SDHC & micro-SDHC card readers for Windows 98

[Multibooter]

Incompatibility between manufacturer-provided driver and nusb - nusb currently rejected

The MSI StarReader mini II card reader http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=pr...mp;prod_no=1161 is currently my top choice as card reader. It comes with a Win98 driver, which indicates that the manufacturer cares about a small customer group like the Win98 community and that the device has been tested by the manufacturer under Win98. The Win98 driver which comes on the mini-CD can also be downloaded from http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=do...mp;prod_no=1161 (file creation date on CD: 19-Sep-06; of website download: 3-Feb-2007, otherwise identical files). The card reader costs less than $10 and comes with a very handy USB extension cord (not a connection cable), allowing you to connect the card reader even to USB ports which are physically positioned very close to each other, without blocking a 2nd port. The USB connection cable is so useful that I have put it into the Toolbox for SDHC cards.

1) Version conflict of driver files

Unfortunately there is an incompatibility between the manufacturer-provided MSI driver and the generic nusb driver: Both drivers use driver files with the same name and location, but with different content. The following installed files are different, depending whether they are from nusb or from MSI:

- \Inf\USBSTOR.INF

- \Inf\USBNTMAP.INF

- \System\Iosubsys\USBMPHLP.PDR

- \System32\Drivers\USBSTOR.SYS

The 2 .inf files are not problematic, they could be renamed as required, but the other 2 files are problematic:

USBMPHLP.PDR: The Hex Viewer of BeyondCompare shows major differences between the 2 versions of USBMPHLP.PDR: the MSI-version shows "Special Build lyh728" and is dated 10-Sep-2003, while the nusb version shows "Microsoft Corporation" and is dated 12-Sep-2003. MSI must have had a reason to use this special build, especially since the MSI installer also installs optionally Adaptec ASPI v4.71.2.0 of 17-Jul-2002, what is unusual for card reader drivers.

USBSTOR.SYS: The 2 versions of USBSTOR.SYS (nusb creation date: 17-Feb-2003, MSI creation date: 8-Jun-2000, both identical version info) have minor differences, maybe patches by Maximus Decim (why?)

I have used the MSI card reader under either driver, both drivers seemed to work Ok up to now. But deviating from the manufacturer-provided driver may possibly cause problems in the future, problems currently irreversable since there is no nusb-removal tool; nusb currently sticks in your system like InCD or an Internet Explorer update. The version conflict could possibly be solved if the next release of nusb uses different filenames, e.g. nusbstor.sys, etc.

2) Installation problem

If you install first nusb and then the MSI-driver, the MSI driver installation will NOT overwrite the existing nusb driver files (e.g. USBSTOR.INF, USBNTMAP.INF, USBSTOR.SYS, USBMPHLP.PDR), maybe because the nusb files have a newer file modification date than the MSI driver files. In effect, if you have already nusb installed, you cannot install the manufacturer-provided MSI-driver.

If you reverse the installation sequence, installing first the MSI-driver and then nusb, nusb will overwrite several driver files of MSI (USBSTOR.INF, USBNTMAP.INF, USBMPHLP.PDR, USBSTOR.SYS)

This means that it is not possible to use the MSI-driver if nusb is also on the system. Either the MSI-driver or nusb.

3) Conclusion:

I will put nusb into the Toolbox after a future release has solved this driver conflict. I have removed nusb 3.3 from my own system since I want to use the manufacturer-provided driver for the MSI card reader. There are still SDHC card readers with manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers in the stores, and all my other USB Mass Storage devices are working fine with their manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers, even the recent Thermaltake eSATA-USB combo enclosure, which I have working fine with 750GB SATA & PATA HDDs on a 9-year-old laptop under Win98. The art of using Win98 today includes finding recent hardware with manufacturer-provided drivers.

Nusb could be a tremdous tool for me, if it were changed from a driver for all USB Mass Storage devices to a driver for USB Mass Storage Devices which do not have their own Win98 driver. As further improvement of nusb I would suggest that a special nusb-removal tool should be written.

Edited October 26, 2008 by Multibooter

[jaclaz]

FYI:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Generic-98-USB-d...-me-t99220.html

jaclaz

[Multibooter]

Thanks for the link jaclaz. Your English translation at http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2411 is very instructive. Eventually I will check out the sometimes-working WinTricks Generic USB driver, it doesn't look like a big system update with its 3 driver files of the Lexar JumpDrive and comes with an uninstall.bat.

