USB Problems w/ K8N

I recently upgraded my HTPC downstairs with an ASUS K8N (nForce3), Sempron 3000+. Latest chipset drivers (and others) installed.

Since I've upgraded, I've had strange issues that I think I have narrowed down to the USB.

When I was first reinstalling MCE, I was getting errors regarding USB devices that I would plug in. Nothing fancy, just USB mouse/keyboard, IR receiver. I was getting a Windows error saying things such as "Hardware not recognized" and such, even though the devices were shown as installed in the device manager. After an update to the latest BIOS from ASUS and a restart, the errors went away and have not returned. I did notice that a BIOS revision a few back mentioned a fix as "USB Issues"...related?

Later, I upgraded the network in the house and installed a Netgear WG111U.

Everything works fine at restart (except for the occasional random bluescreen, yikes). If the machine is left idle for a while, when you come back to it, the network will be down, and sometimes the USB mouse will not be working. If you try to reconnect (repair) the network, be it through windows or using ipconfig, the machine will soft-lock. If the network goes down and you try to restart the machine, it will hang at "Windows is Shutting Down". The machine is set to always be on and never goes into standby.

Internally, I have a USB card reader and front USB ports connected to the USB pinouts on the mobo. Wake-on-USB jumpers are at factory.

I've read that there have been others with very similar issues with other similar motherboards, all being resolved by switching to a VIA chipset or by other methods, however I have not been able to find a posted solution anywhere -- just that people had the problem and they fixed it.

I did notice in the device manager that the USB ports are listed as "standard" USB ports (I can't remember exactly what they're listed as since the machine is not accessible to me at the moment). Is there a different driver I should be using, or is it a problem with the USB pinouts, or something else?

Please help!

TIA.

Hi grivad and welcome to Dev Shed.

What are the Blue Screen errors you are receiving ?

Also, if you unplug your network connection, does the machine run ok ? Is it connected through an NIC or a USB port ?

Thanks!

The blue screens have been random (only twice or three times) and I have yet to take note of exactly what the problem is. From what I've seen, they've been entirely generic and have not pointed me towards a particular problem.

The NIC is a USB NIC. USB is set to HiSpeed (480Mbps/USB2.0) in the BIOS. If I unplug the network connection, it might be working OK, but I'm not sure as the indication that things are going south is the network connection being lost.

When the problem first started happening, it would start with the screensaver locking up, then finding the network connection was lost. I do remember leaving the NIC unplugged for a while at first to see if that was the problem, and the machine still ended up with a locked screensaver and hanging at "Windows is Shutting Down..." As I mentioned the machine seems to work fine until it is left idle for a while, and that is when problems start occurring. I don't have a specific amount of time or any information like that since this is an HTPC that is in use for only a couple of hours a day, if that, and left idle most of the time.

I do remember reading that the K8N series of motherboards, or boards based on the nForce3 chipset, have had similar problems with USB. Most of the threads I've read, people just said that they ended up buying a VIA based board (like the K8V-MX) and that solved their problems. Is this just a known problem with the K8N's?

Daft question coming - you have tried another USB port !?

Is the board still under warranty ?

Yeah I tried different USB ports. Basically, all the USB hubs go down at once. NIC stops working, mouse stops working, plugging in a USB flash disk either directly to the back/board or to the front (attached via USB pinouts on board) doesn't work.

I've since taken it back and exchanged it for a K8V-MX, VIA chipset. So far so good.

Nice one.