Help with Unknown usb device

[webada]

Hi guys,

I'm having a problem with unknown USB device that keeps showing up in my device manager. What's worst is that sometimes it pops in and out as if the device is being discovered, rendering my front panel USB ports unusable and sometimes my keyboard/mice (both are USB) I'm not sure if this is Windows XP related or hardware related. The last thing I did was install Creative Audiogy ZS but have since removed it and its associated drivers.

This is my setup:
WinXP sp2 (with latest update) on AB9 QuadGT, its P965 chipset. There is no additional PCI cards except for Video.

Here is what I did thus far (without success)

1.

* Detach all usb devices, including front panel usb
* Reboot to Safe move, remove all USB entries under device manager
* Shutdown, unplugged for few hours
* Reboot
* Without attaching ANY usb device, check device manger: Unknown usb device still shows up, problem still exists.

2.

* Detach all usb devices
* Reboot, enter bios, disable USB controller
* Boot up Windows, check device manager, shows no usb entries.
* Restart, enter bios, enable USB controller
* Boot up Windows, allowing Windows to recognize USB, check device manager, still unknown usb device.

3.

* RegEdit and remove all entries that I can find with VID000.
reboot

Because of this issue, I have updated BIOS to 1.6 and Intel Chipset driver (latest) from Intel website. The above were all done with the updates.

I'm starting to wonder if the USB ports on my QuadGT is shot.

Anything else I can try?
Help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in Advance

 

[kylef]

If the "Unknown Device" is showing up when all other USB devices are unplugged, then you have a hardware USB port problem.

I would diagnose the culprit at the level of your motherboard. Unplug all of the "extra port" wires connected to the USB headers on your motherboard (i.e., for your case's front panel ports, or expansion slot ports). Then boot up and see what happens. If the "Unknown Device" is gone for good, then you've isolated it to the wiring connected to one of these headers, and you should check for incorrect wiring connections. Many cases have poor front-panel wiring harnesses that lead to shorts or faulty connections, and can easily screw up USB device detection. (All it takes for USB to "sense" a device on a port is for the D+ and D- signal wires to notice a voltage change.)

 

[TurboFool]

Out of curiosity, have you installed the uGuru utility and driver (driver's installed automatically when you install the utility)? I don't recall it being listed as a USB device, but the uGuru chip does consistently show up as an unknown device, and it's not listed on Abit's drivers page, so it's one that's confused me several times in the past. I think last year when I reformatted I went for a good month or two with that darn unknown device and it wasn't until I had a specific need for that uGuru utility and installed it that it cleared up that entry in Device Manager. Again, I don't think it mentioned USB, and it never gave me trouble with my USB ports, but it's worth asking to be sure.

kylef otherwise mentioned the next best troubleshooting step. Just because everything on the outside that connects by USB has been disconnected doesn't mean you're done. Check what's connected to the headers. At that point if there's nothing left, then yeah, you may have a problem with the mobo itself.

 

[webada]

I've done that, disconnect all devices, including front panel usb connector. The problem still exists. Here is another twist. I got a PCI USB 2.0 card and it recognized correctly and devices also worked. So I plugged my devices to the onboard, worked for a while then the unknown usb device started again, I then disabled it. Few moments later, my usb keyboard started to go on and off (its lighted.) If i leave it on enough, the mouse will go too.

So I decided to disable onboard USB controller via BIOS. Now, the ports on the PCI card does not work, even though it shows up on the device manager without any unknown device or yellow mark.

So I follow the steps (remove, clear cmos...etc) Still won't work!!! This is a new PCI card that worked in the beginning!

I haven't got a chance to plug the card to another PCI slot but will do that tonite and report back.

yea, uguru actually shows up in device manager. don't think that's the issue there.

i really thought it was mobo problem until i ran into issue with my newly purchased USB PCI card.

 

[kylef]

Originally posted by: webada
I've done that, disconnect all devices, including front panel usb connector. The problem still exists. Here is another twist. I got a PCI USB 2.0 card and it recognized correctly and devices also worked. So I plugged my devices to the onboard, worked for a while then the unknown usb device started again, I then disabled it. Few moments later, my usb keyboard started to go on and off (its lighted.) If i leave it on enough, the mouse will go too.

