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Home / Other I-Appliances / Virgin Webplayer USB/Ethernet Adapter instability problems with USB functionality

USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile The "Different Versions of the MB" thread seems to have died with no posts for over a month. Maybe the title was a little misleading. Nevertheless, we still seem to be having problems maintaining a USB to Ethernet adapter connection. My D-Link DSB-H3E (10mb) adapter died after a few days and tech support diagnosed it as a failed chip. I upgraded to a DSB-H3ETX (100mb)it worked for about 10 minutes and died. ( Once again tech support diagnosed a failed chip. USELESS) By disconnecting the cat5 cable from the hub and re-booting and then re-connecting the cat 5 it starts working again for 5 or 10 minutes. Legacy support is turned off in the bios. This is the board with the resistor next to the HDD plug. Any ideas? 08-22-2001 18:58:47

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) kray Profile | Email We're going to need someone with in-depth knowledge of the USB protocol for this I guess. 08-23-2001 01:27:37

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) petejengkol Profile Hi.. I have a webplayer , it's working flawless with USB ethernet (dlink 10Mbit). The one I'm suspecting is the power, which provided for USB device, it seems the power rate is not enough to drive usb device.., try to use usb hub with external power... so far that I know... Peace Pete 08-23-2001 11:16:16

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile Kray, I think you're right. Pete, you are definitely on to something. I originally had the d-link 10mb hub and couldn't get it to work when powered off of the port. Someone posted some power capability information on another thread. But what's confusing me is that when the ethernet port goes down, the USB ports are still active. I am using the wall transformer to power the hub. 08-23-2001 14:48:34

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 1 times) vadim Profile So how do you think we can give the usb more juice.... I have same problems with usb nic (SMC) and really want to fix it. Any ideas? How can we fix it with usb powered hub... 08-23-2001 16:24:17

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) markdd Profile | Email I just found this BBS, and I am also having the USB/Ethernet issue. I have the dlink-650.. I am off tonight to get a d-link self-powered hub and see if the cures the blues. Anyone else having anyluck with this approach? Markdd 08-24-2001 09:46:51

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile before you run off and waste money on a powered hub. I have used both the 10mb and 100mb d-link USB hub/ethernet adapters, both powered with a wall transformer and have problems with both. I am going to yank the hdd out of my WP with the resistor and put it in the other one that doesn't have the resistor to see what happens. 08-24-2001 12:34:54

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile OK, now I'm really frustrated. The webplayer without the resister next to the hdd connector won't even begin to communicate over the ethernet. The USB ports on the hub work perfectly. I've tried every order of rebooting, re-loading drivers with and without the usb and the eternet cable plugged in. Legacy support is turned off. And the hub works fine on my laptop runing ME, communicates over the network, no prob. 08-24-2001 14:34:53

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile Just for kicks I left my laptop streaming audio with the d-link usb ethernet hub, it's been going for about 5 hours now with no problems. Kray, how are you coming with trying to adapt a PCI NIC to the mini pci connector? That may be our only salvation. Or are other ppl having success with other USB network adaptors? 08-24-2001 17:37:38

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile Why would it only lose network access and not USB hub capabilities? 08-24-2001 17:39:13

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) markdd Profile | Email Well, at least I saved my recipt. (Something I learned to do painfully). Here is my neat trick: If I plug in the D-Link DSB-H4 hub, and put the 650 into the hub, my WP can't get any signal to the usb/ethernet. If I just plug the USB ethernet directly into the back of the WP I get about 5 minutes out of it. I don't know if it makes a difference, I can't find a driver for the PCI bridge either. (In the device manager it has the Yellow dot on it.) odd odd odd. Mdd 08-24-2001 18:13:54

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) aznstud87 Profile umm, is the USB hub self powered or has an external power source? I connected a Linksys 10 mbit USB to ethernet adapter to a Linksys externally powered hub and I have yet to lose network connection. Even on large file d/l. I also have a usb kayboard connected to the hub too. I believe that by connecting an externally power USB hub, USB stability increase. 08-24-2001 19:50:54

