D530 - All USB peripherals blocked (keyboard, mouse) but memory sticks (Mass Storage) on front panel

[Golffies]

Hi guys !

My D530 CMT has two USB 2.0 ports on its front panel. These have a flaw: they only support memory sticks. No other devices are supported, such as a keyboard or mouse, for example. However, plugged into one of the four USB ports on the back of the machine, the very same devices work perfectly well. Is it a bug or a feature? It doesn't seem to be documented anywhere.

This restriction put on the two front USB ports is not OS related. For example, even during the POST phase, or in the BIOS settings, a keyboard connected to the front panel is completely inoperative. The same keyboard connected at the back allows accessing and configuring the BIOS. Similarly, the laser diode of a mouse connected to the front panel switches off in a fraction of a second. Plugged on the front panel, such devices (keyboard, mouse, everything but memory sticks) are also invisible to the operating system. Plugged into the rear panel, they are all perfectly usable.

As I wrote from the beginning, these front USB ports work though: they are properly connected to the 9-pin USB header of the motherboard, and they support all memory sticks, regardless of capacity and manufacturer. It looks like that the USB controller in charge of these two front ports is configured to accept devices with a "Mass storage" ID and reject all others. This filtering is carried out at the hardware level, since the phenomenon occurs even at the POST phase.

How to disengage this? I have already, without result, updated the BIOS to version 2.43 and reset it to its factory settings. The BIOS setup can selectively enable or disable one of the USB controllers, but it does not offer any more tunning, allowing some USB devices to be dropped and others supported.

I googled an USB Port Manager application from HP. Its "Administrator Guide" describes closely the phenomenon I am talking about:

HP USB Port Manager allows you to manage USB device access on the thin client.
Features include the ability to block all USB devices, allow only certain USB devices,
and set access to USB mass storage devices as read- only.

But this application seems to be dedicated to some kind of HP embedded hardware, not to a desktop machine from the decade before.

So I'm looking at how to make the front USB ports of my D530 compatible with all devices. Any advice to guide me to the solution will be very welcome.

Thanks!

PS: in this instance, it is not possible for me to connect my device to one of the rear USB ports, other than for testing purposes. No such an easy workaround here.

[Golffies]

Additional tests have helped me to reveal a functioning that I do not explain. I attach to the message the screenshot of "lsusb" output on Linux. This command lists all USB devices connected to the machine, and details the USB bus to which each device is attached. Here are the results of the command, when it is reiterated with different USB devices connected to the machine, at the front or at the back.

• A USB device, other than Mass Storage, attached to one of the two rear ports on the left is supported by bus #3;
• A USB device, other than Mass Storage, attached to one of the two rear ports on the right is supported by bus #2;
• A USB device, other than Mass Storage, attached to one of the two front ports is not supported at all; it is seen on none of the USB buses.

• A USB Mass Storage device, attached to one of the two rear ports on the left is supported by bus #1;
• A USB Mass Storage device, attached to one of the two rear ports on the right is supported by bus #1 too;
• A USB Mass Storage device, attached to one of the two front ports is supported by bus #1 too.

So,  on this machine, it actually seems that:

• the USB bus #1 is dedicated to supporting only Mass Storage devices; it catches all devices of this type, regardless of the physical port to which they are plugged;
• the USB ports on the front panel (aka the internal 9-pin connector on the motherboard) are not wired to any other USB bus than the #1.

This configuration seems very unusual to me. Could it be a limitation of the motherboard itself? I doubt it. Is this a BIOS-specific "feature" of this machine? Without any way of setting it up? That also sounds weird.

Would it be worth trying a downgrade to older versions of the BIOS?

NB: Note that the same phenomenon can also be observed on Windows.

lsusb command output on HP D530

[Golffies]

At first, I thought that the problem I am trying to solve is related to the class of the USB devices (USB Mass Storage works, but keyboard, mouse, or joystick do not).

I may have made a wrong assesment. Indeed, all devices that work are USB 2.0 compatible and those that do not work are USB 1.1. So maybe the USB ports on my D530 front panel simply don't support USB 1.1. This would explain why none of my USB 1.1 keyboard, mice, or gamepad are recognized on these ports.

I may plug there a USB 1.1 memory stick; if the hypothesis is correct, it should not be recognized either, although it belongs to the Mass Storage class. But it has become very difficult to find a memory stick that only works in USB 1.1.

Well, that being said, it does not explain why USB 1.1 would not be supported on the front USB ports. There is a technical reference guide for the HP Compaq D330 and D530 Personal Computers, available on line (unfortunately, not on the HP own support pages). On page 5-24 it says so:

All systems provide as total of six USB ports, two USB ports accessible at the front of the unit and four USB ports on the rear panel. The USB ports are dynamically configured to either a USB 1.1 controller or the USB 2.0 controller depending on the capability of the peripheral device.

From the diagram, there is no doubt that all ports, both front and rear, are connected to one of the three USB 1.1 controllers of the Intel ICH5 chipset, as well as to its USB 2.0 controller.

Furthermore, all over the document (197 pages!) there is not a single word about a possible limitation on the use of the front panel ports, based on the USB class or version (1.1 vs 2.0).

Do I have to conclude that my motherboard is damaged? It would be a very odd selective fault.

[Golffies · Accepted solution]

The installation of several other BIOS versions (from 1.1 to 2.18 and 2.44) has not brought any improvement.

I'm afraid all my assumptions were wrong.

To get to the bottom of it, I looked for someone with a working D530; he confirms that on his machine, keyboard and mouse work on the USB ports on the front panel. His machine has a P4SD motherboard in revision 1.09, while mine is in revision 1.07. So I come to the conclusion of a hardware defect, even if the symptom is really very intriguing.

One hypothesis is that it is unique to my PCB revision. The second hypothesis is a failure of the Southbridge ICH5 (82801EB), about which Wikipedia reports:

Since mid-2004, the large motherboard manufacturers noticed an increased complaint ratio with motherboards equipped with ICH5. A cause was the insufficient ESD tolerance of certain ICH5 steppings.

In particular, when connecting USB devices via front panels, the chips died by discharges of static electricity. Intel reacted to the problem by shipping ICH5 with increased ESD tolerance. Effective ESD preventive measures on USB ports are difficult and costly, since they can impair the quality of the USB-2.0 high-speed signals. Many motherboard manufacturers had omitted the necessary high-quality safety devices for front panel connectors for cost reasons.

It is difficult for me to believe, however, that an electrostatic discharge selectively damages the chipset's USB 1.1 controller and not its USB 2.0 controller.

Unfortunately, this malfunction will most likely remain without a final diagnosis.