Since this driver works with Lexar, it might also work with Corsair (dencorso!) and then with Lexar BootIt v1.07 info under http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/05/01/multi...ive-in-windows/ download location: http://files.filefront.com/lexar+usb+forma...;/fileinfo.html

I have not yet found a way to have an SDHC card reader or its card/partitions appear as a fixed drive under Win98; possibly one could set the removable media bit of the Lexar/Corsair under WinXP to fixed, so that when connected under Win98 the Lexar/Corsair appears as a fixed drive ( http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html in section "On flash drive only the first partition works")

I have tried out BootIt under WinXP with SDHC card readers of about 5 different manufacturers, with different SD/SDHC cards, BootIt reported that the removable media bit was flipped, but then the card reader/card/partitions were displayed in My Computer under WinXp as Removable. I couldn't find a store which had Lexar SDHC card readers http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1171400668.html But it should also work with SDHC card readers: "Works fine for me, my 4gb SDHC is now shown as a fixed disc" http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=65675

Edited October 26, 2008 by Multibooter

[jaclaz]

The only reason for which one would want a USB stick be seen as a Fixed drive would be to partition it from Windows 2K/XP/2003 and see multiple partitions in it.

Hence the need for "flipping" the bit or using either cfadisk.sys or dummydisk.sys filter drivers.

Under DOS and Windows 9x/Me there is not such a need, as you have direct access to the drive.

On flash drive only the first partition works

Nearly all USB flash drives pretend to have a removable media (even it's a lie), so Windows detects them as 'removable'. On drives with a removable media Windows 2000 and higher supports only one partition.

jaclaz

[dencorso]

[...]1) Version conflict of driver files

Unfortunately there is an incompatibility between the manufacturer-provided MSI driver and the generic nusb driver: Both drivers use driver files with the same name and location, but with different content. The following installed files are different, depending whether they are from nusb or from MSI:

- \Inf\USBSTOR.INF

- \Inf\USBNTMAP.INF

- \System\Iosubsys\USBMPHLP.PDR

- \System32\Drivers\USBSTOR.SYS

[...]

2) Installation problem

If you install first nusb and then the MSI-driver, the MSI driver installation will NOT overwrite the existing nusb driver files (e.g. USBSTOR.INF, USBNTMAP.INF, USBSTOR.SYS, USBMPHLP.PDR), maybe because the nusb files have a newer file modification date than the MSI driver files. In effect, if you have already nusb installed, you cannot install the manufacturer-provided MSI-driver.

If you reverse the installation sequence, installing first the MSI-driver and then nusb, nusb will overwrite several driver files of MSI (USBSTOR.INF, USBNTMAP.INF, USBMPHLP.PDR, USBSTOR.SYS)

This means that it is not possible to use the MSI-driver if nusb is also on the system. Either the MSI-driver or nusb.

[...]

Well, the installer won't overwrite same or higher version files with same or lower version files, but you can do it by hand, from a true DOS session (not a DOS box). I believe NUSB3.3 will work quite contently with the .SYS and .PDR files from the MSI StarReader driver and vice-versa. Now, the .INFs are another story altogether... But, then again, they are just plain text ASCII files, which you can switch from a DOS box at will, and that you may consolidate into revised .INFs, working for both drivers, if you find it worth the effort. I've downloaded the MSI Win 98 driver and shall take a look at the files asap, and report back.

Meanwhile, and quite off-topic, let me recommend to MsiX.EXE, a fantastic command-line tool, able to extract files from .msi, .msm and .msp installation files. Find it here: Heath Stewart's Patch Files Extractor

Edited October 26, 2008 by dencorso

[Multibooter]

The only reason for which one would want a USB stick be seen as a Fixed drive would be to partition it from Windows 2K/XP/2003... Under DOS and Windows 9x/Me there is not such a need, as you have direct access to the drive.

Hi jaclaz, in general I agree with you, but there are some special situations where an SDHC card would be required to appear as a fixed drive.

Special situations: Why make an SDHC card appear as fixed media under Win98?:

- to run DCF (floppy disk imaging software) from an SDHC card

- Norton Disk Doctor only checks the partition table of SDHC cards set to fixed; the partition table of removable media is skipped

BUT: How can one make removable media appear as fixed under Win98?

