Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Card Reader is self powered, but XP sees it as BUS powered

Dec 31, 2013 2:46AM PST

I have a Rosewill RDCR-13001 Front Panel card reader/USB/eSATA hub. This is self powered meaning it has its own dedicated power supply. The card reader stopped working suddenly. I don't see the drive letter(s) in MY Computer anymore. In the Device Manager there is a yellow inverted triangle over this USB hub. I uninstalled and reinstalled (several times) and the Windows XP professional gives me the error "The hub does not have enough power available to operate the device driver name. Would you like assistance in solving this problem? If you click No, the device may not function properly."

The blue LED light on this card reader is still on, so I know it is getting the power supply. In the Device Manager, I go to properties of the problematic USB hub, and under the power tab it says the USB hub is Bus Powered and available power is 100mA per port (I know it should be 500 for self powered). I initially thought it was the cable or computer power supply that was the problem, so changed both (I had spare ones) without any luck. Then I changed the Rosewill card reader with a similar but older model (again I had a spare one) and the same problem persisted.

Since it was working fine a few days ago, I decided to do system restore in XP and restored to a point from 2 weeks ago. Now it started working again. USB Hub properties (in Device Manager) now shows hub as self powered and available power as 500mA. When I updated my XP (because Windows Update asked me to), the problem recurred.

I am guessing there is some registry change that happens in the XP with updates that makes it think this card reader is BUS powered when in fact it is self powered. Can anyone please help.

Thank You

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
I have doubts.
Dec 31, 2013 9:14AM PST
- Collapse -
Completely self powered.
Jan 3, 2014 5:31AM PST

This unit is completely self powered. When I disconnect the SATA power cable none of the ports work (USB, card reader or eSATA). When it is working, in the Windows XP device manager, under USB hub properties the power shows up as self powered with 500mA. When I update the XP to the most current state, it shows up as BUS powered with 100mA, and it does not recognize any card, USB stick or eSATA drive. I still suspect something wrong with the way XP sees this, as it is currently working with XP restored to about 15 days ago, but I have disabled automatic updates for now.

- Collapse -
Ahh, XP.
Jan 3, 2014 5:36AM PST

Well, that's done. Almost everyone is walking away now. Be sure to not accept any drivers from Microsoft. Long story, no news.
Bob