Strangest Opus Problem!

**slevytam** · 04-19-2006, 12:32 AM

Hi,

I have never come across a problem like this and could really use some help...

I finally got my opus installed and everything seemed to be working relatively great. The next morning when i went to start my car the computer started fine but it couldn't detect any the harddrive or cdrom drive... After some investigation i realized there was no power to the ide devices.... I disconnect and reconnected all the links in the power cable (didn't touch the ide devices) and i had power! i figured a cable connector was just loose. after making a few stops with the car and turning it on and off everything was great.

the next morning again i came out to the car and the same thing. no power to the ide devices... i just unpluged one of the connectors in the chain, plugged it back in and voila power.

this has been happening only when i leave the car for a few hours at a time. if i stop the car for 10 minutes and come back the computer boots fine. if i leave for 5 hours and come back i have no power to my ide devices....

does this make sense to anyone ???????

please help,

thanks,

slevytam

**nkotch** · 04-19-2006, 12:41 AM

Is your computer set to turn all the way off, hibernate, or standby when you turn the car off?

**slevytam** · 04-19-2006, 12:59 AM

Hi,

Thanks for your reply....

I believe it is set to turn all the way off(shutdown). When I start the car it boots as though the computer has been completely shutdown... ie ram check, ide auto detect, etc etc

slevytam

**slevytam** · 04-21-2006, 11:35 AM

Hi,

After some further investigating I may have found what is causing the problem... though i don't know why...

I have a powered usb hub that is wired into the red(5v) and black(ground) on one of the power cables coming from the opus. I noticed that this hub does not loose power when the car is turned off. I am not sure if the power is coming from the usb port on the motherboard or from the opus. If i disconnect this and reconnect it when the car is off I am able to boot successfully when i turn the car on.

Anyone have some insight ???

Thanks,

slevytam

**ZtH01** · 04-21-2006, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by slevytam

Hi,

After some further investigating I may have found what is causing the problem... though i don't know why...

I have a powered usb hub that is wired into the red(5v) and black(ground) on one of the power cables coming from the opus. I noticed that this hub does not loose power when the car is turned off. I am not sure if the power is coming from the usb port on the motherboard or from the opus. If i disconnect this and reconnect it when the car is off I am able to boot successfully when i turn the car on.

Anyone have some insight ???

Thanks,

slevytam

My Carputer did that sometimes with the USB DVD-RW hooked up. Unplug the drive and it would immediatly continue booting. I switched to firewire and everything is good now.

When it locks up, start unplugging USB devices one by one and see if you can get it to continue booting. Once you find out exactly whats causing it you should be able to come up with a workaround. Hopefully it will be the hub itself, as that will be the easiest to experiment with other hubs and replace if necessary. Perhaps you may even need to try getting your 5v from another source. I'd even try using it unpowered for awhile and see if you get better results. USB devices can be very finnicky at times....

-ZtH01

**nkotch** · 04-21-2006, 12:23 PM

Go through each device and see if there's one particular unit that's causing some problems. Had something similar when I had my DVD-ROM hooked up with an IDE-USB adapter, on turning on (from hibernation) the computer would give an error or not recognize it. Had to go back to using IDE.

How old is your OPUS? I want to say I saw something on here a while ago about a mod to the OPUS that would cut power to the 5v rail when it shut off, I remember reading that a few people sent their units back to get the mod done. Sounds like yours is keeping 5v powered when it's off and that is somehow messing things up.

**slevytam** · 04-21-2006, 12:38 PM

Thank you for your replies!!

Ill go through the devices and see if anyone in particular causes the problem... (though the 5v rail being always on seems to be true).

Is it possible that the motherboard is also giving power to the usb devices even though it is off... ? Im not sure but I think the power light on the usb hub stays on even if the 5v power is disconnected and the car is off.

Thanks,

slevytam

**nkotch** · 04-21-2006, 12:51 PM

Yea, if the OPUS is still sending 5V then the motherboard is still getting 5v and it could keep some USB devices powered. I think that's how this "problem" was first noticed, someone saw a hub light or usb device still powered after shutdown.

**slevytam** · 04-21-2006, 10:55 PM

Has anyone tried the software solution of disabling the usb hub on shutdown and then reenabling it at boot...? wouldn't this stop power from going to the hub when the computer is shutdown ?

There must be some way of managing the motherboards usb power ...

Note: I think my opus might kill the 5V power going through the mollex connectors so really the motherboard power is the only issue