Around 1995-1997 the Jaz & Zip removable media drives came out, and they are very much comparable to the SDHC cards of today. They had a Windows driver called "Iomega Guest", used in most situations. But there was also an advanced driver set called "Iomega SCSI Utilities for DOS" v5.0, which would only run under MS-DOS. These SCSI Utilities allowed setting a SCSI Zip/Jaz drive to non-removable ("lock/unlock"), for special situations.

Software then was sometimes programmed not to run from removable media/floppy disks, as a means of copy-protection. Software which would not run from or install-to removable media in 1997 included DCF, Alqalam Arabic/Farsi wordprocessor, WinFax Pro 4.1, Corel Draw 3.0 & 5.0E2, Gamma Unitype, OmniPage Pro, Statistica 4.0. When running EZ-Diskcopy Pro v3.30c from a Jaz drive, for example, the Jaz drive had to be set to non-removable, otherwise err msg: cannot run from diskette. At that time I used a Jaz disk in a similar way as people today who boot from a stick. If I remember right, I could install Windows 3.1 only onto a Zip drive if the drive was set to non-removable. Of all that software which would not work on removable media only DCF v5.3 is still in use by me today, it's the best software for creating images of floppy disks, I can run it from a full-sized DOS window in Win98, and even under WinXP! All my floppies are archived as .dcf files (BTW, WinImage v7.0 can also create .DCF image files even if it's not in Save as type -> All files -> enter file name as xxx.dcf, but I trust more the accuracy of .dcf files created by DCF )

I just made a test of DCF running in a Win98 full-size DOS window, with Dcf.exe on the internal (=fixed) HDD:

- DCF could create a disk image file of a floppy disk, writing it to the SDHC card

- DCF could read a disk image file from an SDHC card (also: from a 239GB partition of an ext.750GB HDD - DOS software!!)

and create the corresponding floppy disk (e.g. a bootable Partition Magic floppy from a disk image)

When I copied the \DCF\-directory to an SDHC card and repeated the test, but running from the SDHC card shown as removable media, DCF wrote a disk image file of the flpppy ok onto the SDHC card, but after clicking on Exit, the error msg Wifiusb [not responding] came up (I was connected at the same time to the Internet), and Win98 hung. So DCF cannot be run from a removable SDHC card, just as years ago it couldn't be run from a removable Zip drive.

Formerly, setting an Iomega Jaz drive to fixed, then installing copy-protected software (which used bad sectors) onto it, then using a sector-by-sector copier like Iomega Copy Machine, was an easy way to make backup copies of some copy-protected software. What about SDHC cards/Nintendo DS-I?

Another possible use of fixed-disk-SDHC cards, with current software, may be Norton Disk Doctor standalone: it does not check the partition table of removable media, only of fixed media. Under WinXP Norton Disk Doctor does check the partition table of single and multi-partition cards which are set to fixed with Hitachi Filter Driver.

Edited October 27, 2008 by Multibooter

[Multibooter]

I have restructured/updated the first page of this topic and moved less important information onto this page here

Other card readers with manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers which are not included in the List of Top Card Readers (on front page)

- CnMemory All-in-one Card Reader Pop-Art http://www.cnmemory.de/seite_84ger-0-a0.html Pros: uses up only one drive letter, and has multiple slots; it can be rotated to fit into cramped space at the USB connectors; the RTS5158 chip inside has been identified by HJ Reggel as a current Top Performer (see Reggel's list, in Tool Box). Cons: I didn't like the enclosure of the card reader, it's too big and too heavy for being connected directly to the USB connector of the computer; if it had come in a small box to be connected by cable, I would have put it into the List of Top Card Readers.

- emtec SD card reader K100 VID 058F [=Alcor Micro Corp.] PID 6335 SN 058F011111B1

http://www.emtec-international.com/en/driv...p;ss_gamme=K101 (sold together with a slow (class-2) 1 or 2GB SD card). The Wìn98 driver of emtec does not install a safely-remove-utility into the system tray so you should use it with the disk flusher Sync 2.2 (see Toolbox)

Reason for removal from top list: very slow chip, has half the write-speed of the top readers; no safely-remove-utility

- emtec micro-SD card reader K200 VID 058F [=Alcor Micro Corp.] PID 6335 SN 058F011111B1

Not listed on their website, sold together with a slow (class-2) 1GB micro-SD card plus an SD-Adapter. The Win98 driver on their website is the same as for the model K100 above, listed at their website as K101. Only complaints: the micro-SDHC card sticks out of the card reader, the card reader does not serve as a protective box of the micro-SDHC card. Also: no safely-remove-utility is installed in the system tray, so you should use it with the disk flusher Sync 2.2 (see Toolbox).

