USB 2.0 I/O device error

[Nyuuji]

Good evening everyone. :)
I,m having difficulty with an external 80GB USB hard drive. When I connect it the pc recognises it in "My Computer" as H:drive, but when trying to click on it to access files, it freezes for about 5 secs, then says "H: drive is not accessible. Request could not be performed because of an I/O device error".
Its only started happnening since I reinstalled XP home a few weeks ago(system was getting boggish after 18 months of running).
Before that it was reading & writing to my boys mates external hard drive fine.
Have tested said external hard drive on 2 other pc's, and works perfectly.
Updated to latest motherboard driver, but did not make a change. Tried all 6 usb ports to no avail. Tried disabling anti-virus, no good. Tried doing it in safe mode, no good.
My mother board is Via P4MA Pro 533 series
http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/INTEL/P4MA-PRO533.aspx
Anyone else have any suggestions on what could be the cause?? :confused:

[Overdrive_5000]

I assume you reinstalled SP2 aswell ?

[Nyuuji]

Yes, installed SP2 also.
I also tried updating usb drivers via "Device manager", but said I had newest ones.

[Overdrive_5000]

What brand/model number is the drive ?

[Nyuuji]

Got it in Japan in Akihabara.
Its an Hitachi 2.5" external drive.
Model number says: IC25N080www.netcomdirect.com/hitr80088042.html (http://www.netcomdirect.com/hitr80088042.html)

[pctek]

Try it on another PC. Was it working before? (Just to eliminate the drive itself as the problem)

[godfather]

After reformatting did you reinstall the motherboard chipset drivers?

The default Windows ones may not be optimum.

[Nyuuji]

Have tested it on three seperate pc's other than mine.
Worked like a charm on all three.
(One system was Win XP, other two were Win 2000)

[Overdrive_5000]

You could always scan for viruses/spyware/adware etc and see if that makes a difference, probably wont but you never know

[Nyuuji]

Yes, reinstalled chipset drivers from Via motherboard site, and just updated to latest drivers again.
(Version - 4.56v,12 April 2005)

[Nyuuji]

I thougth also that maybe I had a bad spyware or something that could be blocking it, so did a scan woth AVG, then Microsofts antispyware, then Lavasofts Adaware. Came up clean.

[Murray P]

Any thing in Control Panel > Computer Management > Event Viwer.

Have a look at USB Man (http://www.usbman.com/), look at the sections on the left, there's also OS specific troubleshooting a little further down on the same side.

[Nyuuji]

Cleared the event viewer, then retried plugging in usb hard drive.
Over the space of 25 secs, there are about 49 events all with the excactly same entry written in them:
Warning- 15/5/05- (time) - disk- None - 51 - N/A - LOUNGEPC
Not sure what this means though :confused:
Will check out that site now

[Nyuuji]

Downloaded and installed latest drivers for usb from mobo site.
Still no progress.
Will check BIOS settings to see if they are what they should be according to USBMAN's website. :dogeye:

[BIFF]

Does the drive have a second cable for supplying additional power to the drive? If not, or you are not using the cable your USB ports may be unable to sufficiently power the device.

[Graham L]

That "event" message might be saying that the disk is not responding to commands quickly enough. This can happen if the disk isn't up to speed in time (or not running at all). That might indicate that the USB isn't supplying enough power for the motor. It is obviously giving enough for the electronics in the external drive, but that's probably 3.3V these days, while the motor will need the full 5V.

Have you (or can you borrow) a powered USB hub to try it with?

[Speedy Gonzales]

Are you using a USB 2 cable?? Not a USB 1.1 cable??

Using a USB 2 cable, would make a diff.

[Graham L]

A USB1.1 cable should just make it run at the lower speed. The USB communications are working ... the OS sees it there as a removable disk. It's just not getting data from it.

[Speedy Gonzales]

Well true but having the wrong cable may also cause probs.

[Nyuuji]

The cable is just one that came with the case. Dosent have anything written on it apart from that squigly fork-like symbol.
Case has "High-speed USB 2.0" written on it.
As far as power is concerned I know my PSU is 300W. On this I have P4 2.4, one 40GB drive, two optical drives, one low spec graphics card and one pci lan card. Too much?

[Nyuuji]

And the external hard drive has worked on three different pc's with its own cable, so I dont believe the cable to be faulty. :badpc:

[Murray P]

What Graham is suggesting, I think, is that the USB power spec rather than your PSU does not have herbs to the drive. Some things that require more than the bus can require their own supply, scanners and printers for eg. If the drive encolsure does not have it's own supply or a place to plug a power adapter in to it, the next thing to try would be a USB hub with it's own power suppy.

[Nyuuji]

And will ask mate if I can borrow his powered usb hub tomorrow.

Sherlock Holmes for some reason springs to mind....something about proccess of elimination leaving on the possible. :dogeye:

[Nyuuji]

Right then, borrowed mates powered 4-port USb hub, set it up and plugged into "high speed usb" 2.0 ports on back of pc. Worked a bit better, but data transfer was still terribly slow. Checked powered hub and noticed it is 1.1 (old) :o
The pc recognised external hard drive faster than before, but still really slow transfers.
Btw, did a complete system reinstall as old internal hard drive was making a deathly rattle sound. Like a marble in a match-box being shaken rapidly. :eek:
Even with fresh reinstall and updated drivers the problem continues.
Therefore....would it be better to get a powered external 4-port usb hub(2.0), or and internal pci usb card (4-port,2.0) in order to remedy this?

[Nyuuji]

Forgot to mention that I installed OS on new 200GB internal hard drive.

[Graham L]

"worked a bit better"? Surely if data transferred ( even if very slowly) that's a lot better. ;)

That seems to put the finger on the internal USB ports. There's probably a fuse on the motherboard, but it would (a) be soldered in, (b) very difficult to identify, (c) difficult to buy a replacement for.

Is the computer new enough for the warranty to still apply? If not, an internal card would be tidier than an external hub with its power brick and cable to add to the clutter.

[Nyuuji]

Purchased a 4-port USB 2.0 pci card. Unplugged old usb ports.
Fired it up, XP recognised new card ok and now transfers data at likety split speed. :D