Hello everyone, this is my first post.. I'm from brazil and I've been having a very annoying issue!

I have an Athlon XP 1700+, Shuttle AK32A (MOBO), 512 DDR (266Mhz), 40Gb maxtor, 40gb Samsung, GeForce FX 5200.. it's a pretty basic system.. but I've found myself with a problem.. Since my motherboard only has two standard USB connectors(not counting the extras).. I ran out of ports. So I decided to buy two, two ports extra connectors.. they are connected to the extra 2 usb connectors on the mobo. So I installed them and nothing happened! =/ .. I booted up the system and the usb devices connected to these new ports were unrecongnized.. I went to the Device manager at Windows and it did "recognize" the extra ports.. but it said that none device was connected to it... It measured the amount of energy it could go to the port and everything.. but it did not detect any device.. So I went to the ViaTech website and first I've downloaded the USB 1.1 Filter Patch.. the same happened.... tried again downloading the USB 2.0 Patch... but still have the same problem.. anyone has ever faced this!?!?!? please someone could help me!?

Is there a bios setting to enable the extra ports?

Yes there is. I've choosen "All enabled" what I'm going to do right now is to select only the first and second ports.. might work....

nothing! =/

Have you checked Shuttle's site for any updates, FAQ's and such?

Are you sure the extra connectors are compatible with your mobo? Did you plug them in the right way?

I dunno about newer motherboards but with older ones the wiring of the extra USB pins was not the same every time.

Check the pin connections on your port, and compare to those on the mainboard. Make sure they match.

I just checked Shuttle's site and other than a November bios flash release (which seems simply for compatibility) I can't find any other info......your best best thus far is checking out Nic's idea and also the cables/connectors your using. Did they come with the motherboard?

Well.. I've checked the Shuttle/VIA webpage for any questions, faqs or updates, haven't found anything that match my problem. I've now downloaded the Bios update from Shuttle, but at my first attempt it said the file had the wrong size.. I'm going to try a little bit later.

About the pin connectors.. at first I connected them as regular as they came. That would be.

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10

1-6 +5v
2-7 -Usb
3-8 +usb
4-9 grnd
5-10 grnd

. nothing happened so I went to the manual and found the right configuration...

1 2 3 4 5
10 9 8 7 6

1-6 +5v
2-7 -Usb
3-8 +usb
4-9 grnd
5-10 grnd
..
changed the pins connectors and then tried again.. Grrrr nothing happened... the USB Root Devices are well recognized on Device MAnager.. they recognize everything, i've tried to use the newest, some older, and WindowsXP pattern USB Root and USB Controllers..

lol.. I Can't believe I'm going crazy for some USB Cables

Are you trying with several USB devices? The first time when you got the pins wrong you could have fried your USB device.

oh oh =/ ... that would be bad.. but if they had fried.. would they be detected inside the Device Manager?

You need to compare/match the signals (+5v, -usb, +usb, gnd, gnd), not the pin numbers (i.e. match +5v on mobo pin to +5v on connector pin, etc). Double check everything to make sure its correct.

yes i've done that. .and they perfectly match!