pb powering external USB2 hard drive

[bigjules]

Hi,

I'm on a VAIO-Z1SP, win XP pro SP2 and I've bought a LaCie 80 Go USB2 external hard drive (the little one, 2,5" size, with no external alimentation).
When I plug it on any of the 2 usb ports, I've an error message said that the host can't deliver enought power (something like that, I've this message in french
"Crête d'alimentation sur le port du concentrateur. Un préiphétique USB a dépassé les limites de l'alimentation de son port de concentrateur. Cliquez sur ce message pour blablabla..."
On this forum I've seen a post confirm that all the usb ports are not USB2... I'll try to put a screenshot off my peripheric manager.
Off course I've tried to put this disk on 5 other laptop and it works fine, just one time I had to put the secondary usb cable, wich is connected on the power port off the disk.
And one of this other laptops was a Sony VAIO Z1M, the HD works fine with it (don't need the 2nd cable).

I hope I was clear, and really hope someone could help me! Thanks a lot for reading me !

[seb21__]

How much energy, need this drive?

You could also check the USB-ports.

click start > system configure > system > hardware > devices manager

Click on the USB-controller. There you can see 2 USB-ROOT-HUBs and 2 universal Host-controller. Or 1 universal Host-controller and 1 extended Host-controller.

Doubleclick on any USB-ROOT-HUB, then click "energy supply".
Read the Hub information. The Hub must have a own energy supply. And 500 mA must be usable. (LOL that's translated from german into english, now from english into french could be funny)

BTW: welcome to the ClubVAIO

[mvanwambeke]

This computer is listed in the series "ultra portables"
This has advantages like lite and small and....

But apparently there also also disadvantages, they seem to be cutting on the max power supply.

I had not heared about this yet , but it does seem logically. At least you get an error message for this.

[seb21__]

:smileycow: oops I clicked the wrong button. (ignore this post)

[seb21__]

That would surprise me. Because the next standart would only 100mA. And that's only enough for devices like a mouse or a small digitizer board.:smileyconfused:

Did you tried to connect a scanner on you laptop? Because a scanner need normally approx 500mA. You can check the energy consumption in the devices manager. Read my old post for that.

[drinkfeckarse]

i've seen this problem before

you need a usb cable with on one end the plug that goes in to you hdd

on the other end you need two connectors to plug into your computer. one carrys info and supplys power the other just supplys power.

a bit of a pain using up two ports but its a solution.

[kee-lo_]

Hi,

If you're near a plug the best thing to do is buy a powered USB hub.

[bigjules]

Hi, thanks all for your responses!

I don't know exactly how much power need this HD, when I plug it (just one USB cable) I can see the following in the device manager :


And when I plug also the power cable on the 2nd USB port, I have this :


I've found this info on this site :
"Electrical Requirements:
Bus-Powered via the Computer
120-240 VAC @ 50/60 Hz
Consumption: 300 W "
(really not sure this site is right, and don't know how many mA)

I've trying some things : I've DL the Lacie drivers for this drive ("LaCie_USB_Driver_Install.EXE") and this patch from Acer (http://theo.laban.free.fr/acer.zip), I've found it on this forum.
And now I have not the initial error msg again (but it still don't work)

--
thx drinkfeckarse it's what I'm trying to do since the beginning
--
Kee-Lo I would like to be "power independant", but if I have no choice I would buy a usb hub... or a new VAIO
--
seb21 I don't sure to understand what you say :

That would surprise me. Because the next standart would only 100mA

If the hdd needs more than 100mA it can't works?

[kee-lo_]

Why am I not suprised with LaCiE? Had so much trouble with them. I had to buy a powered hub to get my CD-RW to work on the GRX

[seb21__]

Mmmh, doubleclick on the drive and click général.


There must be a feld like this one.


What can you read there?