Problem with my USB Root Hubs (Power Surge)

[Brilliant]

Hello,

Two days ago I discovered that my pc can no longer recognize my Mimaki JV-33
printer.

I checked the printer manager, Deleted the printer and tried to Add it again, but it wont be "seen" anymore.

I checked different USB ports (I got 4 at the back and 2 in front).

Then I immediately checked the USB cable on another printer on another pc and it worked fine.

I came back and reconnected it... then while tried to reconnect other devices like a USB memory stick, I got a message on my taskbar saying I got a Power Surge on my USB ports so they got disabled.

I unplugged all my USB cables, restarted pc, uninstalled all USB devices from Device Manager, restarted pc again, all USB ports got installed automatically and then tried a USB memory stick on each port one by one.

The result was that all USB ports were re-enabled, but as I found out, a power surge may damage your USB ports permanently. So now 2 of my USB ports don't work at all and the other two will recognize a low power source device like a USB memory stick, but not my Mimaki.

I tried a USB hub that I have... I thought it might be a good idea since this USB hub has its own power source. But of course My JV-33 wont work through any sort of extension. It has to be plugged in directly to the pc.

So my questions are.. if I get a USB "card" that goes in my motherboard, will that do? If so, wont I eventually get another power surge? What would be the best solution, and what steps can I take to avoid this from happening again.

 

[Techman]

if the usb channel bus on the motherboard is fine,, a usb card will work too.



i wonder if teh power side of that bad usb channels is out.

 

[Brilliant]

what do you mean? is there something I need to do before inserting a USB card to my motherboard?

 

[kffernandez]

yep. this happens to me all the time. especially on the front panel usb ports. in my case, it's usually caused by either a short in the usb extension port itself, or a short in the usb flash drives.

the result is i lose power on the port. which means i can't use my eye one unit, or portable hard drives [which requires full power].

a cheap add on usb card will work. as long as you have an extra slot for it.


kelly

 

[SightLine]

...snip..... But of course My JV-33 wont work through any sort of extension. It has to be plugged in directly to the pc..... snip....

I can only guess "My" is the operative word there. Not sure if there is any specific list of hubs/active extensions but I have our JV33 running through a 16ft active extention cable plus another 8 foot USB cable after that.

This is the cable I use

http://www.manhattan-products.com/en-US/products/3441-hi-speed-usb-active-extension-cable

For all intents and purposes Windows sees the cable as a USB hub. Even though it only has one port device manager thinks it has 4 although it does have only one TT (transaction translator).

TT gets a little complicated as well as power requirements of USB devices. For low speed, full speed, and USB 1.x devices a TT is not as important. If you have multiple high speed USB 2.x devices then you really need to be sure that if both are on the same hub or if a high speed and low spped device are on the same hub that the hub has a TT for each high speed device as well as one for multiple low speed devices.

Power - another finicky thing.... a LOT of motherboards do not really give enough power to the usb ports for many things. Because of this I use an add-on PCI USB card (belkin brand with an NEC USB chipset) to add additional USB ports that are independent of the motherboard and draw their power from the PCI bus.

 

[Brilliant]

ok, here's what going on....

I installed a USB PCI card onto my motherboard.
I disabled the on board USB ports through BIOS.
I plugged in a USB memory stick in one of the new USB ports and it works fine.
I take the USB memory stick out and plug in my JV33's USB cable in that same port.... and I get no response from the pc, it does not get recognized.
I take off the USB cable and plug in the same USB memory stick in that same USB port and now it doesn't work anymore. This happens with all the ports... every time windows starts all ports work with all sort of USB devices, big and small ones. Once I connect my JV33 with a working USB cable (tested on a different device) then all 4 USB ports of the new PCI card stop working.

I doubt this the PCI card's problem since it works perfectly even with big USB machines.

So if it's my JV33's problem and the USB cable works, what do I do? Specially considering that the only Mimaki technician there is in my country has only one suggestion: try Deleting the printer from Printer Manager and add it again.