Hi,
I have just acquired a USB2 to IDE & SATA adaptor cable (VE328/VE225) which works fine but for one very strange "feature" namely when the HDD is powered up it shuts down my broadband connection! It then reconnects and shuts down repeatedly.

I have a Thompson TG 585 v7 router connected via ethernet to my PC which is usually rock solid.

I have tried turning the router wifi off - no change, and placing the router and HDD as far apart as readily possible (about 12 feet - they were quite close) still no joy.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be going on here?

Hi,
It could be a resource conflict in windows. When it causes the disconnect look in device manager for any yellow exclamation, or/and event viewer to look at what is getting an error.
Try updating your LAN NIC drivers to latest and also find the latest drivers for the USB-SATA cable.

Hi HaQue,

Thanks for the pointers. Taking them in order:
I looked in Device Manager as I connected the adaptor. A USB Mass Storage Device was added under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, but no exclamation marks came up. All looked ok

In Event viewer, I first cleared all so that I could see the wood for the trees! On connecting the adaptor, the only thing I could find under System - Event Properties - Event 57 Ntfs: "The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur". Does this mean anything to you?

Regarding drivers, I have never bothered to update anything since the PC has run 100% ok. Its a case of "If it aint broke, dont fix it!" Anyway I loaded up Device Doctor which pointed to 18 items needing attention. I noticed one was for a network adaptor (Intel 82579V Gigabit) so that was duly updated with no change to my problem.

As to the driver for the usb adaptor itself, I am at a bit of a loss to identify it. Device Doctor does not report anything sounding like it might be that item, so I wonder if its ok with the driver automatically loaded when I first plugged it in. The hardware or box it came in does not state the manufacturer or part number. The ad. description when I bought it described it as VE328/VE225, but googling that gets me nowhere.

Device Doctor pointed to USB controllers IC26 and IC2D needing update which I did successfully, but the program still reports them as needing update. Sorry, I am not expert at updating these things so am at a loss here also. Problem remains a mystery to me.

The issue sounds a lot like the one we have at a school I support.

we have Interactive Whiteboards made by Smart Technologies "Smartboards" The basically connect to a PC via USB. The connection is a USB Audio Device. basically the whiteboard part of the system connects to the Audio device, I guess like a USB Hub. So you have a connection like:

[PC USB Port] ------[IWB USB AUDIO DEVICE] ----[USB HUB]-----[IWB system (controls Pens and windows interaction]

Well the USB Audio device conflicts with intel i5 mainboards, specifically the chipset has some kind of conflict (not fixable). Once you plug in the USB, the system connects, works for a random amount of time, say a minute to 5 minutes, then disconnects, reconnects, rinse, repeat.

the way I get around it is connect the IWB speakers directly from PC audio jack to speakers RCA plugs and then bypass the USB audio device:


PC SPK Jack -----------------------------IWB Speakers
PC USB Port -----------------------------IWB system (controls Pens and windows interaction

What I am getting at is sounds like your issue is related to USB.

I think your issue might be drivers for the USB-SATA, especially as you dont mention installing any. A lot of these devices will detect as 1 thing, but need proper drivers to work as it is supposed to.

Can you provide a link to your USB-SATA product, or a picture of the box?

Also, googling the model numbers you specified brings up these pages:

http://bigacid.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/jm20337-read-data-corruption-solution/
http://blog.gsantamarina.com/2009/11/data-corruption-problems-with-numerous.html
might be worth investigating...



Could you post a link

A photo of the box it came in....

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/c4eughb9f7bdxcu/rBnGqjbbE1

NB on the box there is a barcode 6934808800231

Here is the Windows 98 driver:
http://www.usbnow.co.uk/download/ve225_win98_driver.zip

It suggests that the bridge IC for the VE225 is a JMicron JM20338. However, the JM20337 appears to use the same VID and PID. Maybe there were two versions of this product, or perhaps both chips use the same driver?

%USB\VID_152D&PID_2338.DeviceDesc%=JM20338.install,USB\VID_152D&PID_2338
USB\VID_152D&PID_2338.DeviceDesc="JMicron SATA-USB Combo Device"

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

You could try updating the BIOS and any chipset drivers. And another kid of long shot, but wouldn't hurt is the firmware for the router.

