Minipac, XP: USB Device not recognized

[traig]

I recently finished wiring up my panel to a minipac encoder. I plugged the Happ trackball into the PS/2 mouse port and a standard keyboard into the proper PS/2 port, and then plugged the minipac, using the provided PS/2-to-USB cable, into a USB port on the PC running XP Pro.

Unfortunately, I was then told the USB device was not recognized. This happened no matter which port I used. I made sure the jumpers on the minipac were set to ROM and USB. No dice. I even tried every other combination of jumper settings, just in case, but nothing would get it working. There was no feedback to the system at all and all I got from XP was that it was an unknown device.

I even tried plugging it into a free port on my Win XP laptop and got the same problem. I'm at my wits end... any ideas on what the issue might be and how to correct it??

[microwrx]

Don't know myself but why are you using USB if you have the trackball in the PS/2 mouse port anyway?  Try it in PS/2 and see if it works at all then worry about USB.

[patrickl]

Does your i-PAC have a USB/PS2 jumper (the newer ones don't)?

[traig]

I'm using the USB because there's a spinner attached to the minipac. I read you have to use the USB connection if you're going with a spinner.

It's a minipac, not an i-pac. There are two jumpers, one USB/PS2 and the other is ALT/ROM.

It's a fresh XP Pro installation.

[traig]

I just fired off an e-mail to Andy about it as well. I assume that the minipac is supposed to show up in XP as a keyboard or something...

[mcdo15]

do you have other usb ports?
playing with my ipac, i notice certain things acting different when hooked up (espically going from usb1.1 to usb2)

[traig]

Yeah, there are six USB ports on there, and I tried them all... no luck... I tried both of the ports on my Toshiba laptop as well but with the same result. Maybe when I get home I'll pull the spinner off the minipac and try it in the PS/2 port just to see if that works at all.

[Tiger-Heli]

If possible, try (possibly in BIOS) setting the USB ports to 1.1 vs. 2.0.

I think I remember this before.  BTW, you might search the forum, I think I've seen similar problems on here before.

[traig]

Thanks Tiger, I'll try that. I searched pretty extensively here and on Google last night before starting the thread but I might have been too narrow. I'll try digging again only for USB issues with XP, etc.

[Tiger-Heli]

Thanks Tiger, I'll try that. I searched pretty extensively here and on Google last night before starting the thread but I might have been too narrow. I'll try digging again only for USB issues with XP, etc.

Use the advanced search on "device not recognized" and I think it might find something.

[traig]

Use the advanced search on "device not recognized" and I think it might find something.

I did find something... this thread.    That's all I got though.

I did do a search a short time ago for usb 1.1 and 2.0 and found a thread that discusses disabling 2.0. I'll try that in the BIOS and if necessary within the device manager and see if that lets XP understand what the minipac is.

[Tiger-Heli]

Found this:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=23522;start=msg206642#msg206642

At the end, someone was having similar problems and said plugging the device through a USB 2.0 hub fixed it.  I would expect that to make it worse if anything, but anyway . . .

[traig]

(This is from an e-mail I sent to Andy earlier, I thought it would serve well here as an update.)

First, I made sure SP1 was installed for XP Pro with the current USB drivers. Then I tried [Andy's] recommendation and unplugged the harnesses from the board before connecting it to the PC, but again it failed to be recognized.

I reconnected the harnesses. I tried using my XP laptop again, and then even grabbed my wife's XP laptop, and both had the same problem as my cabinet system.

I then borrowed a Windows 2000 system and tried that. When I plugged the line in, it said that the USB device could not be installed because there was no "function driver" "specified" for use with the device.

Finally, just for testing purposes, I unplugged the spinner and polarizing key from the board and used the PS2 jumper and a male-male PS2 line to connect it to the PS2 keyboard port, but this failed as well. It simply was never seen by the computer. I even tried using the keyboard on the pass-through port but it never registered with the computer.

I'm not sure what else I can try. The USB settings for the system are not configurable either in the BIOS or in XP, and I ensured that the USB ports themselves work. When the minipac is plugged in, it is not recognized, and then
is listed in the device manager as an unknown device.

[traig]

Another update...

I'm pretty much out of options so I went out and got a Belkin 4-port USB hub and tried using that, both with its supplemental power connected and without.

I tested the hub with my camera and when connected, the hub has a green light lit for the port its on. When I connect the minipac, the green light flickers for a few seconds and goes out. That's when XP says the device is not recognized, that it malfunctioned, etc. This happens whether or not the harnesses for the panel devices are connected.

The problem is still there, so unless Andy or someone else has another idea, I have to assume it's the board itself...
 

[Spaced Invader]

Yep, sounds like a bad board to me too. Unusual but these things do happen. You should send Andy an email listing everything you tried...I suspect he'll send you away happy.

[traig]

Andy got back to me yesterday and said a new board would be on its way immediately.

Thanks again Andy.  

[traig]

An update (parts are from an e-mail I sent Andy):

Friday I received the new minipac encoder in the mail. When I opened the package, I noticed immediately that something was different with the encoder and rushed to get the broken one. Sure enough, when I looked at them side-by-side, the new one had a small orange part on it the other didn't: maybe a capacitor or diode of some kind? It was a slightly bulging orange disc with two metal legs that attached to the board. When I looked at the first/broken one, there were little solder points for the same thing but no component.

I plugged the new board into the PC for the cab and right away XP saw it and said, among other things, it was a "composite device", a "trackball", and so on. The hardware manager had it listed at a composite device. A quick connection to the panel showed it worked perfectly. The spinner worked nicely, and because the trackball was connected separately to the PS/2 mouse port, I could use the trackball or the spinner freely. I ran a pilot test of the panel, briefly trying Ms. Pac Man, Arkanoid, and Cyberball. All ran perfectly.

I never did find the missing piece from the first board and I was pretty meticulous with how I handled everything. However, now that all's said and done, the minipac is exactly what I needed and I'm very happy with it.