How to init or reset USB port via software?

September 26, 2008

I have a USB device that doesn't initialize (become available) on

Windows startup but will init when I unplug and replug the device (and

into the same USB port). So it will work but with the hassle that I

have to unplug & replug it after a Windows restart.

Since the unplug and replug of the device triggers its init and

detection, I'm wondering if there is a utility that will do the same so

I can activate the USB device via software? This would need a command

line interface so I could have it run as a scheduled event and only for

that USB port (i.e., I or the utility would have to find the enumeration

for it under HKLM so that vendor ID device in that USB port got

initialized and no others).

I do have Microsoft's UVCview app to show the USB ports. There's one

that shows "FailedEnumeration: Unknown Device" after restarting Windows,

so I suspect that's the one for the device that doesn't init when

Windows starts. The status returned by the utility for that failed USB

enumeration is:

---===>Device Information<===---

ConnectionStatus: FailedEnumeration

Current Config Value: 0x00 -> Device Bus Speed: Low

Device Address: 0x00

Open Pipes: 0

*!*ERROR: No open pipes!

===>Device Descriptor<===

*!*ERROR: bLength of 0 incorrect, should be 18

bLength: 0x00

bDescriptorType: 0x00

bcdUSB: 0x0000

bDeviceClass: 0x00

*!*ERROR: Device enumeration failure

I also have their USBview utility which shows "DeviceFailedEnumeration"

status with the information:

Device Descriptor:

bcdUSB: 0x0000

bDeviceClass: 0x00

bDeviceSubClass: 0x00

bDeviceProtocol: 0x00

bMaxPacketSize0: 0x00 (0)

idVendor: 0x0000

idProduct: 0x0000

bcdDevice: 0x0000

iManufacturer: 0x00

iProduct: 0x00

iSerialNumber: 0x00

bNumConfigurations: 0x00

ConnectionStatus: DeviceFailedEnumeration

Current Config Value: 0x00

Device Bus Speed: Low

Device Address: 0x00

Open Pipes: 0

It doesn't matter to which USB port this device is moved. It almost

always fails to init when Windows loads. The device emulates two CD

drives, one with autorun.inf to auto-run an install or setup program if

the device is plugged in and the other is just a data drive (it's an ATA

adapter from TigerJet for VOIP).

These viewer apps show USB enumeration and device status. What I'd like

is a "kick in the pants" utility that will retry via software command to

init the device on that USB port. Obviously there is a hardware init

that occurs when I [unplug and] plug in the USB device. I'm wondering

if I can do that init via software.

There are only 4 pins in a USB port: VCC (5VDC), Data-, Data+, and GND

(ground). It is a differential bus hence the plus/minus designators for

the data inputs (I think this is for noise cancellation). So when the

device is plugged in, it seems it must send some commands to force its

detections and identify itself. Those comamnds would be sent on the

external interface between the controller chip and the port. I don't

know if similar commands can be sent to the internal interface of the

controller.

From what I see at the USB commands doc at

http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/usbmass-ufi10.pdf, you must

be able to send commands on the internal or host side of the controller.

Alas, that doc exceeds my ability to figure out a solution. I might be

able to cobble up a C program to issue the command but wouldn't know in

what order to issue those commands or how to handle their return codes.

Maybe all you need to send is the Send Diagnostic command which forces a

reset. Maybe I'm supposed to following with a Stop command (expected to

fail) followed by a Start command.

It is not an issue of overcurrent on the USB controller. The pair of

ports from a USB controller can have together a max of 500ma for draw.

Only 1 device is attached to one of the paired USB ports. The other

remains empty. The shared 500mA load is available in total to the one

device. Of course, if the device is faulty, it could be trying to draw

more than 500mA.

I tried using Device Manager to uninstall (delete) the "Unknown Device"

under a USB root hub and then do a hardware rescan. The device was

detected but again failed enumeration. So it might be an electrical

problem with the device that remains plugged in and powered on during

Windows startup that prevents it from being detected and that somehow

yanking it out and back in does something electrical that gets it

enumerated correctly. In that case, a software prod to send, say, a

reset or init command trying might won't work, but I'd like to try. It

may be that a software utility can't do anymore to prod the USB

controller to redetect the device than what I did in Device Manager.

