Hi,

After hours of digging, I am still not able to get the USB ports to work. The mobo is imperial and the CPU is a Celeron 1.9GHz running Win 2K Pro SP4 and WinXP Pro SP2(dual boot).

The problem:
When I plug in my USB card reader, the LED on the reader lit up but that's it. The mobo doesn't acknowledge the esixtence of the reader. I tested the reader on my other PC and MAC, it works. My other PC runs WinXP Home SP2 and it works perfectly. I went into the device manager, looked into USB controller,

On the MOBO, it says everything is working properly and it says:
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller-24C2
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller-24C4
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller-24C7
Standard Enhenced PCI to USB Host Controller
USB 2.0 Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

On the good machine, the one that runs WinXP Home SP2, it says:
Intel(R) 82801EB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller-24D2
Intel(R) 82801EB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller-24D4
Intel(R) 82801EB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller-24D7
Intel(R) 82801EB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller-24DE
Standard Enhenced PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

If someone can help me with this I will really appreciate. I read and tried various thing from MSKB and some other froum to no avail. Quick, before I am going bold!!!!!!  

MacPCI've never used a card reader; I just connect my digital camera directly to my computer to transfer photos.  Does the card reader require a special DRIVER to be installed?  Do other USB devices work on that computer?  Does it not work under either OS (on the dual boot machine)?  

Do both your PCS have the same motherboard?  I noticed the similarity in Device Manager info.Hi Soybean,

Thanks for the reply. As a matter of fact, the mobos are very simular.
I did install the driver for the USB Reader on the bad PC, it doesn't wrok, on the good PC and the Mac, I didn't even need to install the drive, just plug the reader in and it works. I also tried to plug my camera in, on the good PC and the Mac, work flawlessly, but on the bad one, the camera just say initilising USB and stuck there forever.   And I know for sure hardwarewise everything is fine, it is a software issue, I tried also install two other USB controllers that MS found for me, and yes, I tried it on Win2k and WinXP, man I tried almost everything I can think of and my poor hair line is receeding fast!!!! I have the feeling it's probably something really stupid like something I forget to turn on, or something like that in the end but I just can't think of what it may be. :-? :-? :-?

My last resort is to buy a PCI to USB card, but that's too easy, where is the fun?

MacPCYou say you "know for sure hardwarewise everything is fine".  Why do think so when neither your card reader nor your camera work on that computer?  Again, do any other USB devices work on that computer?  Have you tried all USB ports, front and back?  Have you ever successfully used a USB device with that computer?  

Does Device Manager show any yellow triangles, any unknown devices?  
Did you buy or build that computer?  What is the model number of your motherboard?Well, the reason I think all hardware are fine because my two USB printers, my USB camera and the reader all work on the other PC and Mac. And the mobo came out of a eMachine T-1840, a Trigem Imperial with a 1.9GHz Celeron. Everything was working fine on that Trigem Imperial mobo, the only reason I got this mobo is because my friend needed a better mobo so I swapped with him.

I built this machine using the Trigem Imperial mobo-the mobo for the T-1840,  it's been working great. all I/O except for the USB. The complication came in when I install the driver for various devices, I downloaded the drivers from eMachine for the T-1840, but I got te sound, video and everything working, so my conclusion at this point is,

1. One or more of the drivers is not compatable with the OS, but how COULD that be? the mobo was running on WinXP Pro SP2 before, the same WinXP version that I have,

2. This is what puzzles me, in the device manager, there's no yellow "Bermuda" triangle and no exclimation mark or question mark of any sort, and

3, Which I think may be the most likely senario, something is missing, but what? what am I missing? :-? :-?

Reading the MSKB just confuses me further.

MacPCTry this on the bad machine...don't skip any steps or get ahead of yourself.
Power down.
Unplug all USB devices.
Power up, let everything initialise.
Open Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager.
Find ALL references to USB at the bottom of the list of System Devices.
Right clik all of them and select "Delete"
You will get a warning message...ignore it.
Shut down and re-boot.
Windows will re-install your USB drivers.
After a clean re-boot power down and re-introduce 1 USB device and see if it is fixed.
If so power down and ADD one device at a time.

You should be good to go...

patio.   8-)Hi patio,

I actually tried this many times already, it doesn't work for whatever reason.
They other thing I don't understand is there are six USB ports on the mobo,
4 on the back and two on the mobo that connect by cable to the front panel, shouldn't there be six USB controller drivers and six USB hubs in the device manager?

MacPCJust to follow up on this USB issue. I finally gave in and brought a cheap $5 PCI to USB card, now it works. However, it still doesn't answer my question as in why it didn't work on the USB on the mobo. I just plug the card, no need to install any drivers on Win2K and WinXp then there it goes. Could it be there resources ran out out?

MacPCIt's more likely the motherboard has issues.  You might be right, I was so sure the mobo is good because everything else is working fine. Oh well, at least I get to keep some of my hair after this.  

MacPC