Reason for removal from top list: very slow chip; no safely-remove-utility; no status light to know whether the system is still writing to card

NOTE: you cannot have the emtec SD & micro-SD readers (K100 & K200) plugged in at the same time. Both readers have the same Vendor ID, Product ID and USB serial number, as checked with ListUsbDrives v1.7.8 (see Toolbox for SDHC cards), and therefore look identical to Windows, even if they look physically quite different.

- hama 55350 (multi-card reader) VID 0DDA [=hama] PID 2005 SN 000000000036

http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*127947/action*2598

Is similar to the hama Easy Line 55745 in the Top list. If you use are Genesys-driven USB mass storage devices, this card reader is problematic because of the multiple-drive-letter problem: without a built-in USB hub there is only a complicated workaround.

One feature makes this multi-card reader interesting: It has a flashable ROM plus software to flash the ROM, which lets the technically inclined experiment with the ROM.

Careful when buying, there are 2 models with the same number 55350, but with a different chip inside. The manufacturer-provided Win98 driver only works for the model which has on the reader and on the box the SN 02822630600; the Win98 driver doesNOT work with the other model with the SN 32822630800 on the box (These SNs are NOT the USB SN).

SDHC card readers which do NOT have working manufacturer-provided drivers for Win98SE

The card readers listed here work with SDHC cards (i.e. >= 4GB). All of them ran fine with the generic nusb33 driver, but nusb is more for advanced users.

- hama 55310 V3 http://www.hama.de/portal/searchSelectedPr.../bySearch*55310 (on box: for Win98)

- ednet Multi Card Reader USB 2.0, 30 In 1 (on box: for Win98)

- Praktica Mini Card Drive II

- Kingston microSD card reader, which comes with a 4 GB microSDHC card plus 2 adapters (SD, miniSD), so tiny that it even fits into the USB slot besides big fat sticks, also for your key chain

SD card readers which do NOT have working manufacturer-provided drivers for Win98SE and do NOT work with SDHC card

The following card reader does NOT have a working Win98 driver and does NOT work with SDHC cards (only with SD cards <2GB). It ran fine with the nusb33 driver:

- T-Flash microSD reader in the box of the R4-III DS http://www.r4dsl.net

Items removed from the Toolbox

Edited December 2, 2008 by Multibooter

[Multibooter]

For the emtec card readers I want to use the manufacturer-provided driver, but that driver does not install an eject-utility in the system tray.

... for all storage media that identify themselves as "removable media", windows will add "Eject" to the context menu, so one can always right-click on the device icon in explorer or my_computer, and select "Eject", to attain that result... for external USB HDDs [without a removal-utility]... things get nasty without NUSB, so I think it becomes mthe "Removable"andatory to useMultibooter' date='Oct 18 2008, 03:08 AM' post='804643']For the emtec card readers I want to use the manufacturer-provided driver, but that driver does not install an eject-utility in the system tray.

Near-Substitute for a Safely-Remove-Utility under Win98

For WinXP there are several third-party utilities, e.g. USB Safely Remove http://safelyremove.com/fullFeaturesList.htm which in another product description had listed WinME as system requirement (could it run under Win98 with upgraded DLLs?) - but for Win98 I couldn't find anything. Maybe programming this is easier under WinXP, where a 3rd part utility is much less needed: "I don't think the code can work or can be ported on Windows 9x" http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/usbej...Quick&fr=26 (with code and demo for download).

There is a near-substitute for a Safely-Remove-Utility under Win98: the disk flusher Sync v2.2 by Mark Russinovich of SysInternals http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897438.aspx With the parameter -r it flushes the disk cache of fixed and removable media. I have been using the shortcut D:\sync.exe -r under Win98 before physically removing the emtec card reader, it works fine with both single and multi-partition SDHC cards. I am not using the -e parameter because this would eject any floppy disks, CDs and virtual CDs/DVDs mounted on a virtual drive with Alcohol, and my drive letters change too much for entering them as parameters.