There's a couple scenarios that I haven't tested yet. I have not yet

tested disabling power management (to NOT allow power-saving mode) on

the USB root hubs; however, the problem that I have is when I start

Windows so it hasn't gone into a power-saving mode yet (but is coming

out of one, sort of). Every test, so far, has been with a warm start to

see if the USB device shows up after Windows starts up. I will test

later to see if a cold start works okay (i.e.; if the USB device needs

to get powered off so when it powers on with the host then it'll be

ready for detection by Windows).

September 26, 2008

Re: How to init or reset USB port via software?

Via Device Manager, try disabling the USB Hub device where the

problematic device is connected then re-enable it again. I sometimes

use this method when I virtually unplug my USB disk via the "Safely

remove USB device" tray icon and later decided that I still need it. I

don't want to physically unplug then plug it and I also can't

virtually plug it (no feature for that). If disabling then re-enabling

the USB Hub device doesn't work, try doing that with the Hub's USB

controlled device. Note: All devices connected to the same hub and/or

same controller will also be affected.

VanguardLH wrote:

> I have a USB device that doesn't initialize (become available) on

> Windows startup but will init when I unplug and replug the device (and

> into the same USB port). So it will work but with the hassle that I

> have to unplug & replug it after a Windows restart.

>

> Since the unplug and replug of the device triggers its init and

> detection, I'm wondering if there is a utility that will do the same so

> I can activate the USB device via software? This would need a command

> line interface so I could have it run as a scheduled event and only for

> that USB port (i.e., I or the utility would have to find the enumeration

> for it under HKLM so that vendor ID device in that USB port got

> initialized and no others).

>

> I do have Microsoft's UVCview app to show the USB ports. There's one

> that shows "FailedEnumeration: Unknown Device" after restarting Windows,

> so I suspect that's the one for the device that doesn't init when

> Windows starts. The status returned by the utility for that failed USB

> enumeration is:

>

> ---===>Device Information<===---

>

> ConnectionStatus: FailedEnumeration

> Current Config Value: 0x00 -> Device Bus Speed: Low

> Device Address: 0x00

> Open Pipes: 0

> *!*ERROR: No open pipes!

>

> ===>Device Descriptor<===

> *!*ERROR: bLength of 0 incorrect, should be 18

> bLength: 0x00

> bDescriptorType: 0x00

> bcdUSB: 0x0000

> bDeviceClass: 0x00

> *!*ERROR: Device enumeration failure

>

> I also have their USBview utility which shows "DeviceFailedEnumeration"

> status with the information:

>

> Device Descriptor:

> bcdUSB: 0x0000

> bDeviceClass: 0x00

> bDeviceSubClass: 0x00

> bDeviceProtocol: 0x00

> bMaxPacketSize0: 0x00 (0)

> idVendor: 0x0000

> idProduct: 0x0000

> bcdDevice: 0x0000

> iManufacturer: 0x00

> iProduct: 0x00

> iSerialNumber: 0x00

> bNumConfigurations: 0x00

>

> ConnectionStatus: DeviceFailedEnumeration

> Current Config Value: 0x00

> Device Bus Speed: Low

> Device Address: 0x00

> Open Pipes: 0

>

> It doesn't matter to which USB port this device is moved. It almost

> always fails to init when Windows loads. The device emulates two CD

> drives, one with autorun.inf to auto-run an install or setup program if

> the device is plugged in and the other is just a data drive (it's an ATA

> adapter from TigerJet for VOIP).

>

> These viewer apps show USB enumeration and device status. What I'd like

> is a "kick in the pants" utility that will retry via software command to

> init the device on that USB port. Obviously there is a hardware init

> that occurs when I [unplug and] plug in the USB device. I'm wondering

> if I can do that init via software.

>

> There are only 4 pins in a USB port: VCC (5VDC), Data-, Data+, and GND

> (ground). It is a differential bus hence the plus/minus designators for

> the data inputs (I think this is for noise cancellation). So when the

> device is plugged in, it seems it must send some commands to force its

> detections and identify itself. Those comamnds would be sent on the

> external interface between the controller chip and the port. I don't

> know if similar commands can be sent to the internal interface of the

> controller.

