Aspire 5100 USB Problems - Page 4

Opa... Yes... I do want the tutorials... I'll check them out so I can decide what to do... I really want the webcam to work again... Alright... thank you... By the way... You too have only the webcam problem, right? Are all your usb ports working fine?

in my case, all worked great in MCE it came with, until at one point the cam went to the 000 on and off.. and then first my usb on the left side began to forget other devices, and then it would go to the back until only some devices work in some ports and not in others. then a reinstall would clean it up for a little while but the cam didnt work anymore, then it would happen again after a week or 2 then i installed vista ulimate x86 and it cleared up usb for about 4 weeks (cam didnt work but no driver was avail at the time, so i wasnt sure if it was fixed.. but then drivers came out and its still on and off).. then vista started doing it too. now my usb ports are messy and picky as a result of the internal cam plugging in and plugging out constantly. it must really be a pain for the usb chipset when that happens i guess at first i thought i was the mboard, or the chipset but i have really tried all kinds of things with much research and it MUST be at this point a loose cable that tends to happen and leads to other usb problems. im sure if someone was to half-plug a usb cam to the ports constantly couple a wires at a time it would cause the same probs on any computer since usb is hot swappable but not meant for constant in/out with some wires connected and some not lol sorry i had a few drinks, and just screamed by brains out in front of just less than a hundred drunken peeps over 2 sets of 45 mins each... my head hurts and i have to sleep now. love alex lol

Hey everyone. I've got news. Finally had the guts to try and open my system.
First I have to tell how the reinstallation process went. So... I reinstalled everything from scratch to see if it was a software or hardware problem. I installed Windows Vista Home and as soon as it was finished the orbicam show up in Device Manager as the very unknown device. Then after a while playing with the computer and installing the drivers and everything, all of a sudden the orbicam show up as it should (long after installing the camera's drivers by the way) BUT when I tried to use it, it got disconnected and the immediately reconnected and the software could not make it job. It stayed like that for a while and again suddenly it started working... now it would disconnect and reconnect again but only once, in a second attempt the software was able to connect and work fine.
So... when it started not recognizing it again (randomly again) I decided it was time to end it
I finally opened it (took me a while to figure out how to do it properly) and found the camera's cable. Disconnected it and the camera wasn't listed... reconnected it and camera now was listed as unknown device again...
Aaaaarrrrgggg... did not fix the problem... Concluded then that my problem is either a wiring thing from the camera down to the bottom of the monitor where it connects to the main board or a hardware problem with the webcam itself.
Anyways... Wanted to let you know how it went even though it didn't do the trick for me. By the way... the plug connection is not that low quality as I had discused with Cybermind... I found it to be in fact fairly good (it is not probable to disconnect by itself). Also, if anyone is interested, it is very simple to get access to this connector. It's not even necessary to touch any of the screws, all it takes is remove the plastic cover right above the keyboard and there you are. I have also taken some pictures (very low quality though, cel phone camera pictures), so if anyone wants to see what this look like, feel free to ask and I'll send them over email or something.
To sum it up. I did learn how to open the machine but did not actually fix the problem. Bummer.
Any news I'll keep you posted.

Please - have a new Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook
I wish to install more RAM which I have purchased from Crucial - have read owners handbook and they tell me memory situated in the back of Notebook. I have removed the four screws there but the plate is not coming away. As it's new I do not wish to damage it in any way.
Can anyone tell me how this is done and confirm that the two memory modules are in the back of notebook

Thanks.

Billofhook

Yes... The memory modules are situated in the back (the bottom actually). The cover is indicated by the little drawing carved on it (at least mine has it). After you remove the screws the only thing left is really pull out the plastic cover. Mine has a specific place where you can pull it out with your hand. It should come off fairly easily, if it doesn't, check again for any screw left. Good luck.

actually i think one is under the keyboard and one in the back....

So has there been any progress on the USB issues? I am having the same problems with USB ports not working (especially left one) and orbicam dying. I have 1.1, 1.1, and 2.0 drivers installed. I have found that disabling the 2.0 drivers makes the webcam work, and most of the USB issues go away. It seems to be some kind of strange interaction between the webcam and usb ports. I have both XP and Vista installed on 2 seperate partitions. The problem exists in both operating systems, so it seems like it could be a Bios issue or something. The strange thing is is that everything was working perfectly when I first got my system and started going downhill when my Webcam became unknown device.

Let me know if anyone has figured this out. Thanks!

Hmmm. Well I have installed the new bios, reinstalled Vista Home Premium 32bit, and installed the Bison Cam drivers. I am still having the same problems. If I uninstall or disable the USB2.0 driver, the cam gets detected, otherwise it is unknown device. And my USB ports are still being screwy.

Hi all.