When I had another card reader connected, the MSI, and physically unplugged the card reader without having used the safely-remove-utility of the MSI card reader, but after having double-clicked on the Sync disk flusher, the same old warning message came up: "Unsafe Removal of Device: You have unplugged or ejected a device without stopping it which can cause your computer to crash and loose valuable data. Please use the hotplug icon in the status bar to safely stop devices before unplugging them." Since the disk cache was flushed and the computer didn't hang, I assume that this message can be safely ignored.

Sync v2.2 has been added to the Toolbox

Win98-compatible Emtec SDHC card readers K100, K101, K200

The emtec driver can be downloaded from http://www.emtec-international.com/en/driv...p;ss_gamme=K101

The emtec card readers have the Vendor ID VID = 058F [=Alcor Micro Corp.] and the Product ID PID = 6335

A card reader with the same VID & PID is also sold as Transcend TS-RDS2. Its manufacturer-provided Win98 driver can be downloaded from http://www.transcendusa.com/Support/DLCent...DLKeyWd=TS-RDS2 As expected, the Win98 driver from Transcend works fine with the emtec card reader, its setup.exe is much larger (14.8 vs 10.0MB) than the driver provided by emtec, and appears superior:

- it has 2-state icons in My Computer, which are red when an SDHC card is inserted, and a grey "-" sign when there is no SDHC card

- it does not have a safely-remove-utility in the system tray either, but when you physically unplug the card reader a msg pops up for about one second: "Multimedia Card Reader: Driver unloading, please wait" and then disappears. The emtec driver, on the other hand, does not display any message. I assume that emtec/Transcend have not included a safely-remove-utility because their driver does not need one. I have extensively tested the physical unplugging and then re-inserting of the emtec card reader, with single und multi-partition SDHC cards inserted, there was no negative impact on the system. But to be on the safe side I would recommend to double-click on the shortcut to the Sync disk flusher before physically removing the card reader, to be really sure that there is no data loss on the SDHC card.

Edited October 27, 2008 by Multibooter

[jaclaz]

Of all that software which would not work on removable media only DCF v5.3 is still in use by me today, it's the best software for creating images of floppy disks, I can run it from a full-sized DOS window in Win98, and even under WinXP! All my floppies are archived as .dcf files (BTW, WinImage v7.0 can also create .DCF image files even if it's not in Save as type -> All files -> enter file name as xxx.dcf, but I trust more the accuracy of .dcf files created by DCF )

There are other tools.

What I mainly use:

DCOPY/DcopyNT:

http://users.telenet.be/jbosman/applications.html

Try it.

jaclaz

[Multibooter]

Genesys MultiTool

The hama USB 2.0 Card Reader 55350 http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*127947/action*2598 is an SDHC card reader with a flashable ROM and has been added to the list of card readers with a manufacturer-provided Win98 driver. What makes this card reader interesting is that its firmware update comes with a version of Genesys Logic MultiTool v1.4.4.4 http://www.hama.de/webresources/drivers/00...5350_fw9602.zip

The Genesys MultiTool needs no installation and runs under Win98. Its Firmware/EEPROM tool allows you to save the card reader ROM as a file and to re-burn the ROM from a saved file. It works, but be careful, the ReadMe First file of the MultiTool was not included and some buttons on the menu are poorly labeled, so that you may wipe out the ROM of your card reader inadvertently. Unfortunately this version of Genesys MultiTool is crippled, you cannot save an EEP file, which contains the Vendor ID, Product ID and USB serial number, it's greyed out; the button Dump EEP Data works. If one could modify the USB serial number, for example, one could have 2 of these card readers connected to the computer at the same time.

The Genesys MultiTool also contains a Format tool, which allows you to format CF, SM, SD & MS formats under Win98 with this card reader (and most likely on all other card readers with the Genesys chip GL819 and GL819-E), probably according to standard specifications since it comes from a chip manufacturer. I have test-formatted on this card reader a 1 GB SD card (class 2) with Genesys MultiTool, Panasonic SDFormatter, HP Format Tool and WinXP Explorer. Copying 197 jpg files, altogether 122MB, onto these SD cards took the following time if formatted by:

Panasonic SDFormatter: 49 secs

Genesys MultiTool 51 secs

HP Formatter: 67 secs

WinXP Explorer format: 63 secs

I haven't tried out formatting SDHC cards, only an SD card, with the Genesys MultiTool yet. MultiTool.exe has a modification date of 16-Feb-2006, so it should format SDHC according to specifications.