>

> From what I see at the USB commands doc at

> http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/usbmass-ufi10.pdf, you must

> be able to send commands on the internal or host side of the controller.

> Alas, that doc exceeds my ability to figure out a solution. I might be

> able to cobble up a C program to issue the command but wouldn't know in

> what order to issue those commands or how to handle their return codes.

> Maybe all you need to send is the Send Diagnostic command which forces a

> reset. Maybe I'm supposed to following with a Stop command (expected to

> fail) followed by a Start command.

>

> It is not an issue of overcurrent on the USB controller. The pair of

> ports from a USB controller can have together a max of 500ma for draw.

> Only 1 device is attached to one of the paired USB ports. The other

> remains empty. The shared 500mA load is available in total to the one

> device. Of course, if the device is faulty, it could be trying to draw

> more than 500mA.

>

> I tried using Device Manager to uninstall (delete) the "Unknown Device"

> under a USB root hub and then do a hardware rescan. The device was

> detected but again failed enumeration. So it might be an electrical

> problem with the device that remains plugged in and powered on during

> Windows startup that prevents it from being detected and that somehow

> yanking it out and back in does something electrical that gets it

> enumerated correctly. In that case, a software prod to send, say, a

> reset or init command trying might won't work, but I'd like to try. It

> may be that a software utility can't do anymore to prod the USB

> controller to redetect the device than what I did in Device Manager.

>

> There's a couple scenarios that I haven't tested yet. I have not yet

> tested disabling power management (to NOT allow power-saving mode) on

> the USB root hubs; however, the problem that I have is when I start

> Windows so it hasn't gone into a power-saving mode yet (but is coming

> out of one, sort of). Every test, so far, has been with a warm start to

> see if the USB device shows up after Windows starts up. I will test

> later to see if a cold start works okay (i.e.; if the USB device needs

> to get powered off so when it powers on with the host then it'll be

> ready for detection by Windows).

September 26, 2008

Re: How to init or reset USB port via software?

Okay, so instead of uninstall/reinstall the USB device itself, I

disabled/enabled its root hub. The result was a popup (lower right

corner) saying a device was found but unknown. I clicked on it and a

list of ports on that hub were listed and the device was "Unknown

Device". So while it seems to detect there is a device attached to

that port, it doesn't know how to identify it.

Next will be to unplug the device, use Nirsoft's USBdeview to remove

all references (enumerations) for the device, manually check the Enum

registry key to ensure all references have been eliminated along with

all mount points that got assigned to them, any other cleanup (registry

and file), and start with a fresh install of the software that loads

off the USB device when plugged in. That's tomorrow's work. Time for

sleep.

Thanks for replying.

Jaelani wrote:

> Via Device Manager, try disabling the USB Hub device where the

> problematic device is connected then re-enable it again. I sometimes

> use this method when I virtually unplug my USB disk via the "Safely

> remove USB device" tray icon and later decided that I still need it.

> I don't want to physically unplug then plug it and I also can't

> virtually plug it (no feature for that). If disabling then

> re-enabling the USB Hub device doesn't work, try doing that with the

> Hub's USB controlled device. Note: All devices connected to the same

> hub and/or same controller will also be affected.

>

> VanguardLH wrote:

>> I tried using Device Manager to uninstall (delete) the "Unknown

>> Device" under a USB root hub and then do a hardware rescan. The

>> device was detected but again failed enumeration. So it might be an

>> electrical problem with the device that remains plugged in and

>> powered on during Windows startup that prevents it from being

>> detected and that somehow yanking it out and back in does something

>> electrical that gets it enumerated correctly. In that case, a

>> software prod to send, say, a reset or init command trying might

>> won't work, but I'd like to try. It may be that a software utility

>> can't do anymore to prod the USB controller to redetect the device

>> than what I did in Device Manager.

September 26, 2008

RE: How to init or reset USB port via software?

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"VanguardLH" wrote: