USB (additional ports) question...

From: pawhe (reply-to_at_nospam-domain.com)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 19:15:52 +0100

I have a system based on a (circa 2001) MSI motherboard which has 2 x USB1.1
ports built in. All of my external USB devices work fine either directly to
the ports, or via a 4-port USB1.1 hub attached to one of the ports. Once the
attached/external devices USB drivers have been installed, I have moved the
position of the external device around at will (i.e. from hub to direct
port, etc.) with no issues or surprises.

For expansion and higher-speed, I have installed a (Belkin) 5 port USB2.0
PCI card. Installation o.k., XP(SP2) recognised card and installed
appropriate drivers. To make sure it was working, I unplugged one of my
external devices from the built-in USB1.1 port, and plugged it into a USB2.0
port on the new card. I was surprised when XP then announced that it had
discovered "new hardware", and proceeded to want to (re-?)install the
specific USB drivers for the external device (e.g. WinTV USB, which XP would
not have built in drivers for, and which are supplied by the vendor, with
the device).

I expected to be able to simply moved my external devices around between the
1.1 and the 2.0 ports at will, without having to re-install drivers - e.g.
USB was plug and play (to the extreme). It means serious hassle if I want to
experiment plugging the external devices into the available ports in various
combinations to find the best set-up.

Can anyone verify that the above is "normal" behaviour for two USB
installations (e.g. motherboard and expansion card) in the same machine?

Thanks,

Relevant Pages

  • Re: USB questions
    ... The purpose of the USB PC Cards is primarily to "upgrade" a PC that only has USB 1 ports to USB 2 ports, although obviously they can also be used to add more ports as well. ... The power jack on the cards, when present, is an input, without the input the card doesn't supply power to USB powered devices. ... Also, since what you need is 5 volts, supplies are fairly common and you do not need to use the supply, the supply cord or intended source that the card maker suggested ... ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: xD transfer speed through printer to computer
    ... Photosmart) which has built in card readers and a built in USB 2.0 port. ... My computer has no front USB ports, and the back ports are in use plus ... I decided to go the card reader route. ...
    (rec.photo.digital)
  • Re: usb flash drive locks up system??
    ... Seems usb conflicts are the first thing to check and if I'd found/remembered ... the scanner running usb, this problem would have been fixed immediately. ... I have a USB scanner plugged into pci usb card and that was ... have been known to blow out ports ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: USB DEVICE NOT RECOGNIZED - ALL PORTS
    ... This seems pervasive, reading the USB comments. ... Does this PCI USB CONTROLLER go inside of outside of computer? ... card, would end up on the left hand side of this picture. ... to add five USB ports. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: High speed device plugged into non-high speed port
    ... > The motherboard has six onboard USB 2.0 ports that work fine. ... I then bought another VIA VT6202 PCI USB 2.0 card, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
Loading