BIOS, USB and Wacom woes

[ZrO-1]

Did you install the driver for the Wacom before you pluged it in? One thing you could try doing is unplug the Wacom from your PC and reboot your system. See if your sound card is working then. If it is then try making sure you have loaded any drivers or controll programs for the tablet, once they are installed try plugging in the tablet while windows is fully up and running. See if that helps.

P.S. it sounds like you are exactly right about an IRQ conflict between your soundcard and USB controller. If the steps above don't help let us know and I'll tell you how to assign the USB controller a free IRQ.

[DrAdamDinosaur]

the install says that it won't install until it can detect the wacom plugged into the usb port. When i have the "assign irq for usb" turned on it tells me it can't detect the wacom, when its turned off it says it cant find the usb card. Also, how is my wacom getting power? Does the USB transfer it? I mention this because I have never seen the light on the board light up. This is starting to really annoy me, All i want to do is draw and texture things. Any more suggestions anyone?

[ZrO-1]

The USB bus can transmit power to lower voltage devices that are connected to it (keyboards, mice, joysticks, tablets) only devices that need more power that the USB can provide need an additional plug.

The reason you aren't seeing the light come on on your tablet is most likely because it's not getting fully loaded in the OS.

By the way, what OS are you using?

[MayaA-W]

How old is this MB if it doesnt have USB ports?
I had USB ports as a standard on my P200MMX.

[DrAdamDinosaur]

I'm running Win 2k and i have a p2 400, its old but if you got them, shouldn't I have?

[MayaA-W]

Ya if you are running a P2 400 that is really when USB started to take off. You might have some seperate plugs if you got it in a MB box. If you got it from a reseller [ eg Compaq,PackardBell,Sony] may god help you!

Sorry

[DrAdamDinosaur]

Well, I'm never shopping there again. Ive got a pretty picture for you. This is when i have USB enabled. Also, when I plug in the Wacom the screen comes up to tell me theres a new device but it can't do anything about it. Also when i click on the one with the yellow warning it tells me of an error 28. Also, I seem to have forgotten to thank you guys for helping me thus far. Thanks.

http://www.geocities.com/adamdowley/posts/error.txt

[UrbanFuturistic]

Have you brought up the device info for your USB hubs?

Double click on the USB root hubs and see if there's a resources tab, this should tell you any conflicts Windows knows about.

Also do same for your soundcard and see if there's any unwanted matches as far as IRQs and such are concerned.

HTH, Paulhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/odubtaig/smilies/coffee.gif

Hey! I have four ports available! Might be worth hooking those other two connecters to something :curious:

[ZrO-1]

:) Odubtaig: maybe you could give one of the ports to Dr. AdamDinosaur. :D hehehe

Just kidding. Thought this thread needed a little humor. :p

[DrAdamDinosaur]

Ok, Tried the wacom on someone elses computer and got it to work fine. I Think that it is the USB card, going to go in today adn make them give me another one. But heres something. We tried a usb mouse on the card and it was powered but i still havent seen its light on my computer.

Oh yes, It is a bit to serious in here:)

[KayosIII]

A computer of that vintage will already have USB on board adding the usb card may cause conflicts.... Take it back and get them to return your money.

You will find a USB connector on your mother board. To find this you will need to crank out the manual. If you don't have one you simply need to find out the model number and download a manual from the manufacturers website. (While you are there investigate flashing your motherboards bios to update to the latest version since I remember quite a few people having difficulty with win2k + intuos2 and this being the fix)

You will need to buy a USB connector to use with your motherboard. This is a bracket mount with two usb ports attached to it and wires going back which plug directly into pins on your motherboard. You will need to write down the pin configuration (eg 2 rows of 5 pins) because this differs between Motherboards....

Hope this helps

[DrAdamDinosaur]

KAYOSIII where the hell were you three weeks ago!!!:) Ok, guess who the stupidest guy in the world is (ok, everyone start pointing at me and get ready to laugh) I had USB port already. Ok, laughing yet? Ok, To my defense they are tucked away adn no-one who has even looked in my computer (and theres been alot) has ever seen them. Ok, I feel dumb. Anyway there there adn now they just need activation. Feel free to make light of my situation. Thanks everyone.

[ZrO-1]

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson:

DOH!!!!!

hehehe

[DrAdamDinosaur]

well i found my receipt for FF7 and Diablo 2 but i can't find hte one for hte usb card, damn it. Anyway lets start again.

Hey, I just bougt a wacom and it doesn't work with my ONBOARD usb ports (the light still wont come on). I had a look in the manual and it refers to the usb ports about twice. I had a look on the board and there are no jumpers even remotley near the ports. I found out the board is a BioStar M6TBC, about 4-5 years old (time to upgrade when i get some cash). The update on hte web site says it mostly does stuff for p3 chips adn doing anything to my bois could make my system crash. Had a look in the bios but couldn't find anything about enabling or disabling the usb's. Anyone got any ideas now and yes the other card is uninstalled and out of my system.

[ZrO-1]

Have you tried any other USB devices in the onboard USB?

Is the USB working in the OS?
In windows device manager if you look around you should find a USB host controller (and maybe some other things). Make sure anything for the USB is enabled and working properly.

As far as the mobo...It doesn't necessarilly mean that you don't have a jumper for your USB just because it's not close to the ports. Often the USB jumper is over by where the on/off switch, hdisk LED, reset switch, and speaker hook up to the motherboard.

