Solutions to resolve problems between VIA chipsets and USB modems

This tutorial has the purpose of resolving problems that you may encounter between your modem ( or ) if you have a motherboard that contains a chipset.

The plug on your USB modem is the connection between your PC and the modem itself, with no external electric current being provided to power the modem. The problem comes about with ALCATEL or ECI USB modems as they consume a lot of energy, or the VIA chipsets poorly manage this demand.
Often your modem will refuse to turn itself on, or will turn itself off after only a few minutes of use…

This energy use is also made worse by the number of external USB devices that are connected to the server like mice, keyboards, burners, etc.

Fortunately there are numerous solutions available for this problem!
For some of us you will be able to follow some of the following suggestions to be able to resolve this problem, while for others only one or two of these solutions my work and you will need to try them until you find one that does. Simply, apply a solution and see if it works! If your USB modem still doesn’t work then try the next solution.

The best solution is to first of all update your motherboards BIOS, which should resolve a number of your problems! To do this, go to the website of your motherboard manufacturer for more information.
If you don’t know how to do this, go to the ABIT explanation page here.



ABIT Bios download page
ASUS Bios download page

Before flashing your Bios, press the “Del” key at startup to go into the Bios and check the startup sequence of your devices. First of all, you should also verify that USB support has also been activated! Make sure this setting is set to “Enabled”.

AMD K7 Motherboard
PCI to DRAM Prefetch => Disabled
System Performance => Normal
PCI Master Read Caching => Disabled
Delayed Transaction => Disabled
PCI Master Time-Out => 0
K7 CLK_CTL => Default
P2C/C2P Concurrency => Disabled
Plug&Play OS Installed => No
Reset Configuration Data => Enabled

Abit KA7 – KT7 Motherboard
Plug and Play OS => Disabled
IRQ for USB and VGA => Enabled
Enhance Chip Performance -> Enabled
K7 CLK_CTL => Default
P2C/C2P Concurrency => Disabled
Delay Transaction => Disabled
PCI Master Read Caching => Disabled
PCI Master Time-Out => 0
Avoid installing a PCI card in slots 4 and 6 as these slots share their default IRQ with USB.

Asus A7V Motherboard
PCI to DRAM Prefetch => Disabled
System Performance => Normal
PCI Master Read Caching => Disabled
Delayed Transaction => Disabled

You can also reduce your CPU tensions for AMD processors to 1.7V for the core and 3.3V for the input/output against 1.75V and 3.4V according to the default ABIT settings (this is only for the Athlon/Duron CPU’s with a speed of 800 MHZ or less).