Strange Kingston USB issue

@Ritwik
First, let me thank you for letting Archean and I hijack your thread!

Looking at the image again, i notice that first "connector" is actually beige not gold. So i suspect you're right as it appears after a second glance at the pic there's not any electrical contacts on it.

But i'll double check when i get around to opening up the desktop to try a different card. And I'll also check the PSU. Thx

Well I've taken the 'unwanted' step of buying a 2GB DDR2 stick to replace the dead one and I hope this coming weekend I will find some free time to do this installation.

An attempt to commiserate.... An update (and some questions) re: my graphics card issues.

Last i left off, i had applied a BIOS update and could no longer install either the old or new Radeon drivers under Win 7 for the XFX Radeon 5450 i just bought (the old one on CD nor newer found on their support website)

1. I ran DriverSweeper tool to cleanout any driver pieces and then re-seated the card. Partial success! I now came back came back to my original problem: Sound playback over HDMI is losing the 1st second of sound (so short system sounds weren't being heard but music/video/long wav files could be heard).

2. I ran out and got an ASUS ENGT220 1GB DDR2 but discovered its low profile bracket wouldn't fit my Dell Optiplex 360 desktop. Their PCI-E card fits dell's chassis slot, but it uses a bracket needing 2 slots to expose its 3 external connections (slot 1-HDMI & DVI, slot2-VGA) but their 2-slot bracket doesn't fit the layout/cutouts in Dell's cage! Grrrr...

3. I just put in a Zotac Geoforce 210 512MB DDR2. Booted in Win7, installed drivers and got great picture and perfect sound!!!!!! But when i boot to XP and install the drivers, the screen now looks like crap on my 1080x720p Samsung UN22C4000. (Tho screen looks great when its installed and running in my Win7 boot!! any sense?)

So i'm thinking of maybe next using Radeon's single slot low-profile bracket with the ASUS card. The "bolts" that secure the bracket around the HDMI/DVI ports are OK but using the non-ASUS bracket will mean i can't use the extra screw that secures the bracket to the card (in addition to the "bolts"... Any thoughts if the screw is really needed? (ASUS and Radeon use the screw. I see Zotac doesn't use it when the low profile bracket is being used)

And any idea why the Zotac looks like crap under XP???? I guess i'll double check the XP drivers tomorrow when i have the energy and will to spend more time on this pain-in-the-$$$!

Did you uninstalled 'previously installed graphic drivers' before installing the newer graphic card and its drivers in XP? Just in case some thing from that may be causing this glitch, as if the card works perfectly in one OS, it should work in another one as well.

I think if you don't use the screws, the cards will move around a bit in the slot, and may cause you issues at some point.

Need for 'up-gradation/customization etc.' is one reason I never bothered to have a look at 'branded' desktops let alone buying one.

Yea, I agree and think i already knew that when i asked the question! I was just too tired and grumpy at that point and it was just wishful thinking! :rolleyes:

Further indication of just how tired i was... Turns out the reason for the crappy screen display in XP resulted from
1. The driver defaulted to wrong screen resolution
2. When i manually adjusted it, i managed to pick a different and still wrong resolution!

That'll teach me to work on things when i'm way too tired! LOL

Something new
Something i've observed with both graphics cards and wonder if you might have also seen in Win7 (haven't checked if same for XP).... If i let my computer go into Standby, I can wake it up with the mouse (i can see disk and other light activity) but the HDMI port (maybe the entire addon card?) seems to remain asleep. i have to reboot to get HDMI back.

I haven't observed this issue, but then again I don't have HDMI port on this Radeon, it has two display ports and one dvi port.

Anyway ...... good to know that it was rather 'minor' issue with regard to resolution

Post Withdrawn.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\LogLevel
The value for installed (usb working) system is: 2000ff00
The value for newly installed (usb not working) system is: 2000ff00

Please note that I also applied the change in value recommended by you but nothing doing.

Then I did something which I should have been bit careful to do, i.e. apply those Huawei firmware update you suggested. The update went well but the device stopped working afterwards .... so now I have effectively bricked the USB device, unless I can find the right firmware update for my region, i.e. Pakistan. I have bought a new one, but there is incentive in fixing the old device (at least restoring its firmware to what it was) and that is my wireless broadband provider will take back the device and refund me 70% of the device cost. Any suggestions will be welcomed in this regard. Also I will try to see whether Huawei have also released firmware updates for my region/country as soon as I get some time.

Lastly, WLL (service provider) has told me that the newer device I got have the updated firmware, therefore, it will work right out of the box with windows 7, lets see what happens though, when I plug it in some win7 machine which doesn't have had wireless connection configured beforehand. Regards

That sounds like the Windows default value for that key

When you apply the recommended value, i would expect to see lots of log file activity IF the device manager is involved (e.g. installing or uninstalling). If you saw no log file activity when you ran the Win7 update it must have done just the firmware. Or if it also changed any driver files (e.g. simply replacing files) it didn't invoke any device manager install or uninstall functions. (btw.. i believe the default value may also generate some, tho just a bit, of logfile activity vs. the one i recommended)

If you set the value i recommended and then try uninstalling/reinstalling your CD/DVD drive as a test case you should see lots of log file activity.

