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February 25th, 2003 19:00

USB port stopped working after BIOS update on Latitude C400

Hello Dell Techs,

I have a problem with USB port on my Latitude C400 (XP Proff). After I updated (for those who wants to do it - DO NOT DO IT IF YOU DON'T ABSOLUTELY NEED IT!) a BIOS to latest version - A09, the USB port start giving me problems. I use external USB mouse and computer constantly unloads it. After several seconds of downtime computer recognize it again and I can continue work with it. Things become worser when I started downloading pictures from my Digital Camera. Its Flash card was mounted as an external drive, which started unmounting and mounting constantly, breaking a process of downloading. I was trying to put the old BIOS, but Flash burging utility says I have latest version and it can't put the old one back.

Is there any solution to help me with it?

Message Edited by Totolik on 02-25-2003 04:04 PM

1 Message

March 5th, 2003 09:00

I've got a C400 (XP Pro) with the A09 BIOS and I do not have too much problems with USB. You should try to reinstall Intel or Microsoft USB drivers.

Anyway, it seems that USB port on the C400 is quite weak and does not support "heavy powered" components such as USB Hard Drives (my USB powered hard drive doesn't work on my C400 but works perfectly on my Siemens Amilo laptop!). It may explain your troubles with your cam. You might try and powered USB HUB.

 

2 Posts

March 5th, 2003 12:00

The thing is - everythig was working fine, until I updated BIOS. I, indeed, use a USB HUB without external power, but the same HUB was working good before. BTW, do you, Romain, know how to reinstall USB driver separately? I mean, where can I get that driver?

Message Edited by Totolik on 03-05-2003 09:14 AM

3 Posts

May 20th, 2003 07:00

Same problem here, USB mouse and keyboard "cycle" i.e. stop working for ~10seconds every few minutes. Incredibly annoying. It seems to actually power down/reset the USB bus, as the light goes out briefly on my optical mouse.

More info:

  • Machine was fine when running Windows 2000 + BIOS A??
  • Problem began following upgrade to Windows XP + BIOS A09
  • Problem ONLY occurs for me following resume (after eject from docking station). It is OK from a cold boot
  • Connected USB devices: Microsoft Natural KeyboardPro, Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer
  • Problem persists after upgrade to BIOS A10
  • Problem goes away if I hibernate it, then resume (until the next undock/redock of course)

Any sign of a fix?

May 22nd, 2003 14:00

clanger9,

There many instances of problems with USB devices after a system resumes from hibernate. You may want to make sure your system is running Service Pack 1. You may also want to see if any of the Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles fit your specific problem from Microsoft Knowledge Base. Use keywords such as USB hibernate and USB resume to find articles that may apply.

3 Posts

May 22nd, 2003 14:00

Hi Suzanne,

As I said above, it actually resumes from a hibernate without problems. In fact, hibernating and then resuming actually clears the problem (and is the only workaround I have at present).

The issue is resuming after an undock / (standby?) / redock / resume operation.

I have searched the KB - as far as I can tell this is not an XP issue (there are no errors, problems or events reported by the operating system). If necessary, I may be able to try a dock/suspend/redock/resume operation using an alternative operating system to check this.

I am running XP SP1.

6 Posts

January 14th, 2004 06:00

clanger9, have you figured out a solution to this problem? I'm experiencing the exact same thing and so has paulnerd in this post: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=latit_input&message.id=5309&highlight=latitude+usb+c400#M5309

11 Posts

January 14th, 2004 21:00

Just before I left town for the holidays, I ordered a new battery from Dell so I'd have an extra one for my Latitude C640 laptop.  With it came a CD including a recommendation from DELL to upgrade my BIOS to A09. So I did.

Prior to leaving town (with my laptop), I attempted to do a backup to my external hard drive (Western Digital), which I have been using successfully (through a USB port on the docking station).  The laptop does not recognize the hard drive.

I went away on vacation, came back three weeks later, tried again. Still no go.

I, too, believe this is a result of the "upgrade" to the A09 BIOS.

Can I "downgrade" back to A08? If so, how?

Thanks.

Jillaine

11 Posts

January 14th, 2004 23:00

More information...

I tried troubleshooting this with the windows troubleshooter program.

One of the things the "troubleshooter" recommended was using the device manager to double check to see if it recognized the device. The DM did recognize the device.

The troubleshooter then recommended to uninstall the driver and reinstall it. (I had previously checked to see if an updated driver was available; one was not).  So I uninstalled the driver and rebooted/restarted and windows automatically noticed the "new" hardware, and automatically installed the driver, informing me "the device is ready to use" but the device (external hard drive) is still not showing up in "My Computer" and I cannot make backups to it, or save to it, etc...

So... it seems like the laptop knows its there; the system knows its there, but I can't access the drive or its contents. Please help!

-- Jillaine

 

11 Posts

January 14th, 2004 23:00

UGH! It's getting worse!

After writing the above, I turned off my computer. I reconnected it with the docking station, plugging my USB cable for the external hard drive into the back of the docking station, and rebooted.

Up came the "Detecting new hardware" -- I don't know why. It had already detected it before. Is there something about the docking station that makes it need to "re-recognize" hardware?  So I watched and waited for the "your device is ready to use" and instead got the message "Unknown device" and when I look at the device manager, the hard drive is not there (WDC WD800BB-75DKA0 USB Device).

There is, however, "Unknown Device" under the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers"

I'm guessing that's my hard drive, but I'm afraid to do anything further at this point.

UGH!

Please help!

Jillaine

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