[KayosIII]

Ok This problem was reported in the Computer Arts review (win2k + MB + Wacom) of the wacom intous 2 I am sure that they fixed the problem by flashing the bios. You should probably try looking through their archives. Otherwise you could always try the Wacom website....

[DrAdamDinosaur]

Can someone run me through the proceedure for flashing my bios. I have downloaded the latest drivers for my board (an M6TBC from Biostar, pretty old) and it had one .bin file in it. I also have the awdflash.exe file that i was told I needed. I have never done this before so can someone run me throuhg it. Thanks.

[KayosIII]

Warning first up.... This procedure could leave your hardware dead, dead, dead....
Don't blame me if it all blows up in your face.

Check your motherboard manufacturers website for specifics but this is how it works for asus.

find yourself a win9x box. put a floppy disk in drive a: open up a dos prompt and type format a: /s (I think) this will create a bootable floppy you now copy the executable and image onto this floppy. you can now boot using the floppy run the program (don't forget to backup your bios first. )

[ZrO-1]

I'll save you some trouble of trying to find a win98 PC and making your own boot disk. Here's a link to BootDisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com/). There you can download the files you need to put onto the floppy to allow you to boot to a DOS prompt.

A couple of words about flashing your BIOS: (I have done this many times so I'm pretty familiar with it)

First you go to your motherboard manufacturer's website. There you will be downloading 2 files. One file is the executable program which actually re-writes your BIOS, the second is the file that holds the binary data that needs to be written. The manufacturers website will have info on which files you will need. They will also have instructions on how to go about flashing the BIOS. Follow the instructions to the letter. I recomend printing them out so you have a copy to follow during the flashing process. On a side note: as far as backing up the BIOS, most mobo's don't have this feature. Even if they do, if your flashing fails the first time, unless your BIOS chip is designed like a "dual-BIOS" system where it goes to a second version stored on the chip, it won't matter if you did back up because you won't be able to re-install the old BIOS. If your flash fails your system will not boot at all.

So now that you have the bootable floppy with the two BIOS files on it you boot from the floppy which brings you to a blinking DOS prompt. That is where you would type something like "phlash16 s2462109.bin" (that's for the tyan board) the first part is the flashing program's name without the ".exe" added. Then after a space you type the whole name of the data file. Now just hit enter. If you booted the PC correctly you'll see a DOS screen come up for the flashing program. It will have read the data file and be ready to flash the BIOS chip. Now you just have to follow any onscreen instructions, and cross your fingers.

The reason that flashing your BIOS is so risky is that if for some reason the flash fails while it's being written (I've had this happen twice) there is nothing you can do to restore the process. It either works straight through and finishes without a problem, or it freezes during the writing process and fails. The reason its so bad when it fails is because now you don't have a functioning BIOS. You can't even boot the PC back up to re-flash the chip. If it fails and you try to re-boot, all that'll happen is the case will get power, maybe a case fan or two will come on but that's it. nothing what so ever will happen with the mobo.

There is hope for a failed flash. There's a website out there called BIOS world (http://www.biosworld.com/). They can replace your BIOS chip. You just fill in a form with info about the manufacturer and model of your mobo; as well as info on the top of the BIOS chip itself. Then they will send you a new chip to replace the old one. That's the only way to recover from a failed flash.

Hope that helps.

[DrAdamDinosaur]

Thanks guys. Bios has been flashed, situation change: 0%. This did absolutely nothing. I spent about a week and a half weighing up my options to spend every cent I have upgrading or to flash. I figured I couldn't afford the upgrade so I flashed. Now it looks like I'm gong to have to squeeze every pennie so I can upgrade. That is unless anyone has any other ideas?

[DrAdamDinosaur]

Originally posted by DrAdamDinosaur
Thanks guys. Bios has been flashed, situation change: 0%. This did absolutely nothing. I spent about a week and a half weighing up my options to spend every cent I have upgrading or to flash. I figured I couldn't afford the upgrade so I flashed. Now it looks like I'm gong to have to squeeze every cent so I can upgrade. That is unless anyone has any other ideas?

[KayosIII]

Hey a fellow Australian :).... Where exactly do you live?

A workable upgrade will cost about $385 - $100 for processor, $185 for Mobo & ~$100 for ram... (I just did this to a system about 2 weeks ago).

Before you do that though -> Have you tried other usb devices in the same computer. (since you changed from a card to the bracket mount.).... This might give a clue.
Grab a recent (redhat or Mandrake would be just fine) linux install cd and a usb mouse. (don't worry you don't need to install linux just to start the installation and see whether it can find the USB mouse). (If this happens we know that it is an OS problem and not a hardware problem. in which case you are going to have to dig through microsofts webpage.)
If it is a hardware problem you might be out of luck.

[DrAdamDinosaur]

I don't think I'll be posting my exact address on this forum, but roughly, Adelaide.

I don't have access to another usb device, or redhat/linux for that matter. I did try a mouse in the card I had and that worked. Also, After I removed the card I ran the USB test program from the wacom site that tests whether the usb ports are able to use the device and they gave positive results.

For a complete upgrade (Mobo, CPU,Ram and HD I got a price around $800 (will go to an xp1800 with 512mb ram probably). Its a lot of money so we'll see what happens.

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