Does not register connected USB drives at boot

[OrlaRau]

Just installed new motherboard EP45-DS5 with E8500 CPU and Kingston HyperX KHX85 RAM + Matrox Graphics Card PCIe x16.
Installed WinXP SP3 and some other programs. Everything seems fine, except a problem with 3 external USB drives.
When Windows is running and I connect them, they all 3 are recognized and registered in windows explorer and I can access and use them.
When I reboot my PC without disconnecting them, one is recognized and registered in win explorer, another is recognized and I can see it in Disk Manager, but not in win explorer and the last one comes up as "New Hardware" Unknown Device. I can see it as Unknown device in Device manager, but not see it in Disk Manager.
I never experiences this behaviour with my old PC or my Portable PC.

Any ideas ???

[tweekdown]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Could the usb port hub have too little power to recognize all 3 hdds at boot time??

For example my mobile phone isnt recognized correctly when i have my gamepad connected to the hub at the same time.

I know that i'm talking about an external usb hub, which you are not using but maybe the problem is similar.

[OrlaRau]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

I did wonder myself if it was a power problem, but the one that is unknown after reboot has its own powersupply.
The one that is recognized in Disk Manager and not in win explorer is powered via USB connector, but it works fine in my other computers though.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

In the BIOS Integrated Peripherals page be sure Legacy USB storage detect is enabled, then please install the below driver package and see if this helps. It is Intel Chipset Package, Please install again even if you have it already installed >>>
Download Software, Drivers and Utilities Filters

[OrlaRau]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

tweekdown:
It turns out that the drive that is powered via the USB connector did not get enough power at boot. I tried to connect it through a 4-port USB hub which has its own power supply and then this one worked fine and was visible in win explorer.

Lsdmeasap:
I still have problem with the one that comes up as Unknown Device in Device manager. I installed the drivers you referred to (infinst_autol.exe), but it didn't make any difference.
I have had Legacy USB storage detect enabled all the time.
When I connect it with Windows up and running I can see under Properties in Device manager that it uses the driver C:\\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\USBSTOR.SYS and its Location is Location 0 (USB to Serial-ATA Bridge). It has an eSATA connector as well.
The drivers that came with the case stated that they were only needed on Win98/ME, so I haven't installed them.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Hmm Well maybe you need to try them or look at the site the case is from to see if they have other drivers

What happens when you try to update the Unkown Device driver from Device manager?

[OrlaRau]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Now I tried to connect the last one to the above mentioned 4-port USB Hub as well. Then it works and I can use it right away.
A strange thing happened though, cause when I turned power off the 4-port hub for a while and turned it back on again before booting up my PC, the USB Disk that is powered through USB cable did not get registered.

Does my new GIGABTE motherboard have a strange way of its own initializing USB ports? - or is it just normal behaveour

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

I am not sure, so hopefully someone else will chime in on that for you.

It does work though right? Just has it's quirks? If so, it may just be something you will have to get used to as all boards have their quirks, and differences from other boards

[OrlaRau]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Well okay, thanks for your try.

I just found another issue related to this problem.
I am using "Acronis True Image Home" and have done that for several years. If you don't know, it is a program for creating backup images of whole partitions of a harddisk for later recovery if needed.

When this program is started it allways goes out and analyzes all partitions on the computer, both internal and external.
This analyze never ends when the computer is booted up with the USB drives connected (via the 4-port USB hub).
The USB drive that never gave problems is also okay in this situation; analyze goes fine.

The really big problem is that with an internal single SATA HDD connected it's the same problem. Analyzing never ends and I'll have to stop Acronis True Image program in Task Manager.

Internal SATA drive seems to work fine otherwise.

PS: I won't be checking in for a couple af days now.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Yeah I used to use it a while back

I prefer Ghost though myself. These types of programs are likely the cause then. Have you noticed the issues before you have Acronis installed?

[OrlaRau]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Hi again

Unfortunately, installing Acronis was the first thing I did, after I had Windows up and running with graphics adapter and monitor drivers, so I don't know if there was this USB issue before that.
I tried Ghost once, but it worked so slowly I couldn't use it, so I removed it again.

The same version of Acronis does not give any problem like this on my two other computers.
I guess I gotta put a question on the Acronis Forum.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Hmm Ya, I would ask to see if anyone else has asked them about this. It would be better then a clean install. But you may need to try it once to really rule it out whether they say it should be a issue or not

[OrlaRau]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

Today I made a clean install of WinXP SP3 (C:\ drive formatted NTFS like before).
This time I installed the AHCI drivers though.

First time windows was booted up after installation and before doing anything else, I connected the USB drive so the "New hardware" came up and installed it.
Then I shut down windows and rebooted without disconnecting the USB drive. It did NOT get registered in win explorer.

It still works fine if I connect it after windows is started.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

So it is working usable at least then for now?

[OrlaRau]

Re: Does not register connected USB drives at boot

It's working yes, but sure is annoying they can't just be connected and come up together with windows.

Thank you for trying to help.

Orla