Upgrading USB

[sciboi66]

I have done a little research and have found that there are companies that sell usb chips of various sorts. I understand that this little project of mine may not make sense to some but I welcome any advise or ideas on how to change the usb functionality on my laptop from USB ver1.1 to 2.0.

My laptop specs are as follows:

IBM A30
Pentium 3 Processor 732 Mhz
512 MB RAM

This laptop has everything I need and runs great except for the slower USB 1.1. The reason for this project is so I can connect my cell phone to the laptop. I have Motorola Phone Tools application which requires USB 2.0. Again, this may seem like a silly little project but any advice or knowledge about this subject would be greatly apprectiated. Thanks.

 

[PottedMeat]

Are you sure it needs 2.0? Motorola's website says phone tools needs 'one available usb port'. I thought all 2.0 hardware was compatible with 1.0 hardware, just slower. I would try a different OS or chipset driver - anything besides what you are considering.

Short of replacing the motherboard ( essentially buying a new laptop ) you arent going to get 2.0 functionality without getting a PCMCIA card. I believe USB is supported by the chipset, which you obviously cannot swap, and even if USB is done by a seperate chip, I doubt you could find a pin for pin compatible 2.0 solution.

 

[sciboi66]

Thanks for the reply. I have tried to use the software on my laptop but for what ever reason it cannot use the existing USB. I will keep doing more research and see if I can come up with something. It may require a tweak or two to the BIOS. I have an extra A30 Motherboard I can use to experiment on. I have a PCMCIA card already which will not work with the software. I kept getting a message that the software was unable to locate the new USB ports. Also the architecture of the card also eliminates the ability to use it and my wireless nic at the same time. As I said before this is just a project which may or may not be viable. Thanks again for the input.

 

[Peter]

Firstly, no you can't "upgrade your USB" without physically adding a piece of "High Speed USB 2.0" silicon. The only way to do that in a notebook is via Cardbus (PCMCIA).

Secondly, I too doubt that this is the /actual/ problem in your case. It sounds a lot more like your USB driver installation is thoroughly screwed up.

 

[Modelworks]

You can try a work around.
It sometimes works.
Get a usb 2.0 external hub.
Connect that to the laptop and the phone to the hub.
That will give the phone a 2.0 interface .

USB 2.0 host is backwards compatible with slave 1.0, but 1.0 host isn't always compatible with slave 2.0 devices.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: Peter
Firstly, no you can't "upgrade your USB" without physically adding a piece of "High Speed USB 2.0" silicon. The only way to do that in a notebook is via Cardbus (PCMCIA).

Secondly, I too doubt that this is the /actual/ problem in your case. It sounds a lot more like your USB driver installation is thoroughly screwed up.

+1

 

[sciboi66]

I guess I need to clarify a couple of things before I say more. First, while I am new to this forum I am not new to electronics or computer systems. Second, what I intend to do is exactly that, add a piece of 2.0 silicon to my - motherboard - . I realize this may be a "waste of time" to most people here. I certainly understand your skepticism or if you think I'm just plain cracked. People mod stuff all the time and a good portion of that stuff has no use in the real world other than to give someone the opportunity to say "I did such and such". I guess I may need to draw up a sample schematic to illustrate how such a thing can be done.

To Modelworks, I appreciate your input as I do anyones but yours so far is the most constuctive as was Potted Meats. Thanks to you both. I have tried the work around and even though my 1.1 USB connection is working perfectly (ahem) the work around still does me no good. I will try this again, though, and report back but it will be a couple of days or so.

Thanks again folks and take care

 

[sciboi66]

One more thing. I realize that this little project of mine may be totally off the wall and may never work, however I will appreciate any ideas that other members come up with. Even if all I do is burn up a chip or fry the whole motherboard (remember I have a replacement) then at least I will have learned something. Thanks to everyone for your input and I promise to put on my Nomex® underwear to protect my privates.

 

[Peter]

Well ... since you can't expect to find any kind of readily available PCI bus attachment point in there, you'll have a tough time finding all the signals that you need to hook the PCI side of it up.

And then, since you can't expect the board's BIOS to magically pick up on the unexpected device, you'll find that hardware doesn't work all by itself. You won't get the new chip's interrupt activated, so there goes its functionality.

So unless you're also intending to write your own BIOS for the modified machine, just bury the idea. It is in fact as unfeasible as it seems to everyone except you.

 

[Modelworks]

Well if you really wanted to do it, and I mean REALLY wanted to do it.
Heres one way.
You need to find a usb chipset that is easy to work with.
The next thing you need is a schematic of the motherboard in the notebook.
without it, you will have to manually trace down signal paths, not a small feat on multi-layer circuit boards.
If you cant write your own bios, or the bios is totally protected then you will need to program a device to spoof the device id to that bios.
You could use something like a pic micro, or avr.
Your also going to need a logic analyzer and oscilloscope, hot air rework station, and lots and lots of patience.

In the end its a very bad idea


The other way is to program a pic or avr that has a usb interface on chip to fake its device id as that of the already on board chip. You would also need to make sure all the registers matched that of the original chip.
Easier hardware wise, but much harder on the programming.

 

[Peter]

Yeah right, all the registers need to match the original chip, and yet still it'll somehow be something different - USB 2.0 EHCI is quite substantially different from UHCI or OHCI USB 1.x.

Forget. It.

 

[sciboi66]

Peter wrote:

So unless you're also intending to write your own BIOS for the modified machine, just bury the idea. It is in fact as unfeasible as it seems to everyone except you.

Man, are you trying to make feel stupid? Or do you treat everyone this way. If you don't, I feel especially privileged to earn your scorn. Sorry for the sarcasm dude, but you really need to chill! :beer:

 

[sciboi66]

Well to tell the truth I knew it was not going to be easy. I also greatly underestimated the difficulty in this project as well. Thanks for your input and advice and I will think about the pic/avr idea a little further. Mr. Modelworks thanks again!