USB storage drive constantly reconnecting

[I4AT]

My 500gb USB drive has started giving me problems recently, it consistently disconnects and reconnects running through autoplay all over again every minute or so. Every once in a while a Windows balloon will pop up in the taskbar with a 'delayed write failure' message.

This only recently started, it's a new machine and when I first set up XP I used the drive to pull off several files like graphics drivers etc., some files over 4gb in size, without any issues. I've also hooked the drive up to another computer and transfered large files for about 10 minutes just to make sure the drive itself wasn't the problem and all went well.

The motherboard is a DFI P965-S which uses a Jmicron IDE controller. I found some 'drivers' at the Jmicron website, but when trying to install them it says no compatible chipset was found and quits. The drivers XP installed for my disk controller are dated 7/1/2001.

Anybody else run into this issue and have success fixing it?

 

[robisbell]

verify the USB isn't being shut off after a certain amount of inactvity, and that also all HDD are not powering down after a certain amount of time.

 

[Fardringle]

Since you said that the drive works fine on another computer, it has to be something wrong with this one computer. Check the power management settings as Rob suggested to make sure you don't have them set to turn disk drives off after just a few minutes.

Are you using the same USB cable on both computers? If not, use the cable from the computer where the drive works and see if the problem persists.

Try a different USB port on the computer. If you are using a port on the front, use one on the back. If you are using a port on the back, try one on the front (if you have them). If you only have USB ports on the back, try a different port there and see if the problem persists.

Do you have any other USB devices like a thumb drive or USB mouse? If so, do you get the same erratic performance from them as well, or just from this external hard drive?

 

[cubby1223]

First, do not install drivers unless they are (1) provided by the motherboard's manufacturer, or (2) you are sure you know what you're doing. Second, the motherboard's ide controller has absolutely nothing to do with the usb ports. Third, pci usb cards are dirt cheap, and will confirm if the problem is hardware or software.

 

[I4AT]

I did use the same USB cable when I tried the drive on the other computer, where would I find the power settings robisbell mentioned? Under the power settings in the screensaver tab hard drives are set to never power off, but I'm not sure where I would find USB power settings. Also the drive does disconnect and reconnect in the middle of a file transfer, so I'm not so sure it could be due to inactivity.

I am using the front USB ports on my case, I tried both of em when the problem first started happening, then I shut down and switched the internal cable to another USB header on the motherboard and tried them both again and still had the same problem. I haven't actually tried any of the rear ports yet because the cable I have is rather small (it's a mini-B to type A cable) but I will try that later to see what happens.

I figured the IDE controller could have something to do with it because the problem mainly happens in the middle of a file transfer, but then again I think the drive has reconnected itself after just sitting idle for a few minutes, so maybe you're right cubby.

I'll dig around for some other USB devices, I think I have a USB card reader somewhere, and I'll try switching my mouse/keyboard to the front ports and see what happens. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[I4AT]

Little update, I hooked my PSP up to the front USB ports and had the same issue when trying to copy files over to the hard drive. Then I moved my mouse from the back to the front and I'm using it now so far without issue. Moved the PSP to the rear port that my mouse used to be in and had the same problem when trying to move files. So I guess it definitely is a software related issue, and seems to occur only with bandwidth intensive USB peripherals... Any ideas?

 

[robisbell]

under device manager.

 

[cubby1223]

Sometimes it still is the motherboard screwing up, I've seen a brand new laptop with all usb slots intermittently working, and a pcmcia usb card worked flawlessly. In which case, still try out a pci usb card.

Otherwise, I would run a repair install of Windows, sometimes fixes issues like that if it's purely a software problem.

 

[Lozzo]

I'd suggest the USB ports in your new computer have not got quite enough grunt, powerwise, to power your external drive. Have you got the option to plug an external PSU to your external drive? If so, try that and see if that clears it up.

Not all USB ports are created equal, y'see. Some motherboards are more tolerant of higher-powered USB devices than others.

 

[I4AT]

Went into device manager as robisbell suggested and found some power related options under USB Root Hub, unticked all instances of 'allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' and the problem still persisted.

I'm really hoping it's not the motherboard that's faulty, so I'm gonna have to reformat as a last resort just to be sure. Not sure if I have any USB 2.0 cards on hand.

The drive is actually using an external power source already, so that should be out of the equation.

 

[I4AT]

Ok, I just got done reformatting and I've narrowed the problem down to the chipset drivers for my motherboard...

Right after installing XP I once again hooked up the USB drive and pulled off my graphics drivers, wireless card drivers, Firefox, Flash etc., and Steam .GCF files that come out to about 6.25GB in size without any problems.

I installed the chipset drivers first and rebooted, hooked the USB drive up again, and wasn't even able to move a file ~2GB in size before the drive disconnected and reconnected. So there I found my problem.

Unfortunately, the setup file gives me no control over what gets installed, and it also doesn't leave me any way to remove any of those files either, so I think I'm going to have to reformat again and just do without the chipset drivers altogether.

What's interesting is, I went into the device manager and disabled the 'USB2 Enhanced Host Controller', so now the drive is operating at USB 1.0 speeds but is able to transfer the same file that couldn't be moved before, albeit very slowly. It took about 50 minutes for the transfer to complete when it'd take about 2 minutes using USB 2.0.

Here's a screenshot of my device manager, could there be some conflict between the USB drivers Windows installed and the Intel ones?

 

[Lozzo]

Fair enough, that rules out power issues then!

Can you not "rollback" the driver in device manager?

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: I4AT
Ok, I just got done reformatting and I've narrowed the problem down to the chipset drivers for my motherboard...

It still doesn't rule out a hardware fault. And I also have the feeling that you'll have the same issues with a pci usb controller.

 

[I4AT]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: I4AT
Ok, I just got done reformatting and I've narrowed the problem down to the chipset drivers for my motherboard...

It still doesn't rule out a hardware fault. And I also have the feeling that you'll have the same issues with a pci usb controller.

Sigh, I'm back again and I think you're right cubby. The problem has again resurfaced, even without the chipset drivers installed, they just seem to make it a lot worse. I'm guessing the USB controller on this board is on its last legs, which is a shame because everything else seems to be running strong. I bought this board as part of a combo in FS/T, and I already got a refund on the RAM which was acting up, I'd hate to have to PM him again a few days later and tell him the board is now giving me trouble. What a PITA.

 

[I4AT]

Did a quick Google search and found:
1
2
3
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5
separate threads on one forum regarding USB issues with the P965-S...

I was going to RMA the board thinking it was flaking out, but one user reported that he went through with an RMA and received another board with the exact same problem, so that would probably be a waste of my time and money. Some people claim bumping the SB voltage to 1.6v fixed the problem, and others said that did nothing, so I guess I'll give it a try and see what happens. I hate to raise voltages above stock, but USB support is really something I can't do without. Supposedly there were a few BIOS updates to address USB issues but none of them actually fixed anything, I'm running the latest official BIOS 9-4-07.

 

[robisbell]

I'd contact DFI and see if they'll replace the mobo (if it's under warranty) with a equivalent model since the model has some serious issues they've failed to address.

 

[I4AT]

Yeah that sounds like a good idea, I might try that but I'm not holding my breath. Hopefully raising the SB voltage will at least provide some sort of stability until I can either get a new board or DFI gets their shit together and fixes it. Thanks to everyone for all the help/replies.