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General discussion

PCI USB2 Card Freezes System

Mar 24, 2005 5:07AM PST

My present computer:
FIC PA-2013 motherboard, onboard USB1 support
AMD K6III 450mhz CPU
256meg RAM
HIPRO 235W power supply
Floppy drive
CD-RW
PCI Modem
USB1 Satellite modem
Creative RIVA TNT2 AGPx2 graphics card
Creative ?Soundblaster? audio PCI card
Windows XP SP2 OS

I?ve tried two different PCI USB2 cards on this box and couldn?t get either to work.
With the card installed (tried three different PCI slots) the system freezes at boot, usually at the sign-on screen but occasionally while icons are loading on the initial windows screen.
I can boot in safe mode, but there?s no information available other than a notice that ?there?s a problem with the device and it cannot start?.
I?ve also tried changing IRQ sequence, going from ?Auto? to ?Manual? selections within BIOS, etc.
Disabled parallel and serial ports in case that might free up IRQ...
All drivers are current according to websites.
I?ve obtained the latest BIOS update.

Anyone else seen this problem or have suggestions?

Discussion is locked

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2 things.
Mar 24, 2005 6:01AM PST

1. That's a Via chipset. Did you install Via drivers?

2. That's a slim power supply and old. To eek by, unplug spare CDRW or DVD drives till things settle down.

Bob

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Thanks...
Mar 24, 2005 8:51AM PST

I've got all the drivers updated.
I have been suspecting the PSU, and that was the problem apparently. After disabling the graphics card and the CD-RW and installing the card everything worked as it should. A new PSU will be a lot cheaper than upgrading right now!

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Whew...
Mar 24, 2005 9:00AM PST

That was a close call. That 235W is very old. A little known or discussed issue is that these PSUs power capability degrade with time. It's a shadow of it's former power.

Best of continued luck,

Bob

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query?
May 14, 2005 3:32AM PDT

I'm having the same problem.

How do i disable my cdrw drive and my psu?
what is a psu?

I have an ibm thinkpad t30, which is running windows xp.

My usb2 pci card has a slot for a power supply, but i do not have a power supply. Is this a huge drawback?
The only thing that i was planning on sending through there was an ac powered usb2 hard drive.

jason

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more info
May 14, 2005 3:45AM PDT

This card was a gift from a friend who sympathized with my slow usb1.1 data transfer rate.

I don't know what brand it is, but my laptop says something like "NEC to usb card". (now that i'm trying to install it, my windows pop-up notification bar wont tell me what it is anymore)

You mentioned updating drivers. Which drivers would i have to update?

Is using this card without the power supply a lost cause? Should i look into buying another card?

Are these cards even meant to be used on laptops?

jason

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2 things.
May 14, 2005 7:13AM PDT

1. Such cards are used on many laptops.

2. Drivers are over at ibm.com or if you installed the OS from the restore CDs you might be good to go.

Unless you have some versions of Windows that doesn't do USB 2.0 http://www.usbman.com notes this issue.

Bob