If possible, test the router and the adapter together on a different PC, meaning one with different hardware.

Have you tried changing the slave/master jumper on the HDD if it is IDE?


Could be an indication of the problem mentioned by other netizens..


Not sure what else apart from the adapter being physically incompatible with your hardware - though this is not something we see a lot of these days, it does happen.

Good Luck

Just tried the adaptor on my Win7 laptop, using same router with ethernet connection, and it worked fine. No issues.

Thanks for trying that, good to have details in the thread.

If you can, are you able to pop the USB-SATA adapter apart and have a look at the chipset? Also what is the motherboard make, model and revision, and firmware revision?

Also, just a thought. You said you tried it and there were "no issues". I am guessing you meant that the no issues were your internet connection stayed up. The problem with these adapters that I have read about is "silent corruption" when transferring large files.

This means that the corruption happens but you don't know about it. Did you try and transfer some large files and look in eventlog for the error you reported previously?

I am going to guess that the chipset is intel, and maybe i5?

Referring to the the Smartboard issue I was talking about, IIRC it was something to do with the i3, i5 chipset, and I think the HD Audio on the mainboard(but don't quote me).. You may try looking in your BIOS, disabling HD Audio... come to think of it, it may be called Front Panel Audio.. But anyway, have a look in the BIOS and try disabling it for a test.

I am leaning towards some incompatibility between your Mobo chipset and the adapter.

one thing that has worked for me in the past is to fully uninstall the device (in your case the adapter) and also the sound card if it is onboard, the USB drivers etc and let windows re-install them. Sometimes the order they are installed can automagically fix the issue.

I don't really know what else to suggest, as this is the sort of issue I would be sitting at the computer going by feel.

good luck!

The MB is Asus P8Z68-V with 0501 BIOS, i5-2500K CPU
The Chip in the adaptor is JM20337

Yes by no issues I was referring only to the internet connection "feature"

I just tried disconnecting the ethernet cable between PC and router. Would you believe, the effect still occurs! How is this possible???

EMI from the adapter via radio waves, adapter's power adapter (if using a 3.5" drive--you didn't say), or PC power line triggered by use of/through the USB port? Time for ghost busters!

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Examine the resources for the USB Host Controller and the NIC in Device Manager. Are they sharing IRQs?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

In the old days we would get very obvious IRQ conflicts. I think you can still manually change IRQ settings in windows, but I'm sure that would be a PITA.

So ISTM that you DO have one of the devices that I linked to previously. As it is a device that is highly suspected of having a manufacturing flaw, I would suggest to get rid of it and get a different chipset or revised edition one.

When hardware is not working correctly, you cannot trust windows messages. They might alert you there is an issue, might even mention what part of the system has a problem, but cannot be relied apon for every part of the reporting to be correct.

Also the removal of the resistor as described in the links are a possible solution, though I can confirm none of this as I have not investigated it.

Since the NIC is disconnected from the router in my experiment, I reasoned that even if there were an IRQ conflict, it could not effect the router...Could it?

I once had a problem with a NIC and a soundcard that were sharing IRQs. IIRC, the soundcard would repeat a sound sample over and over again. The problem was only resolved when I forced them onto separate IRQs. But that was on an old Windows 98SE system.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Exactly why I suggested a powerline distribution of EMI. AIUI, the router was not connected to the PC yet when you plugged the USB-SATA/IDE adapter into the PC, the router lost the connection to your provider. The only thing common to the router and the PC was the powerline. Did I misunderstand something?

_________________
Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

This is rapidly becoming a PITA (Had to look that one up )

If it is an EMI problem its hard to see how the thing works ok using my laptop, though I have to admit its just possible.

So if anyone can any one recommend an adaptor that is known to be reliable - I'll get one of those.

Sorry, brain fart. <smacks forehead>

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

are you able to test a different sat-usb adapter?
for the relative low cost it may be easier to just get one that doesn't mess with your internetz

I think this might be the best way out of this! Any recommendations?