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) markdd Profile | Email No such luck. Its a d-link self powered hub and d-link USB ethernet. What does work? My mitsumi USB CD-RW dirve works either directly in the WP, or via the self powered hub. AZN, are you saying that your USB hub and Ethernet adapter are working perfectly?? mdd 08-24-2001 20:35:25

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) aznstud87 Profile It sure is. I made a mistake in my first post. I'm using a Belkin USB 4-Port Hub, F5U101 and a Belkin USB Ethernet Adapter, F5U111. Sorry for the misinformation. But this combo is proven itself to be rock stable. There's even enough power to power a usb keyboard with s PS/2 Mouse port on it. (purchased from ebay) When you use a self-powered hub, you're making the WP power the device AND the hub. Try this combo, and post your findings. Maybe it's just me... 08-24-2001 21:56:55

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) markdd Profile | Email Oops, sorry for the misunderstanding: I have a SELF powered hub, i.e. has its own power from its AC. Of course it can be bus powered as well, but I am using in self powered mode. So, in theory, the ethernet adapter should drawing power from the hub. I'll search the topics to see if anyone else has mentioned belkin. As a question, there seems to be a variety of MB around, can you tell which yours is? Cheers, mdd 08-25-2001 07:35:30

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile My hub/e-net adapter, the D-Link DSB-H3ETX (100mb) is also powered by a wall transformer. It has problems on both motherboards. I'll try a powered hub between the D-link and the WP. Maybe that will change things.... 08-25-2001 08:40:09

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile No luck. I plugged in my belkin hub to the wp and the d-link into the belkin. the USB ports all work fine but no e-net. 08-25-2001 09:45:34

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Chauncy Profile Now this gets weird. I switched the hdd, the hub and the e-net hub back to the wp with r256 (I think that's the # for the resistor) to make sure things were consistant. It still didn't work. Then i unplugged the belkin hub and plugged the d-link USB hub/e-net directly into the wp(just for kicks). With it's transformer. IT WORKED!!! Then it died. I unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in again. It started working again. It's been streaming audio for the last hour. And I have no idea WHY... 08-25-2001 10:23:36

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) markdd Profile | Email Ok, I am purly a duffer here. I don't know a thing about USB or E.E. I am just struggling along with info from the posts. On the other hand, maybe some stupid (i.e. the basic questions) can lead us to an answer: We know: The everyone has experience that using almost any USB ethernet plug, you can get data for a limited time: My question is: if a packet is a packet. If there something about cumulative packets that cause a problem. If it passes 2k with success, what should the rest matter. Is it possible that errors are occuring in the transmission and eventually (sometimes sooner, sometimes later) the system cannot handle the cumulative errors? Also, USB is a spec, is it not? Since we know that hardware does not chance from use to use, then what in the chain is changing? Pondering 08-25-2001 13:58:15

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) markdd Profile | Email So, I exchanged my USB hub for the belkin 101 that AZ is using. Well, it DOES see the d-link ethernet adaptor via the hub, but sometimes yes sometimes no. it works for a bit and craps out. Also, about have the time, un-plugging and pluggin the ethernet adaptor back into the USB hub brings the network back to life. I am using SPINNER.com for streaming audio to test the connection. So far, I am avg about 5 minutes. When the Belkin USB hub loads, it loads as a generic USB hub. Here is a dumb question. Can the self-powered USB hub be "fooled". I mean, it may indicated that the hub is getting power, but the ethernet is still drawing fom the system even via the hub? 08-25-2001 14:06:31

PCI adaptors (modified 0 times) Griffo Profile On a slightly off-topic note : I was thinking about getting some mini-pci to pci adaptors made up, with basically a board that matches the mini-pci spec to go in the webplayer, and a small amount of ribbon cable (I've a heap of scsi cable here) to a floating PCI socket. The board design I can probably source out, but a schematic is what's req'd. I did get a bunch of mini pci pin-id's to pci id's off somebody (thanks!) but I'd like to try and establish a definative cross reference before building a few. So, if anyone's got any info that might be handy, (mini-pci pcb size specs, etc) drop me a note. Cheers, Dave 08-27-2001 00:56:44