The Genesys MultiTool looks like a piece of software written by the chip manufacturer Genesys for internal use; it contains another tool "Read/Write test for Mass Production". Does anybody know more about this MultiTool? Any suggestions for fiddling around with this card reader ROM?

Hex Workshop, for example, displays the following string at the end of the ROM file saved to disk: !@.......H.a.m.a...C.a.r.d. .R.e.a.d.e.r. ...0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.3.6.CF SM SD MS ..............................

BTW 000000000036 is the USB serial number of this card reader, maybe there is no need for the greyed out function after all

[Multibooter]

After changing then SN to ...37, the card reader worked fine, ChipGenius recognized the new SN. And when I plugged in a 2nd identical card reader, but with the unchanged SN ...36: everything fine, 4 more drive letters in My Computer, data on both multi-card readers could be accessed fine.

BUT: when I tried to copy files from one card reader to the other, copying started Ok, but then stopped and then the system froze, under both Win98 (Genesys driver) & WinXP (MS driver). So you cannot connect 2 identical SDHC card readers to a computer by just changing the USB serial number. Uwe Sieber's article http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html (towards the end) needs an addition in this sense.

[Multibooter]

Hi dencorso,

Thanks for your effort with Dependency Walker regarding ChipGenius. Your guess that this program requires WBEM to run under Win98 was bulls eye. After downloading WBEM = Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) CORE 1.5 (Windows 95/98) from

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en and installing it, ChipGenius displayed data under Win98. Win98 also appeared a little crisper with this irreversible update.

Unfortunately, the data that ChipGenius produced under Win98 differed (was wrong) when compared to the data produced under WinXP. ChipGenius possibly looks at specific keys in the registry, and what works for the WinXP registry may not work for the Win98 registry.

Example 1: (hama card reader 55350) displayed under WinXP: (is correct except for Chip Part-Number)

Device Name: ++++[L:][M:][P:][N:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Hama CF Card Reader USB Device)(Ha...

PnP Device ID: VID = 0DDA PID = 2005

Serial Number: 000000000036

Revision: 9602/9602/9602/9602

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed

Chip Vendor: (N/A)

Chip Part-Number: DLX1611

Example 1: (hama card reader 55350) displayed under Win98 (erroneous)

Device Name: ++USB2.0 Card Reader(USB Storage Drive) [only ++ but reader has 4 drive letters; no drive letters;different text]

PnP Device ID: VID = 0DDA PID = 2005

Serial Number: 000000000036

Revision: [data missing]

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 Full-Speed (USB1.1) [wrong info, is High-Speed]

Chip Vendor:

Chip Part-Number: DLX1611(????IC) [even this is different]

Example 2: (Adaptec ACS-100 USB HDD enclosure) displayed under WinXP nearly correctly:

Device Name: ++USB Mass Storage Device(ST375064 0A USB Device) [wrong, device has 3 FAT32+1 NTSF primary partitions]

PnP Device ID: VID = 05E3 PID = 0702

Serial Number: 6&&1CBCC30F&&0&&1

Revision: 0811

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed

Chip Vendor: Genesys

Chip Part-Number: GL811E

Example 2: (Adaptec ACS-100 USB HDD enclosure) displayed under Win98:

Device Name: ++USB Mass Storage Device(USB Storage Drive) [HDD drive model missing; wrong number of partitions;different text]

PnP Device ID: VID = 05E3 PID = 0702

Serial Number: 0{B8139C20-CF94-11D5-AEF7-0002B30625C5}&&ROOT_HUB20&&PCI&&VEN_1033&&DEV_00E0&&SUBSYS_29280E55&&REV_04&&022100 [wrong]

Revision: [missing]

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 Full-Speed (USB1.1) [wrong]

Chip Vendor: Genesys(??) [text differs]

Chip Part-Number: GL811E

ChipGenius should only be used under Win98 after the underlying causes of the errors above are fixed. Under WinXP ChipGenius runs fine, although the data base could need a little improvement, it contains errors: the hama card reader 55350 has definitely a Genesys GL819 chip inside, not a DLX1611 as reported by ChipGenius. Despite these weaknesses, ChipGenius is a very valuable tool in the Toolbox.

Edited November 4, 2008 by Multibooter

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Your guess that this program requires WBEM to run under Win98 was bulls eye. After downloading WBEM = Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) CORE 1.5 (Windows 95/98) from

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en and installing it, ChipGenius displayed data under Win98. Win98 also appeared a little crisper with this irreversible update.

