When I plugged it in, i get the message in XP that this device can
perform faster and it shows that 'There are no high-speed USB host
controllers installed on thsi computer'. The original computer has 2
usb slots on the back of the computer.

In device manager there are two entries for USB Controller the tree
looks like this

USB Controller
- ALi PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controlloer
- USB 2.0 Root Hub
USB Controller
- ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
- ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
- ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
- Generic USB Hub
- Intel(R) 82801AA USB Universal Host Controller
- USB composite device
- USB composite device
- USB mass storage device
- USB printing support
- USB Root Hub
- USB Root Hub
- USB Root Hub
- USB Root Hub

btw, I have a usb kvm swith with a printer plugged into that with a usb
keyboard and mouse coming out of it.

 

[jiggle it]

I have screwed with this for hours to no avail. I updated the bios,
used some suggestions from here
http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/370832-solved-windows-doesnt-recognize-usb-2-0-a.html
and still nothing!

 

[kony]

I have screwed with this for hours to no avail. I updated the bios,
used some suggestions from here
http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/370832-solved-windows-doesnt-recognize-usb-2-0-a.html
and still nothing!

have you been to windowsupdate and sought newer drivers?

Something not yet clear- you wrote USB 2 doesn't work, BUT
does it work at all? That is, if you plug a USB 2 or USB1
device into the card, does that device at least work in USB1
mode, for example a keyboard or mouse, printer or whatever?

If so, I'd expect it's a windows config issue.

 

[jiggle it]

When I plug in a mouse, it works fine. But, when I plug in my new
canon rebel eos (with usb 2 support), it recognizes it, but it can't
pull off the images, and the camera freezes up

 

[jiggle it]

also, before I updated the bios and tried a million things it would do
this

when I plug in a usb2 device it would say, 'this device can perform
faster', then you click on that and it would pull up a box that says
something like 'There are no high-speed usb ports available on this
computer'

now when I do the same thing, it says 'this device can perform faster',
but then it pulls up a dialog box that shows 6 available high speed
ports