Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2004 12:12:53 +0800 From: Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ALi USB 2.0/FireWire combo card headaches
Hi all!
Firstly, Happy New Year everyone!
Now for the headache ... I've just got myself a cardbus 2 port USB2.0 and 2 port FireWire combo cards (with external power adapter), based on an ALi USB/firewire controller, for my Libretto 100CT (running Win2k) but I'm having one big headache trying to get the darn thing working! It works fine in the EPR's slots but crashes if I use it in the Libby's own slots and plug in anything that draws any reasonable amount of current (even with the card's external power supply) and/or runs in USB2.0 mode. Anyone got any ideas? Here's the story.
Installed the drivers, plugged the power into the card, plugged the card into the laptop, driver installation required a few reboots and it was happily seeing 4 USB2.0 root controllers and a firewire controller. Seems OK (although I don't know why it saw 4 controllers ... maybe the chip supports 4?) ... I plug in my USB2.0 TravelFlash 6-in-1 reader, reboots, picks it up OK, plug a CompactFlash card into the TravelFlash reader and I can get a directory listing. Then I try to copy a file off the card. Power light on the reader blinks a few times then goes out, the computer recons I've got to reboot and then pops up a 'delayed write' error on the card device (this cardreader I've had working both on USB2.0 controllers on other machines as well as on the USB port of the libretto's EPR). I reboot and try reading an image off the card, I get about 200k or so into it before I get the same problem. I also tried with a memory stick in the TravelFlash reader, still no go. *sigh* OK so next test, I plug my Sony Clie into the adapter through a charge/sync cable (links the 5V line from the USB port into the charge pin on the Clie, draws a couple of hundred mA I think). It picks it up as a sony mass storage device but after a few driver install windows pop up, the screen on the Libretto blinks a few times and the laptop shuts down.
I start getting somewhat annoyed at this point so I try putting the combo card into the left socket of the EPR. This time though I forgot to plug the power into the card. Put the laptop on, plug the laptop power into the EPR, boot it all up and after about 10 minutes of thrashing whilst the drivers sort themselves out, lo and behold, the cardreader plugged into the thing works (and gets a darn good speed too, 15 meg file coming off a CompactFlash card in about 10 seconds and no activity flash when I actually tried to read the file on disk or eject the card so it wasn't a delayed read) ... if I plug the external power supply into the card I can even get my USB2.0 external disk drive (draws up to 750mA, yes this is out of spec!) to work without crashing the card. Same goes for my Clie charge/sync cable.
So I figure something is up here, I plug the card back into the libby's own slots (off the EPR) and try it with a USB mouse, absolutely no problems. I then try plugging my Clie in using a sync-only USB1.1 cable (so it isn't drawing any current from the power pins) and it works nicely reading and writing stuff from the memory stick (I've got a driver that makes the Clie's memory stick slot look like a removable drive). Bluetooth USB1.1 adapter in and it also works nicely.
Anyone had similar experiences? Anyone been able to get a combo card (or USB2.0 cards in general) to run stable in the libby's PCMCIA slots (as opposed to the EPR's slots)? I'm yet to grab a camcorder to try out the firewire ports, it'll be interesting to see what happens there ...
- Raymond
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