Help with a USB hub - Gigabyte mobo problem in Windows 7

[fohat.digs]

I have been pulling my hair out for days, and one of you geniuses will probably know a way to help me.

Last week, I rebuilt/rearranged/reassembled my computer with a new Gigabyte motherboard and SSD boot drive. It is a big tower with LOTS of components inside, and I like to use 2 powered USB hubs. This has worked fine with my Asus motherboard for years. One runs my printers, scanner, etc, and the other sits at the back of the desk to handle shuffling keyboards and mice, along with other random peripherals such as my camera.

For whatever reason, the computer will not boot from a completely cold state (ie everything turned off and the power strip itself shut down) with the USB hubs attached. Not even a beep or a POST, although when I unplug the USB connection, it boots immediately - without me pressing the power button again!

If I have shut down the computer, but not turned off the power strip (that is, the USB hubs have stayed powered on continuously), this does not happen, and everything boots perfectly well.

What is going on? And how do I fix it?

Like many people, my case is buried under a lot of junk in the corner, and I can't keep moving it to reach around and fiddle with USB plugs.

Thank you in advance!

[damorgue]

I have no idea really, but have you tried the USB settings in BIOS like 'legacy USB' and stuff?

Some' boot from removable device' setting which messes with things perhaps? Although it should halt only when it should boot the OS, not before.

There are sometimes also settings for when to power USB, as a delay can keep peripherals from getting power and starting too soon, but I have only ever seen that one one motherboard.

I am just grasping for straws here, but perhaps some suggestions are better than nothing.

[fohat.digs]

I appreciate your suggestions, but I had tried them already.

I have a 4-plug primary power box that runs the PC and 2 monitors, and also from that, a secondary power strip.

The secondary power strip has the peripherals (printers, scanner, etc) along with the USB hubs and comes "on" when the primary is powered up.

When I push the button on the front of the computer, from a cold start, with everything plugged in, I do not even get a "beep" although the power light beside the switch shows a tiny hint of light for just a split second.

At that point, if I reach around to the back and unplug the USB plug that is connected to the printers, etc, the computer beeps and POSTs immediately without my touching the power button again!

[TheProfosist]

Did u accidently plug them in usb 3.0 ports because mine does the same thing when stuff is in the usb 3.0 ports.

[fohat.digs]

Big salute to Da Man!

I think that must be it. I have 3 pairs of USB ports on the back, the middle pair being 3.0

I cleared out all but the 2 hubs (I would have preferred to leave the external hard drive direct rather than going through the hubs, but it may not matter) and a wireless dongle.

That seems to have turned the trick.

Too bad, I could have used those nice ports on the back, the way my rig is buried behind the desk, if something can't be plugged it all the time, it won't be plugged in at all!

It must be this way for many, if not most, people, so it pretty much renders those ports useless .......

Thank you so much!

[TheProfosist]

yea no prob like i said i had the same problem because the usb 3.0 on my x79 board are 3rd party no on the intel chipset

[fohat.digs]

Here is an update, in case others have problems with Gigabyte motherboards.

My problem seemed solved, after various tinkering, but eventually kept coming back.

I discussed the problem with a technician at the store, and he indicated that others had experienced similar or related USB/boot problems.

He said that it has been reported that these motherboards will often recognize a USB device once, but then fail to recognize it afterwards.

I was trying to boot with 2 powered USB 2.0 hubs connected (I also plugged a wireless wi-fi dongle into one of the USB 3.0 ports and left the other one empty). One hub hosted 2 printers and a scanner, on the other side of the room (hence the need for power) and the other came up onto my work desk, on a short lead, to accommodate my keyboard(s) and mice.

My problem was solved by replacing one of the powered hubs with an un-powered one. Apparently, the second powered hub, with my I/O devices attached at boot, was confusing the motherboard. When I went with a simple, un-powered, 4-port Toshiba hub, it seemed satisfied.

For reference, I had been using a pair of cheap Chinese-made powered USB hubs in this way for over a year, with my Asus motherboard, with no problem. My first attempt was to replace the hubs, and I used a square 4-port hub by Inland for the printers, and the longer black 7-port hub shown below for the keyboards, etc. This one looks identical to the previous Chinese ones but was branded Inland and sold retail at Micro Center.

I had previously liked these hubs, they are rated at 5V, 2A, which seemed pretty good. Maybe my understanding is faulty, but I thought that each USB connection was limited to 500ma, and so even with all my ports populated, each could still draw nearly 300ma.

Could it be possible that with 1 keyboard and 1 or 2 mice connected at boot-up, the hub was actually too powerful, and was sending the mobo into some sort of panic?

[Leslieann]

The hub can't be too powerful, it will only deliver 5volts, and amps are determined by the device attached, they take only what they need. It can however be under powered.

I happen to have a very similar hub (same but with detachable usb cable) and it has caused me some grief as well. Like yours it would work once and not again, other times it worked fine as a normal hub. Using it on a USB 1.1 system was problematic, combining it with a KVM only made the problem worse, especially if the KVM is 1.1.

The first thing to note is that these hubs are junk, but what did we expect. This is probably the biggest issue. It's possible, but unlikely that the power supply (or the hub itself) may actually be under powered/bad and the hub could be putting the port over the max rating.  Your new hub, being designed as unpowered may drop it into the acceptable range. My keyboard is actually connected through mine right now though.

It's also possibly a Gigabyte issue. Every few years I try another Gigabyte and almost always I come away with a bad taste in my mouth because they often include some strange bit of hardware or bios that is oddball and creates issues. I know many absolutely adore them, but I always had issues. My latest has finally been the exception, as much as I like my Asus Maximus Gene, my Sniper M3 is simpler, and cheaper. I still have trust issues though, as Gigabyte has yet to eliminate the reboot issues on some of their Z68 lineup.


In all likely hood, while there may be an issue with having two hubs with the same hardware I.D., it's most likely a failure to conform to USB specifications. A lot of junk devices don't conform to spec, and will not operate properly when attached to a hub, this includes hubs. While this is covered by the USB specifications, USB is a bit loose on specs and even worse on enforcement. Using different models, and re-arranging the order sometimes has gotten them to work as it makes them unaware that they are chained, but it's not supposed to be a problem. I had to do this on a webcam a few years ago and last year I invested in a long distance, active USB cable instead, it's a lot less hassle.

[fohat.digs]

My last computer re-build, 2 or 3 years ago, was a wasted week trying to get Gigabyte motherboards to work (I returned at least 2 to the store) and finally having the Asus boot up on the first go.

This time, after getting a great bundle deal on the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3, an AM3+ and 8GB of RAM, I was about to give up on the Gigabyte again, until I realized that it was a USB hub issue.

The people at the store feel certain that it is a Gigabyte issue, although maybe I am pushing the envelope by trying to boot with 2 powered hubs simultaneously (although the Asus never even gave me a hiccup in the same configuration).

I agree and disagree with you about the cheap Chinese hubs being junk. I have bought several of them and most have been flawless while a few have been dead. But maybe it was handshaking failures rather than device failure .....

Since all seems to be well, now, my life is too short to dwell on it any more.

In a couple of years, when I go through it again, I will be moaning again!
 

[TheProfosist]

My board that has that issue i talked about was intel and was fixed after a bios update