Windows 98 USB Root Hub problem with USB card

Hi All,
A friend of mine uses a very old PC to transfer his digital photos via
USB from his Toshiba digital camera. The PC is a Cyrix (Remember
them!) 300MHz, 60mb ram, non-USB dinosaur! I suggested a basic 2 port
USB 1 card, which installed with no problems. However, every time he
connects the camera, and switches it on to transfer to the PC, it
never comes up as "storage device" when viewed in Windows Explorer. A
quick look in device manager always shows the yellow exclamation mark
on the USB root hub. In order to get it working without a conflict, we
have to go through the following every time. Select the opti USB
controller itself (root hub itself doesn't use IRQ/IO), click
properties, and the resources tab. Win 98 is showing "no conflicts"
and device is working properly. The IRQ cannot be modified, but the
I/O address range can. By changing the I/O address range by just one
click on the up/down spinner in either direction, clicking ok, then
yes when Win 98 tells you about modifying settings etc, then as soon
as you switch on the digital camera, the "storage device" appears as
it should immediately! Unfortunately, he has to do this EVERY time he
uses his camera. So, Win 98 says that memory address is NOT being
used, that there is NO conflict, and yet obviously there must be.
Every time we change I/O, get it working, switch camera off and
straight back on, root hub yellow exclamation mark all over again!
Even though the IRQ cannot be modified (12), there is no other
hardware listed using IRQ12.

I myself have a Fuji 1400 finepix, and I have never had this problem.
My own PC is much more modern and already has 4 built in USB 1 ports
on it's ATX motherboard. I use Win XP Pro these days, but had no
problems with it when I used to run Win 98.

I have tried the "usual suspects" to get it working but no luck so
far. I even changed it's PCI slot but that didn't work either. This
happens with BOTH of the card's USB ports.

Any suggestions, idea's, help would be very much appreciated. Don't
worry about getting technical on me, as I have a very good working
knowledge of PC's, and don't very often need to ask for help, but this
one doesn't seem to want to work for me. Thank you for your help.

Andrew.

GuitarMan wrote:

Hi All,
Every time we change I/O, get it working, switch camera off and
straight back on, root hub yellow exclamation mark all over again!
Even though the IRQ cannot be modified (12), there is no other
hardware listed using IRQ12.



Just a thought, are all the IRQ's in the bios set to PNP? I had a modem
acting really strange on an old PC and turns out some of the IRQ's were set
to legacy. Might play with the PNP OS setting as well?

--

Stacey

On 7 Sep 2003 23:59:31 -0700, (GuitarMan) wrote:

Hi All,
A friend of mine uses a very old PC to transfer his digital photos via
USB from his Toshiba digital camera. The PC is a Cyrix (Remember
them!) 300MHz, 60mb ram, non-USB dinosaur!

I doubt it, that it doesn't have USB that is... it would be extremely
rare, as-in I"ve never come across a board that could run that CPU but
didn't have USB. You needed a dongle for the USB pin header, to
provide the physical port. That's still an option if you don't get
the thing working. Many places they're about $4-10, then all you need
do is consult the manual to confirm proper wiring of the plug, that
5V, GND, + & - Data are on the right pins.

I suggested a basic 2 port
USB 1 card, which installed with no problems. However, every time he
connects the camera, and switches it on to transfer to the PC, it
never comes up as "storage device" when viewed in Windows Explorer.

Did you install the driver? Win98 always needs a driver for USB
devices, AFAIK, including generic storage devices that would be
natively supported in WinXP.

A
quick look in device manager always shows the yellow exclamation mark
on the USB root hub.

On the hub for the add-on card or the motherboard's USB ports?
Identification of the board "might" help, including
make/model/chipset. Is Win98 using the chipset drivers for the
motherboard, were they installed? Unless the board is using an old
Intel chipset, it'll need chipset drivers for Win98.


In order to get it working without a conflict, we
have to go through the following every time. Select the opti USB
controller itself (root hub itself doesn't use IRQ/IO), click
properties, and the resources tab. Win 98 is showing "no conflicts"
and device is working properly. The IRQ cannot be modified, but the
I/O address range can. By changing the I/O address range by just one
click on the up/down spinner in either direction, clicking ok, then
yes when Win 98 tells you about modifying settings etc, then as soon
as you switch on the digital camera, the "storage device" appears as
it should immediately! Unfortunately, he has to do this EVERY time he
uses his camera. So, Win 98 says that memory address is NOT being
used, that there is NO conflict, and yet obviously there must be.
Every time we change I/O, get it working, switch camera off and
straight back on, root hub yellow exclamation mark all over again!
Even though the IRQ cannot be modified (12), there is no other
hardware listed using IRQ12.

Try going into the bios, and turning on "Legacy USB support", or
however it may be worded. Might merely be called "USB keyboard" or
mouse, etc. I recall this being necessary on some super-7 boards,
though unfortunately I don't remember the make, model, chipsets
involved.


I myself have a Fuji 1400 finepix, and I have never had this problem.
My own PC is much more modern and already has 4 built in USB 1 ports
on it's ATX motherboard. I use Win XP Pro these days, but had no
problems with it when I used to run Win 98.

I have tried the "usual suspects" to get it working but no luck so
far. I even changed it's PCI slot but that didn't work either. This
happens with BOTH of the card's USB ports.

Any suggestions, idea's, help would be very much appreciated. Don't
worry about getting technical on me, as I have a very good working
knowledge of PC's, and don't very often need to ask for help, but this
one doesn't seem to want to work for me. Thank you for your help.

Andrew.

Has his bios ever been updated, or is it even possible to find a BIOS,
do so now? If it was a cheap system (as it would seem), it likely had
at least it's share of bugs when released with that early bios
revision... maybe a new bios wouldn't help, but then again the first
few BIOS updates tend to resolve a LOT of issues on a board.


Dave

kony wrote:


Try going into the bios, and turning on "Legacy USB support", or
however it may be worded.

Hmm or maybe try turning it off, it might be freaking out the USB PCI card?

--

Stacey