Abit AN8 Ultra won't post with ANY USB devices at all, any ideas?

[8bit]

Hello,

I created this as a separate thread to my thread about the AN8 Ultra crashing on install as I've resolved that issue. Basically what happens now is that the machine won't POST when there are any USB devices attached whatsoever, mice, keyboard, webcam, flash disk, nothing. Additionally, even when the USB controller drivers that came with the mobo are installed and XP is running, plugging any USB device in results in nothing happening at all.

If it was just XP not seeing stuff I'd have thought it was a driver issue but the board won't POST so I'm stumped, other than a faulty board. The board has the latest BIOS from abit's website and I did the "clear CMOS" thing after flashing the BIOS as advised.

In the BIOS I have the following USB related options:

USB Controller - options are "Disabled", "V1.1+V2.0" (currently selected), V1.1
USB Memory type - options are "SHADOW" (currently selected) and "Base Memory"
USB Keyboard Support - options are "Enabled" and "Disabled", tried both settings
USB Mouse Support - options as for USB Keyboard, again tried both

when it attempts to POST the LED status display on the bottom right corner of the board says 50 which the manual informs me means "USB Initialise". No USB hubs are attached, this behaviour happens even when devices are attached to the hardwired ports on the board itself as well as when attached to front panel sockets.

Any ideas? I'm losing sleep over this thing now and I'll probably never buy another ABit board again...

[BUFF]

So you are on BIOS19?
& you are sure that it's any USB device as it usually comes down to 1 or 2?

Have you tried just V1.1?

Unfortunately this seems to be affecting a small no. of users across various mfrs nF4 boards - I know for a fact that it's been reported on both DFI & MSI nF4 boards also so it's a fair bet that there will be others too

[8bit]

we were on 18 until I read your post, now I've just flashed it to 19 and no difference. It won't post with a USB mouse attached.

as far as I'm concerned a mobo that won't post with a USB mouse attached is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. My customer does have PS2 mouse and keyboard and it will boot with those attached but in it's current state it's still unacceptable.

Tried just 1.1 mode on both BIOS revisions, no joy. It won't even post if theres a USB mouse attached and the onboard USB controller is disabled altogether...

thanks so far, any further ideas...?

[8bit]

oh i've just discovered some more USB options, current settings in bold:

USB Park Mode (enabled or disabled)
USB TD Reads (ISO queue or non-ISO Queue)
USB Periodic Data Reads (ISO queue or non-ISO Queue)
USB Asyn Data Reads (ISO queue or non-ISO Queue)

going to try fiddling with these. BUFF, do you know what your settings for USB are just now?

[BUFF]

V1.1+2.0
Shadow
enabled
enabled

Disabled
iso-queue
iso-queue
non-iso queue

[Agent]

What PSU do you have ?
If you totaly power down the system (remove the power cord / hit the switch on the PSU), does it make a difference when booting up again ?
I had simlar issues and it turned out to be a dodgy (q-tec ) PSU being arsey with the standby voltage. A Tagan later and it was sorted.
The issue wasnt exactly the same, but close - it occasionaly wouldnt boot with a USB mouse + keyboard, but would always fail to boot with a USB modem plugged in (assume it was drawing too much).

[BUFF]

I had simlar issues and it turned out to be a dodgy (q-tec ) PSU being arsey with the standby voltage. A Tagan later and it was sorted.
The issue wasnt exactly the same, but close - it occasionaly wouldnt boot with a USB mouse + keyboard, but would always fail to boot with a USB modem plugged in (assume it was drawing too much).

It's fair to say that a sizeable chunk of people at Abit-USA with USB problems had iffy PSU's/swapped PSUs & fixed - not all but noticeable.

[8bit]

hmmm same as this one then...

I've tried disabling the USB power on the advice of the nice man I spoke to at ABit tech support a moment ago. No joy.

The man told me that there is a known issue with these boards and *some* USB devices which they hope to fix in a future BIOS release. Guess we have to stick to PS/2 for the moment and not use his iPod, scanner, printer, ADSL modem, anything vaguely useful

if anyone has any further ideas you'll be saving 2 guys from male pattern baldness and high blood pressure if you would be so kind as to offer them!

