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Dimension E521 front USB ports Erratic
The front USB ports seem to be unreliable. Some music is lost when plugging in our SONY PS-LX300USB phonograph turntable USB signal cable into one of the front USB ports.
It works OK with one of the rear USB ports.
Any suggestions, PLEASE!
Here are the specs for the turntable we are trying to connect via the front USB ports:
Recording Audio Tracks on Your Computer
You can record audio tracks of a vinyl record on our computer by:
* Connecting the turntable and your computer using the supplied USB cable
* Using the supplied software. "Sound Forge Audio Studio LE"
System requirements for the computer to be connected to the turntable*
* Compliant computer:
IBM PC/AT or compatible computers
* Operating systems:
Windows Vista* Home Basic
Windows Vista* Home Premium
Windows Vista* Busincss Windows Vista* Ultimate
Windows* XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 or higher
Windows* XP Professional Service Pack 2 or higher
Pre-installed (manufacturer installed only)
- Operating systems other than those listed above are not supported.
- 64bit operating systems are not supported.
* Hardware Environment:
- Port: USB port**
* Required when recording audio tracks of a vinyl record onto computer via a USB connection.
** USB jack of the turntable supports USB (full speed).
Notes
* For the operating environment mentioned above the turntable is not guaranteed to operate with all computers.
* The turntable is not guaranteed to operate with home built computers, operating systems that are personally up-graded or multiple operating systems.
* The turntable is not guaranteed to operate with functions such as system suspend, sleep (stand-by mode) and hibernation, on all computers.
USB jack
Power supply:
USB bus power compliant (5 V, 100 mA)
(The power is supplied by the PC which is
connectcd with attached USB cable)
Output jack:
Plug-in-power system (Dedicated USB
jack)
USB series B connector
USB (full-speed)
We are running on Windows* XP Professional Service Pack 3
What is USB (full-speed)?
RoHe
10 Elder
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March 18th, 2014 19:00
Rear USB ports tend to provide more power than front USB ports so power may be the issue. If you disconnect all USB devices, except mouse and keyboard, will the turntable work properly on a front port?
You could connect a USB extension cable to a rear port and keep the other end handy on the desk so you can easily plug in your turntable without having to climb behind the PC.
USB (full speed) is USB 1.1. Your PC probaby has USB 2 which will work with a USB 1.1 device.
cia_cat
10 Posts
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March 19th, 2014 09:00
Thank you for responding.
The rear USB ports are used by:
Keyboard
Cannon Pixma iP6000D printer (usually turned off)
Onetouch 9320 USB Scanner (usually turned off)
Monitor USB services
Speakers - Bottom (often turned off)
Wireless Mouse - Side
Empty - Bottom
Empty - Side
Does having the printer, scanner and speakers turned off the same as unplugged?
It looks like the Front USB port circuit board may be connected to the motherboard by a ribbon cable. Is it likely that 'exercising' (unplugging and replugging) that ribbon cable connector might clean off the contacts to make it more reliable? That connector has a plastic ring handle. That has not happened since ~ 2007.
I will try to get more precise USB 'power' requirements from SONY, the turntable manufacturer.
speedstep
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March 19th, 2014 09:00
Front ports typically only provide 100ma as they are on a passive hub.
This is well below the 500ma that devices like cameras want.
RoHe
10 Elder
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March 19th, 2014 12:00
Can you tell if the turntable messes up if any of those power hungry devices are turned on?
And as SpeedStep reiterated, front ports may not provide adequate power for the turntable.
If you really must use a front port, maybe you should buy an externally powered USB hub with its own power brick. Plug the brick into the wall and the hub into whichever front port you want to use. Connect the turntable through the USB hub to the PC.
fkasperski
11 Posts
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April 17th, 2014 08:00
Hi,
I take care of about 300 Dell PCs at a large facility.
I had a lot of problems with finger print readers working intermittently.
I worked 2 weeks on fixing this problem, as it affected several PCs. All affected PCs used the rear USB ports only (no front ports were used).
I used a USB Bus analyzer software program and found a ton of dropped USB bus data with the baseline dell configuration.
I had concerns about the power because we had 4 USB ports being used.
I added a COTS power supply and then things worked better, but I still had some dropped USB data according to the USB Bus analyzer.
I installed a PCI 4-port USB 2.0 circuit card, with an NEC chip-set.
I ran all USB devices through the PCI USB circuit card ports.
PROBLEM SOLVED!
The COTS power supply and the add-in USB 4-port card fixed all USB issues.
The USB Bus analyzer showed NO dropped bus data when the USB devices were connected to the add-in card.
I'm not sure who makes the USB chip-set of the motherboard but apparently it has issues. Offloading all USB bus traffic to the PCI card USB 4-port fixed the USB intermittent bus problems.
It was a pain having to upgrade several dell PCs, as I had to find COTS power supplies with specific dimensions, so as to not interfere with the side door locking mechanism.
RoHe
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April 17th, 2014 10:00
@fkasperski -
Thanks for that info. Did you try updating the Intel chipset driver to see if that would help with your USB problem?
fkasperski
11 Posts
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April 17th, 2014 12:00
I did the driver updates first.
Didn't seem to do anything for me.
fkasperski
11 Posts
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April 17th, 2014 13:00
You might try downloading a DEMO of the various "USB Bus software analyzers" and seeing what the USB bus is doing.
I had found about 5 or 6 companies with DEMOs for download. Most had at least a 14 day trial.
(I located by just google-ing for Software USB bus analyzer)
You could then launch the bus analyzer app, then remove all the USB devices from the PC.
As the software is running you could plug USB devices back in, one at a time, to see if they are being detected right away, if they do anything unusual, etc. (I'd plug the USB mouse in first, to control windows and bus software).
My problematic USB devices would drop packets and throw up error messages, which were helpful in troubleshooting.
I also used USB "in-line voltage, current, power" testers. They were not as helpful in troubleshooting as the analyzer software was.