So I decided to disable onboard USB controller via BIOS. Now, the ports on the PCI card does not work, even though it shows up on the device manager without any unknown device or yellow mark.

Hmm. This is starting to sound like a power issue.

Here are some of my guesses based on the symptoms you describe:

1. Bad +5V or +5Vsb rail on your PSU, or a peripheral is overdrawing this rail.

2. On of your USB devices is drawing too much current, causing the current limiters on the USB port power supply chip to kick in. It is also possible that such a device might be overdrawing current on the D+/D- USB signal lines. (Normally overdrawing Vcc power on USB would trigger an over-current indicator to fire, and the Windows driver will report it as a little icon in the notification area of the toolbar. I don't know whether the same overcurrent indicators fire if too much current is drawn over the signal lines too.)

3. I also wouldn't rule out a bad ground loop. Make sure your electrical outlet is properly grounded (a cheap electrical outlet tester can do this). Also, make sure your motherboard and PSU are properly grounded to the case.


You can hook up a standard voltmeter (e.g., from a multimeter) to monitor the power supplied by a USB port. The outermost pins are Vcc (+5V) and GND. If your keyboard backlighting is going out, I would have to suspect that this power is getting interrupted somehow.

 

[webada]

Update: First of all, I appreciate all the help and feedback, really. This is not an easy problem for me.

I had left the computer unplugged, got home, booted up without any usb devices and onboard USB disabled. Once Windows boots, I checked device manager, no unknown device and everything looks normal. This is where I left last time and plugging into USB PCI did not work. Started to plug in usb devices, everything worked. Did not need to move the USB PCI card to another slot. *weird* but progress i guess..... still no onboard usb tho.

I left the computer like that on for an hour or two, reboot couple of times, everything seems to be ok. so looks like device draw too much power is not the issue. I have uguru so I will monitor my psu 5v and rails. I have a new PSU arriving so I will be sure to swap and test. I also found my multimeter and will test my onboard usb ports... but what does it suppose to show? 5v?

the keyboard lights goes out, so does its function, after extended hours my mouse will go out too... eventually every USB device that's attached to my onboard USB.

ya, when I swap the psu, i will check mb ground.... i'm kinda stress out by all these. need a break over the weekend

 

[kylef]

Actually my suspicion of a power supply issue was based on your observation that even the add-in USB PCI card ports weren't working. If those are working, then I would not suspect a power supply issue at all.

The fact that the light on your keyboard is going out indicates a bad USB port power supply chip on your motherboard. The power circuit for USB ports implemented by a completely separate chip (i.e., a chip like this) than the USB controller itself, which is implemented on the "SouthBridge" chipset. So it is possible to lose the power lines, but yet the USB data lines are still functional.

USB devices can be "bus-powered" (like a keyboard or mouse) or "self-powered" (i.e., they have their own AC adapter). So you could design an experiment to double-check that the power supply chip is indeed the culprit. Buy or borrow a self-powered USB hub (it must have its own AC adapter). Plug in your keyboard, mouse, and the hub directly into your onboard USB ports, and wait for the bad symptoms to occur (KB light to go out or KB to stop working).

Then, unplug the keyboard and plug it into the hub, and see if it works. (My theory is that it should work, because the power circuit in the hub operates independently from the power circuit on your motherboard.)

I also found my multimeter and will test my onboard usb ports... but what does it suppose to show? 5v?

Yes, the outermost pins of each port are supposed to supply 5V DC and up to 500mA of current. My guess is that when your keyboard light goes out, the ports are either dropping below 5V or the current supply transistors are failing (or both).

 

[webada]

ahhhhh well psu was on order for another purpose... i actually do have a self powered hub around, will put that to a test and report back.

 

[webada]

Update: So I received my new psu and had to pull off my mb to get it into the case. I unplugged my usb pci card and turned on the onboard USB when assembling it all back.

Guess what? Stabled for entire nite, still there is an unknown device but no longer i get unknow usb popping in and out and no usb devices outages.

I think there was a short somewhere and maybe reinstalling the MB cleared that up. Thanks for all the help,