@Multibooter, I remember about a year ago having to manually disable Winmgmt\WBEM on Win9x to allow an important app to work. It was conflicting with CPU-Z by Delattre, so you may want to keep an eye out for similar breakage. It may have since been corrected for all I know. Not to hijack the thread here, just a heads up.

[dencorso]

@Multibooter, I remember about a year ago having to manually disable Winmgmt\WBEM on Win9x to allow an important app to work. It was conflicting with CPU-Z by Delattre, so you may want to keep an eye out for similar breakage. It may have since been corrected for all I know. Not to hijack the thread here, just a heads up.

Well, I, for one, use cpu-z and WBEM for a very long time and never had any issues of the kind. However, WBEM is one of those add-ons lots of people get to hate... YMMV, of course. But thanks for the heads up, anyway.

Now, quoting myself:

As a sample of what I see, here's what I get from my Corsair Flash Voyager 8GB, under Win 98SE:

====================================================

Device Name: ++USB Mass Storage Device(USB Disk)

PnP Device ID: VID = 090C PID = 1000

Serial Number: A100000000000102

Revision: 1100

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed

Chip Vendor: SMI(??)

Chip Part-Number: SM321/SM324

Product Vendor: USB

Product Model: Disk

=====================================================

and here's what I get from my Corsair Flash Voyager 8GB, under Win XP SP3:

====================================================

Device Name: +[Q:]+USB Mass Storage Device(Corsair Flash Voyager USB Device)

PnP Device ID: VID = 090C PID = 1000

Serial Number: A100000000000102

Revision: 1100

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed

Chip Vendor: SMI(??)

Chip Part-Number: SM321/SM324

Product Vendor: Corsair

Product Model: Flash Voyager

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@Multibooter:

Of course, there are problems with Device name, product vendor and product model. But seems better than your results. Please do try a pen drive, so we can see whether I'm really getting better results or not. And, BTW, there are 3 hotfixes known for WBEM: Q260710, Q282949 and Q285895. They are findable at MDGx's, as usual (in the WMI section).

Edited November 9, 2008 by dencorso

[Multibooter]

Of course, there are problems with Device name, product vendor and product model. But seems better than your results. Please do try a pen drive, so we can see whether I'm really getting better results or not. And, BTW, there are 3 hotfixes known for WBEM. They are findable at MDGx's, as usual (in the WMI section).

Hi dencorso,

sorry, I don't have a pen drive around, just card readers.

Here a couple more instances where the program and the database of ChipGenius might need some fixing:

1) for the emtec SDHC card reader ChipGenius displays Chip Part-Number: AU6335, BUT:

- when the enclosure of the emtec SDHC card reader fell off (flimsy construction), I could see printed inside the card reader, on the board, "NT-AU6332"

- also: the driver downloaded from emtec is in a directory named AU6332

- BUT on the other hand: the PID detected by Windows/ChipGenius is 6335.

2) The revision number displayed is NOT necessarily that of the attached USB device:

for the USB enclosure of an external CD/DVD burner it indicated the revison of the burner inside, not of the enclosure

3) When a USB device is connected to a USB hub, the serial number displayed for the device may sometimes be that of the USB hub.

On the positive side, ChipGenius may also be used to correctly label (with a sticker) the port numbers of a USB hub. The port number is indicated by the "&&x" suffix at the end of the displayed serial number when you connect an external USB HDD to that port.

Here an example: an Adaptec ACS-100 USB HDD enlosure with a 750GB Seagate HDD inside (ST375064 0A), connected to a hama-Easy Line 55350 card reader+3-port hub combo:

Device Name: ++USB Mass Storage Device(ST375064 0A USB Device)

PnP Device ID: VID = 05E3 PID = 0702 [is ok, is the info about the Adaptec ACS-100 enclosure)

Serial Number: 7&&2A6DA49&&0&&2

Revision: 0811

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 High-Speed

Chip Vendor: Genesys

Chip Part-Number: GL811E

The suffix "&&2" of the Serial Number means: attached to Port 2 (counting starts from Port 1) of the hub of the card reader combo. BTW, when connected to port 6 of a Belkin 7-port hub instead, the same device displayed a different serial number: 7&&2A9107BD&&0&&6

Edited November 17, 2008 by Multibooter