TIA
8bit

PS. Thanks for checking that stuff and your help BUFF.

[8bit]

we were using a EZ COOL 400w POS that came with the case. It only has a 20 pin header for the motherboard which is expecting a 24 pin. I was told this was fine but I tried my nice Akasa PaxPower 460w with the 24 pin connector and got the same problems.

this machine (currently) has only 1 Maxtor 80Gb and a DVD ROM besides the motherboard connections. My akasa PSU powers my rig below so from that I think we can safely rule out power since it's the same on the cheap PSU. Still going to replace that if possible for fear of it frying something....

[BUFF]

nF4 seems to need better/more power than VIA K8T800 or indeed nF3.
Both myself & Agent have various USB devices plugged in no probs - as I said it seems to afflict a small % of nF4 boards from various (probably every) mfrs.

[8bit]

ok this is the machine spec (only currently powered devices listed):

Abit AN8 Ultra
AMD athlon64 3500 venice
ATI Radeon X300SE (passively cooled)
the little audio card that came with it
1x Maxtor Diamondmax 10 80Gb
1x DVD ROM drive
2x 512Mb arianet PC4000 RAM dual channel mode (tested fine with memtest86)
1x floppy drive

check my specs in my sig and chuck in about 5 USB attached and USB powered devices, some lights, a stack of fans and a Creative Audigy sound card. Is my akasa 460w that runs that lot really going to struggle with the spec above???

[Agent]

I would just like to state for the record, that the system with the NF4 and Q-tec was not built by me

The only other thing that comes to mind, although unlikely, is perhaps a grounding issue when having any USB devices plugged in.
Are you using the extended USB ports (from the pin header on the mobo), or the ones at the back ? or both ?

[Agent]

ok this is the machine spec (only currently powered devices listed):

Abit AN8 Ultra
AMD athlon64 3500 venice
ATI Radeon X300SE (passively cooled)
the little audio card that came with it
1x Maxtor Diamondmax 10 80Gb
1x DVD ROM drive
2x 512Mb arianet PC4000 RAM dual channel mode (tested fine with memtest86)
1x floppy drive

check my specs in my sig and chuck in about 5 USB attached and USB powered devices, some lights, a stack of fans and a Creative Audigy sound card. Is my akasa 460w that runs that lot really going to struggle with the spec above???

A 460w Akasa shouldnt have any problems with that unless its giving unstable voltages. The NF4 platform can be very picky about PSU's. Then again, to have the same issue with 2 different ones does seem unlikely.

Time to play with some parts.
Take out the audio card. Unplug the HD / DVD, one RAM module, and kill the floppy drive.
With the IDE devices and floppy, make sure you unplug the ribbon cable too - it can cause problems if they cable is left in with the drive having no power too it.
Put in 1 USB device, somthing basic like a pen drive, and give it a shot on your 460w PSU.

[8bit]

it happens no matter what ports we use. We've tried the 4 on the back of the mobo itself, the ones connected with the connector block that go to the back PCI slot area and the ones I wired up with the horrible little bunches of wires that go to the front panel.

I'll pull the front panel ones out but i'm not entirely hopeful, I'm pretty sure I wired them up right...

[8bit]

ok pulled out the front panel cables and it works now. in my defence the little cable connectors use very different terminology than the motherboard manual uses. Lets never speak of this again

/request "numpty of the month on hexus" award



not convinced we're out of the woods tho as the only USB device I have attached just now (and it wasn't even on one of the possibly incorrectly wired ports) is an old Dell optical mouse. but it certainly POSTed OK with that mouse attached when it wouldn't before.

Thanks all for the input!

[8bit]

hmm just as i thought, not out of the woods yet (sorry if it looks like I'm spamming my own thread!). It just froze at the same point on POST with the 50 code stuck on the status LED readout. we're back on his questionable PSU now tho so I'm still suspecting that.