Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:48:30 +0800
From: Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LIB] ALi USB 2.0/FireWire combo card headaches

Gah! OK it gets weirder ... I just tried my USB2.0 flashcard reader again and lo and behold, it all works in the Libretto! I even had the following:

Top slot: USB2.0/Firewire combo Cardbus card with USB2.0 6-in-1 memory cardreader and USB2.0 to IDE converter plugged into a LiteOn CDRW drive
Bottom slot: Cardbus Wireless LAN card
PS/2 port: Optical mouse


All this all going at the same time and the card managed to stay up! And I managed to get over a meg a second off the memory card reader (and as mentioned before I could get *almost* 10x burn speed on the CD-RW) so I'm pretty sure it was running in USB2.0 mode ...

*sigh* the thing that worries me now is not knowing why it started working ... next thing to try is to see if this all works when the laptop isn't plugged into AC power but it's 1am and I've gotta go to bed so I can get up on time tomorrow ... *sigh* hehe


On a different note, can anyone suggest any reason why 3.5" and 5.25" USB2.0 HDD cases are soo much more expensive than 2.5" USB2.0 HDD cases given the electronics are identical to the extent that my USB2.0 to IDE converter involved taking the electronics out of a 2.5" USB2.0 HDD case, grafting a full sized IDE connector onto it and plugging it into a CD-RW drive, 3.5" IDE HDD drive or whatever and adding $15AUD worth of power supply and linear regulators (that's the power bypass hack I was talking about)? I managed to score my USB2.0 HDD case on eBay for $20AUD, the cheapest I've seen 3.5" and 5.25" cases go for is well above $50AUD!


And whilst we're on that note, does anyone know if any USB2.0 to IDE converters exist that support more than one drive (ie. master/slave) per channel? I've just tried putting a master and slave onto the controller I've been playing with, it seems to pick up which ever drive answers first regardless of the master/slave setting and ignoring anything else, the USB1.1 setup at work picks up whichever is master and ignores the slave ...


- Raymond


At 08:28 AM 16/01/2004 -0800, you wrote:
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:26:32 +0800
From: Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LIB] ALi USB 2.0/FireWire combo card headaches

Hi Nikolas,



Here are some newer information from me. I have borrowed an external hard drive which has both USB2 and firewire extensions.

The bad news is that when plugging it to USB of the card, then it behaves the same. Lists everything, reads a bit at first and then stops and hangs. With firewire things are worse, as it returns a yellow exclamation mark in the devices list, and does not start at all.

Hmm ... well I'm able to rip DV movies off my DV camcorder at full speed through firewire without dropping frames (for a 233MHz processor I thought that was pretty impressive!) ... I've also just tried it with a USB2.0 drive pack after rigging in an external power supply (I had to do a bit of hardware hacking to get it all working) and it works beautifully! I even managed to hook up a CD burner through a USB2.0 to IDE converter and burn CDs at 10x (actually I think it's only managing 8x, it keeps underrunning its buffer and tripping into SmartBurn, either way that's still faster than USB1.0) ... I think this card just has a power draw problem (so if you're drawing less than 100mA or so from it you're OK) ...



My laptop has an internal firewire slot so I plugged the hard drive there and guess what, it works perfectly well and very fast! So I think that the problem has to do with the pcmcia card. I first thought it might have to do with the current, as the usb flash disk I tried gets power from the card. But the hard drive I tried today has its own power cable and the results are the same.

Well I have two setup variations here. One involves a USB2.0 HDD pack with its own power cable *BUT* the power supplies are linked. I suspect even when there is an external supply involved, it still leeches power. The second setup I had involved some hardware hacking and I wired an external supply directly into the hard drive, bypassing the USB2.0 HDD pack's electronics and it all works ... my suspicion is that the card reports that it can supply 500mA (the max for USB) but doesn't actually deliver (but when I've got a separate pack set up, it doesn't matter). Note that in BOTH cases, the card itself doesn't have a power supply plugged into it (I'm not using the DC in hole on the side of the card). The errors I get happen even when that's plugged in though.



I attach the card I have for you to check. Do you think our cards might be just defective items or there might be an incompatibility issue with our notebooks? I wonder what...

It looks almost identical to mine, the only difference is the label and power supply cable (mine has a switchmode plugpack instead of the PS/2 vampire tap). I think it may be slightly defective in that it leeches a little too much power and puts the PCMCIA slot into panic shutdown or something (but it works in my EPR so I'm suspecting that can supply a little more power) ..



By the way, which list is this? I just found your post using Google...

Details of how to join the list are at http://libretto.basiclink.com ... it's a useful list even if you don't own a Libretto! I've copied this email to the list for reference.



- Raymond



Raymond wrote:

Hi Nikolas,


I have similar problems to the ones you describe. I have a Fujitsu Siemens laptop, and got a Combo pcmcia card with two usb2 ports and 2 firewire. It came with a cable to connect the card externally with a normal usb port for power.


You mean the cable comes out and terminates in a USB plug? Or do you mean you have a plugpack? Mine is a normal card but it has a jack for a 12 volt plugpack to get power from an electrical outlet.


WHat happens to me is that the card installs fine (I have win xp) itself, even without the power cable.


Same here (although I'm running win2k)


When I plug my USB2 flash disk, it appears fine as a normal removable drive, and I can read the contents with no problem. However, if I try to copy some data from the usb disk, then it won't work.


Yup exactly the same problem with my USB2.0 flash cardreader. I can get a directory listing, small files (1-2k or so) come across fine, anything more kills it. I'm suspecting the USB2.0 part of things (I've just borrowed a USB1.1 hub, I'll try plugging the USB2.0 cardreader into the hub then the hub into the USB card and see what happens)


The flash disk is working fine in other laptops which have internal usb2 ports.


Yup ... indeed, my flash reader works fine in that card if I plug the card into the Libretto's EPR!


Did you have any success with solving your problem, that might help me? At the moment I haven't tested the firewire ports, because m laptop has one anyway. But I can do so, if this will give us any useful ideas.


I'm still to test the USB1.1 hub, if that works then a stopgap might be to grab a cheap USB1.1 hub (and forego USB2.0 when the card is used in the Libretto - not a huge problem for me). I'll send my results to the list.


Greetings from Greece and Happy New Year


Same to you and Greetings from Australia!


- Raymond


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