Hardware Problem/Question USB 2.0 port only works with mouse

[SaturnV]

After using a mouse plugged into the USB 2.0 port, the mouse works fine, but when I unplug it the port no longer recognises any other device - including external USB hard drives or Memory sticks - which do work in the USB 3.0 port.

I'm considering returning the Movie Server under warranty, unless the DVDFab team can come up with a software fix for this. It sounds like the port is assigned to a mouse device and is not being reset when the mouse is unplugged and another device inserted. I can't find anything in the settings menu to reset a USB port. Obviously I've already tried powering off and rebooting the MS, which does not fix the issue.

This is a very big deal because it limits the number of external disks I can plug in to the Movie Server (without using messy USB hubs etc).

I currently have 1.0.3.5 loaded.

[ejm]

I've had both keyboard and mouse connected to either port previously on a previous firmware and never had this problem.

[jimczyz]

I'm still on 1010 and staying there and I can switch from mouse to ext drive no problem.

[ting]

There are nothing software changes in SDK about this part, I think maybe there are some other problems in this USB 2.0 port.

[SaturnV]

Ting, I've checked and double-checked using several USB sticks and USB hard disks, all of which are recognised by the USB 3.0 port, but none are recognised when connected to the USB 2.0 port. It's very strange though how the mouse still works in this port. From what you say, I have a hardware failure. I am still well within the warranty period. What do you suggest?

[october262]

Ting, I've checked and double-checked using several USB sticks and USB hard disks, all of which are recognised by the USB 3.0 port, but none are recognised when connected to the USB 2.0 port. It's very strange though how the mouse still works in this port. From what you say, I have a hardware failure. I am still well within the warranty period. What do you suggest?

what are the USB sticks / USB hard discs formatted as ?? are they formatted as FAT32 ??
if you tried powering off the MS, have you tried plugging a USB stick / USB hard disc with the
power off / unplugged from the wall socket and hooking everything back up & power on the MS
and see if any of the USB sticks / USB hard discs are recognized ??

is there anyway to safely remove hardware connected to the USB ports
like you can with Desktops ??

[wasim27488]

It may or not be relevant but there is a general problem about the USB ports. I have several USB drives attaches by a hub to USB 3.0 port. Each time the server is booted up, the drives/ partitions are given a "name", eg sda1, sdc2 etc. Unfortunately, it is not possible to know which "name" will be allocated to which drive or partition. This means that the thumbnails on the movie wall may have an incorrect address as a reference to a particular movie. I am told that this is being investigated but it does seem to be a fundamental problem! What is the use of the wall if it can't correctly identify the movie?

[SaturnV]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I've tried them all already, even did (another) factory reset and left unplugged overnight. Curiously the reset button on the back does absolutely nothing! All of the USB sticks and disks I've tried work perfectly in the USB 3.0 port, and with the backward compatibility requirement of the USB standard, if it works in a USB 3 port it must work in a 2 or USB 1 port and vice-versa (albeit a USB 3.0 device won't be very fast in a 1.0 port!). It's very odd that the mouse still works and I can't help thinking the USB problem I have is related to the issue I had where some USB hard drives formatted in NTFS in a GUID partition were not recognised at all by either USB port until I reformatted as exFat - despite the fact that I have some NTFS GUID disks that were recognised!

I've also noticed how the name of a mounted USB disk changes - which is bizarre and a showstopper for the poster wall. I've reverted to version 1.0.3.5 (because I had loads of serious issues with 1.0.3.7) and in this version you can't even add the path of a locally attached device to the library search path. Glad to hear it can at least be done in principle on later versions, albeit the mount name changing!

I guess I just have to wait to see if Ting has any more to say, to decide if this is an un-fixable hardware fault - meaning I need to return the box under warranty.

[ting]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I've tried them all already, even did (another) factory reset and left unplugged overnight. Curiously the reset button on the back does absolutely nothing! All of the USB sticks and disks I've tried work perfectly in the USB 3.0 port, and with the backward compatibility requirement of the USB standard, if it works in a USB 3 port it must work in a 2 or USB 1 port and vice-versa (albeit a USB 3.0 device won't be very fast in a 1.0 port!). It's very odd that the mouse still works and I can't help thinking the USB problem I have is related to the issue I had where some USB hard drives formatted in NTFS in a GUID partition were not recognised at all by either USB port until I reformatted as exFat - despite the fact that I have some NTFS GUID disks that were recognised!

I've also noticed how the name of a mounted USB disk changes - which is bizarre and a showstopper for the poster wall. I've reverted to version 1.0.3.5 (because I had loads of serious issues with 1.0.3.7) and in this version you can't even add the path of a locally attached device to the library search path. Glad to hear it can at least be done in principle on later versions, albeit the mount name changing!

I guess I just have to wait to see if Ting has any more to say, to decide if this is an un-fixable hardware fault - meaning I need to return the box under warranty.

1. The first problem. I have talk about this problem with the engineer who responsible for the hardware, he also think that is very strange, he suggest to change the USB line, but I saw you try many different devices, like the USB storage and MemorySticks, So I think there are must be some hardware failure, or maybe wait we release the Android7 version, and try it again.

2. The second problem, about the name of mounted USB disk, we will try to let the name is the same when using the same USB port. which will be added to the new version.

3. The last question. current version, not support the USB storage be added into library, but In the develop plan of new version, this feature will come back.

Thanks.

[SaturnV]

Just to clarify, I tried a number of different types and sizes of Memory sticks, from a 128GB USB 3 stick with NTFS fielsystem, down to a really old USB 1 512MB stick with a FAT filesystem, but none are recognised - even the light on the memory stick does not flash at all. I also tried a variety of USB hard disks, all with their own power supply (so it's not a USB power issue). None of these devices work in the USB 2 port, but ALL work perfectly in the USB 3 port.

However, I discovered a keyboard also works in the USB 2.0 port, but nothing besides this or a mouse.This made me think, so I researched what is different between the USB connection of a mouse or keyboard and other devices. There is a fundamental difference which could explain how they manage to work OK, but nothing else....

A USB Keyboard and Mouse are SLOW devices, and there is a hardware pull-up resistor that the USB interface uses to recognise slow and faster devices (see here https://www.compuphase.com/electronics/usb_lowspeed.htm). Once the USB interface recognises a slow device from this pull-up resistor, the signal frequency is reduced and the polarity of the differential data is reversed.

The above does I think provide an explanation of how a hardware fault could cause a USB interface to recognise and work with these slow devices, but not with other devices - if it fails to recognise a high speed device is connected from this pull-up resistor.

This plus the fact that the USB device lamp does not flash at all makes me more convinced this is a hardware fault and less likely to be a software issue.

[wasim27488]

"

2. The second problem, about the name of mounted USB disk, we will try to let the name is the same when using the same USB port. which will be added to the new version."
Does this mean that disks connected by a USB hub and the partitions will be indiviually named?

[ting]

"

2. The second problem, about the name of mounted USB disk, we will try to let the name is the same when using the same USB port. which will be added to the new version."
Does this mean that disks connected by a USB hub and the partitions will be indiviually named?

What your mean is different USB storage devices in one USB Hub and connected to DMS ? Yes, different device will have different name.