I just wanted to report that I am having similar problems with my 5102WLMi when using Linux. So obviously the problem is not software related.

My experience was that the USB ports "degraded" over a period of several months. The first failure I experienced was when using a USB hard drive. For a while my USB key and mice continued to work. Some weeks later the USB key stopped working, and finally even the mouse stopped working. To me this sounds like a power issue (?) but I have not tested this theory.

I am able to get it to work in linux by unloading the USB2.0 module like this:
sudo modprobe -r ehci_hcd

Now when I plug in my devices the ehci-hcd module will be reloaded (effectively restarting the USB system) and my peripherals will start working again. I have not tested this with a USB hard drive yet, but it does bring my USB key and mouse back to life. I have to do this once at each startup and it seems to work OK until I shut down and reboot.

When things are working, dmesg reports this:
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.0: auto-wakeup
usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 19
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
input: Logitech USB-PS/2 Trackball as /class/input/input3
input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Logitech USB-PS/2 Trackball] on usb-0000:00:13.0-1

when things are broken, dmesg reports this:
ohci_hcd 0000:00:13.0: auto-wakeup
usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 15
usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 16
usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -62
usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 17
usb 1-1: device not accepting address 17, error -62
usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 18
usb 1-1: device not accepting address 18, error -62
ehci_hcd 0000:00:13.2: remove, state 1

as you can see it tries several different addresses and then gives up.
I sometimes get messages like this as well:

hub 1-0:1.0: Cannot enable port 4. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

So that may be a clue. An intermittent connection to the camera "could" have something to do with this, I'm not sure.

Hopefully this will help someone get to the bottom of this problem....

-Ben

acer aspire 5100 usb and pci flash problem

I beg you please if anyone can help with this please do, i have had this problem for the last 4 months and cant take it anymore. When i switched my operating system from xp to vista ultimate on my acer aspire 5100 turion x2 tl56 120 gig 2 gig ram 120 meg video aperature computer my usb gave in. Whenever i put a usb device in vista does a little beep to say it has reognized it and pops up a driver install menu for usb, it cant find the driver on microsoft update nor on acer driver download site. I tried to install the ene card reader/bus driver for xp on my vista install as someone on this thread said that driver would fix the problem, but it has since made things worse. Now none of my usb still dont work and on top of that my bison orbicam has completly seized to function. Please help me fix this!!!!! Much appreciated

What's up with Acer support? You should go back to XP toot sweet, imho.

I should never have switched from xp to this piece of shit known as vista. But that is beside the point, how is a computer company witch such global reach as acer have such unbelievably horrible technical/customer support. I have never complained about any of their merchandize but come on, if u as a computer company notice that a large amount of your customers are experienceing the same annoying friggin problem, something should be down to address the damn issue. Acer sucks period!!!! last time i ever purchase a dawmn comp of of them, ps i should have gone for an asus laptop

This is acer for you, they dont offer help for non oem installed operating systems. Even Though They blatently call some of their comps "vista certified or vista compliant", why call it that and lead people to buy vista then offer no help.

Here is the email from the representative from acer

"Dear Asumo,

Thank you for contacting Acer America. Acer can provide support for the
computer as it ships from the factory. Since you are running a non-OEM
version of Windows, please note Acer can provide limited support for
non-OEM operating systems as we do not test retail versions of Windows on
our products. Acer does not provide driver support for non-OEM operating
systems. You can try to download Windows Vista drivers at
www.acerpanam.com, in the Drivers and Downloads section. I'm sorry but I am
unable to assist you further with this issue.

Regards,
Acer America
Online Support"

Hi .. Im new in this forum!

But have anyone gotten a fix for this? My Acer 5100 came with Vista Home Premium, and everything was working fine. Then i installed Windows XP Pro, because i needed it for some testing, and then the camera didnt work, but i did not need it then.

Now i have installed Vista Ultimate 32Bit, andthe camera is still not working? It says that it has installed a device, but called it 'Unknown Device'.

I have upgraded to BIOS 3.10 which is the newest one. I hope you can help.

Thanks.

Okay!

But how can i solve this? Reinstall AGAIN? Check the USB connection to the camera in the computer? All of my USB ports, works perfectly.

I have an Aspire 5102 since Nov. 2006. The OrbiCam went down a few months ago. Then the XP OS went down, I can not repair or reinstall XP. I ended up formatted my C drive, and loaded the Vista upgrade disc to Vista home premium.

So should I ship the machine back to them for any hardware repair? Or I can simply reload Vista Ultimate and reinstall all the drivers to get my USBs back?

Thanks again! It is a pain not to be able to use USBs.

Thanks, and did you get the webcam back to work also?
I am still collecting drivers, but I will update how it goes after it's all done.