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Thread ID: 28853 2003-01-03 03:33:00 USB 2 CardBus and USB 2 External Hard Drive ericto (2902) Press F1
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110674 2003-01-03 03:33:00 A friend recently bought a CompUSA USB 2 PC Card and a Western Digital 120 GB USB 2 External Hard Drive for me while he was in Hawaii. Both devices were recognised by my PC (Compaq Presario 2700 US) without problems. However, my external hard drive wouldn't work with the USB 2 PC Card Adapter.

I am a computer literate person and I have exhausted everything I know into solving the problem. Here is what I have observed:

1> Before I installed Win XP SP1, I used the USB 2 PC Card drivers provided. It didn't work with the external drive.
2> After I downloaded and installed Win XP SP1, installation of the PC Card was automatic. Win XP did not ask for the supplied drivers. Drivers installed was the "NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)" (usbport.sys, usbhub.sys, hccoin.dll and usbehci.sys). The version is 5.1.2600.1106.
3> The PC Card has a NEC pb720100 USB2 controller chipset (visit www.necel.com for tech details).
4> The USB2 external drive works fine when plugged to an existing USB1.1 port on the notebook, except that the transfer speed is very slow.
5> My Fuji FinePix A202 (USB1.1 device) digicam works well with the USB 2 PC Card.

CompUSA USB V2.0 CardBus Adapter details:
-- 2 USB2.0 type A ports
-- P/N: CBU2N-N-FS
-- S/N: 02091900225
-- FS-BSI-NEC-720100
-- CompUSA SKU#293596
-- The PC Card has a socket for a 5V power adapter.

Compaq Presario 2700US details:
-- P/N: 470020-369
-- mobile 1 GHz P-IIIm CPU
-- 256 MB Ram, 20 GB hard drive
-- Win XP Home, SP1 installed
-- DVD rom, CD-RW, floppy
-- 2xUSB1.1, 1xIEEE1394
-- 8 MB AGP

I am not sure if the problem is hardware or software. Whether updated drivers for the PC Card will solve the problems. I have spent a lot of time looking for alternate or updated drivers but couldn't find these on the net.

I have written to tech support of the USB 2 PC Card adapter but haven't yet received a reply.

If anybody encountered this problem before or have any ideas, please help. Thank you.
ericto (2902)
110675 2007-12-19 13:40:00 I have the same problem!

Just bought a USB 2.0 cardbus for my old laptop (only has 1.0 USB) and an external hard drive case for an old laptop hard drive.

The USB 2.0 cardbus works with other devices, the external HDD works with my USB 1.0 ports, but the two can't seem to work together.

When the external HDD is plugged into the USB 2.0 cardbus, it recognises a device, but the drive doesn't show up in My Computer and after a few minutes there's a failure error and it reverts to 'unknown device'.

Anyone have any insight on this?
jabalong (2903)
110676 2007-12-19 21:55:00 My first thought would be that the CardBus adapter is supplying insufficient power to spin up the USB2 HDD. If you listen very closely you should be able to tell if the drive spins up (a whir as opposed to click, click, click).

Good luck.
SaAB (1292)
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