On 15 Aug 2005 23:05:27 -0700, "Mr. Land"
<graftonfot@yahoo.com> wrote:

<snip>

>> Frankly, NEC chipped USB cards are better. If this one
>> keeps giving you trouble you might consider an NEC card as
>> they're only ~ $15.
>>
>Sounds good...any board brand names to look for?

No, it doesn't matter. Get the most current driver from NEC
if windows doesn't get it up & running right.


>> Anything in Event Viewer or a dump file with some hints at
>> what's happened?
>>
>
>My event logs are far from empty. I'll have to archive them, clear
>them out, and retest.

??
You may have a lot of problems then instead of one?
Generally anything that looks like an error, is, and you can
simply deal with all recent errors.


>My BIOS (Award) states that you should enable Update ESCD whenever
>changing the PCI board configuration. Doing that did seem to take care
>of the first flavor of lockup I was experiencing.
>
>Pardon my ignorance, but what do power management settings have to do
>with PCI card configuration (other than possibly powering down devices
>after some interval)?
>

What is it that you feel needs "configured", and why are you
presuming that a "configuration" is the problem? By all
accounts, you had the card installed and it showed up in
Device Manager, but then you deleted it a couple times.

Realize that the problem may not directly be getting the
card working... was part of why I suggested trying OTHER USB
devices on it previously.

Regardless, power management requires the board bios be
capable in some cases and the driver as well. Instead of
asking further questions it would be more expedient (and
productive) to answer those questions posed ... there is no
point in making further suggestions if we dont' even know if
you tried the former or just decided not to try them.



>>
>>
>> >so I rebooted and entered the BIOS setup
>> >screen, then enabled the "Update ESCD Data" option. I saw some
>> >seemingly different PCI IRQ assignments flash by on the screen during
>> >the next bootup, which made me hopeful. After some testing, this
>> >seemed to get rid of the random lockup problem.
>>
>> Is the box running in APM or ACPI PM mode?
>>
>Sorry, not familiar with this, will this be in the BIOS?

Check Device Manager, System Devices (category). Is there
any mention of "ACPI" or APM?




>When plugged into the motherboard ports, the drive is recognized. When
>plugged into any port provided by the card, it is not.


>I tested every USB device I have...all work on m/b ports, none work on
>card ports.

So then *nothing* happens when you plug any/all devices into
the card's ports? No drive activity or notices onscreen?


>> Try running a mature OS instead of Server 2003. Win2k and
>> XP patches exist for reasons just like this, that eventually
>> problems get fixed.
>
>Not an option for me, really. But thanks for taking the time to
>respond and for the helpful suggestions.

NEC cards tend to perform better than ALI, something more
important with removable drives than mere
mice/scanners/printers/etc, so you might consider trying a
different card, especially if you have the opportunity to
send that one back to the vendor. Is it possible the card
simply doesn't work? If you're not sure, you might try the
card in another system, one using another (different)
WIndows version would be preferable too.