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) TheKid Profile K-Ray has the pinout here: http://k-ray.netbox.be/?&jq=04017 Also, a minpci to pci adapter is available at http://www.catalyst-ent.com/Products/Adapters/PCI2C-32/pci2c-32.htm http://www.Computers4sure.com has 10/100/56k minpci combo cards for as little as $80. That might be cheaper than spending the time laying out the board and having them made. ------ TheKid 08-27-2001 05:14:19

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 1 times) Griffo Profile Except for the fact that they're in the US... and "as little as $80" translates into about $160 + freight of our not-so-strong aussie dollar. Think of all that beer money going to waste! My time is free and board design is not a hassle anyways ... That catalyst one looks interesting though - thanks for the link. Oh, hang on - it's compactPCI. Damn. Oh and on the topic of adapter instability, I've a adapter under linux that uses the kawasaki chipset, and will run for a day or so before needing a plug-replug. Some sort of bad or large packet on our network freaks it out. The linux-usb code can allegedly control port power, so maybe I can hook in a sort of auto-power off/on of the port on something like a ping timeout... something to look into I guess. 08-28-2001 20:37:04

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) markdd Profile | Email Ok, for the last two nights I have been running my USB ethernet directly out of the WP without dropping my connection. Here is the situation: I have a dlink 650 (not650TX) usb ethernet adapter. Went to the ADMtek website and D/l the pegasus drivers and deleted the dlink drivers. When the WP boots, I have no ethernet, I unplug the USB and plug it back in an *presto* ethernet. Here is an interesting quirk (I tried this based on some other history). If I connect to AOL via TCP/IP and leave AOL5.0 running, my ethernet never seems to crap out. I use Netscape and Opera to broswe, MSN messenger. Tonight I am going to try some streaming stuff connecting to Spinner.com without AOL and see how long it lasts. I am not sure WHY it seems to be working: I can run MSN messenger and AOL 5.0 at the same time, and it keeps on ticking. Tonight I'll start Spinner and MSN and see if it shuts down after a bit. The AOL try was a shot in the dark as I heard (don't ask me were or what) that AOL loads its own tcp/ip, but I thought that only took effect for AOL dial-up. Time to start removing variables till something breaks. MDD 08-29-2001 08:14:11

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) Traveller Profile I'm a realtive newbie here, but I've been working on 2 WPs and discovering all sort of stuff. Firstly, I had a lot of wierd problems that I though might be associated with memory and video drivers - because the RAM is shared for video RAM, and then the clock started loosing a lot of time when I left applications running - like 3-10 minutes each hour, and the mouse started "freezing" on the screen for about 1/2 sec or so. I had a lot of hangs and what I though was flaky-ness on the USB. I was also running a wireless LAN using a Linksys WUSB11 which draws heavily on the port for power - it says 500mA allocation in the system information, and I also suspected this was creating problems because of all the intermitent events. However I found this link http://www.speedguide.net/Windows/win_bugs.shtml and when I started looking at the setup of various devices on my machines, I discovered that the entire system was "starved" of various vxd files relying on the VMM32.vxd geberic bunch of drivers - the individual ones were all still sitting in CAB file rather than in the c:\windows\system\vmm32 directory. After uppaking and loading them into this directory and rebooting the WP was a completely different animal, and ALL the symtoms I'd been experiencing before went away!! I suspect that like me, many people have copied their Win install off a CD onto a HD and made the Windows installation from there and this appears NOT to create all the files in the Windows\options directory that you normally get, hence the vxd files are not all installed at that time. As a starter check your HD and see if you can locate Vmouse.vxd. If its not in the windows\system directory, chances are that many other vxd drivers have not been installed. Maybe this helps identify some sources of the problems described in this thread. I hope so Traveller 11-26-2001 12:48:11

RE:USB/Ethernet Adapter instability (modified 0 times) skdman Profile I am new to the Webplayer, but I too had usb Ethernet problems. I read the posts but found no real solution. I have now for 2 days had a stable conection to my Lan and the net using a linksys usb ethernet. I just went in to the wp bios and disabled the power saving control. I hope this helps? :) 12-15-2001 23:09:34

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