Ugh! Am so sorry. I certainly didn't expect it to brick your device either. As mentioned before, I couldn't recall where i first found that patch (tho i know it would have been from what i thought was a reliable site) But I searched for the patch name Windows-7-Upgrade-Patch-for-Huawei-EC168C now and I find

• Patch file, at least based on the name, may be from Tata India? Maybe this Win7 patch is all firmware that's unique to Tata?
• I also now find this MS Windows 7 update. (I don't recall having seen this hit the last time i went looking)

I'll try to see if can find anything from WLL Pakistan for your Huawei

That is alright, we were trying to learn the reasons of this issue and in the process find a way to fix the issue. Hence, absolutely no need for being sorry

I have also contacted someone in WLL's IT department, which handle such issues, and the guy has promised me to send the appropriate firmware update/driver asap.

Having said that, I have also looked around for any updates from Huawei for WLL but no luck so far. Thanks and Regards

Update:
They want the USB device back so they can try to fix it themselves ..... but as its weekend I won't be sending it back till Monday; so if something comes up do let me know; in the meanwhile I'm also looking around to find suitable firmware/drivers etc.

Ok Guys last update to this thread, been extremely busy at work lately (these 3 months are usually the busiest for us) ..... I simply didn't find enough time, or was too tired when I had it to try out something. Anyway, what I did was asked WLL to look into it, and recently they've posted a 'hotfix' which apparently works alright. So, the problem is solved, however, I still have that bricked device which I haven't had time to take back to WLL for fixing it, but then again ..... I bought a new on

Thankyou very much for your insights and help everyone and especially LA.

See you around, Best Regards

Update

Okay guys! Hope you've all been doing great.

Now for a new twist. Just yesterday I tried a USB hub on my PC. I took my friend's Kingston and tried transferring large files after plugging it into the hub. Voila! All went smooth.

Somehow it's still not working when I plug it into the slots on my mobo or case.

I'm doing fantastically well Thanks, I hope you are too

So it works if you place the hub connector in either of the ports in question and then connect the usb to that hub?

Exactly mate! Talk about SINISTER!

Indeed, may be your computer is homosexual ? :evil:

@Archean
Thanks for the update. And very happy to hear you have things working again!

@Ritwik7
Hey Ritwik! Thanks for your update as well! and the result when you used a hub. I have a theory!

I forget the full history of your thread, so if this doesn't apply, ignore it as my theory below is pure speculation and best guess based on your hub results

1. I'm going to guess your USB hub is "self-powered" meaning it comes with its own AC adapter?
2. In which case, the problem might be

• in the device power provided by your computer's USB ports (which may fall short of spec)
• And/or the power consumption by the Kingston pen drive (which may exceed spec) I've seen other devices exceed USB power spec - most notably those WD portable drives that people often find failing

If this makes sense, two ways you might check it

1. Possibly measure the power on each USB port? (don't know how though - I'm basically a software guy )
2. Get one of those USB Y cables to provide power to that Kingston drive directly from two of your USB ports (not just one)

Anyway, just a guess here (if it might apply or you ever have a chance to test with a Y cable would be curious the result)

In any case, hope you All have Happy Computing ahead!

/* edit */
And like i said, i forget the full thread history (and too lazy to re-read it all So if you already tried the Y cable or something similar already, you can ignore this theory/guess!

I don't think that there is an issue with the power provided by the ports as all USB devices (including pen drives and external HDDs) work perfectly. I'll be checking it out on Linux sometime tomorrow.

If the same ports seem to work fine with the Kingston drive under Linux, then i would agree is not likely a USB power issue. But i'll add the following as both fyi and for whatever it's worth (including my own example of quirky hardware below!)

1. I bought a USB hub myself sometime back. Specifically, a 7-port Targus ACH81, where two of its 7 ports provide 1000mA (vs. the 500mA USB standard). I've since found some quirky USB devices (including a friend's flaky WD Passport drive) perform much better (and much more rarely with problems) when i plug them into the 1000mA ports on the Targus

2. As to quirky hardware: I bought a new Samsung TV/monitor combo and an Radeon HD 5450 adapter. When i played sound over HDMI (so it was through the Samsung monitor built-in speakers) i discovered the 1st second of sound playback was being cut off over HDMI!

I since discovered, whatever the problem was some unique combination of that Samsung monitor with the HD 5450
> When i replaced the HD 5450 the sound worked on the monitor
> When i replaced the monitor with a different model of monitor (and still using the same HD 5450) the sound also worked!
> AND! when i returned the monitor to the store they also re-tested on different computer over HDMI and all worked fine!

Dang computers!!! LOL :haha: Sometimes ya just can't figure them out!

One more tidbit....

I have no idea how this might play into the "mix" but i had a nagging memory about USB power so looked up this link here which summarizes some info i recalled about USB power that may at least be an interesting read

Be sure to read the section under Power. The gist

• USB devices "tell the computer" how much power they need (in increments of 100mA)
• I don't think is in the article, but remember that Windows starts providing USB power at the minimum default 100mA value. 100mA is supposed to be sufficient to power a USB device so it can identify itself to Windows over USB bus. A device can subsequently request more power after identifying itself
• So i suppose a faulty device, faulty device firmware or different drivers under Windows or Linux or other OS may then theoretically also cause different results for different devices and under different OS resulting in providing different power levels for different hardware/firmware/OS combinations

I also wonder (admittedly, i dunno, but wouldn't be surprised) if external self-powered hubs simply supply their max power to a device??? anyone make a guess? I'm just wondering the fact that Targus and some other hubs can provide 1000mA of power and work better with some devices???

Anyway, just some more random thoughts and points of info..