[ale] help - how do I test usb ports, loopback, pc-pc

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Sun Jul 7 22:26:15 EDT 2013 

I would be suspicious of the external drive box(s) and/or cable(s). If the
drive box had a slightly flaky power brick or a slightly flaky data cable
or connection or a failing internal board.


On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 7:39 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

> Well, I'm now more confused than ever, but I thought I'd pass along what I
> learned.
>
> I found some USB loopback adapters from $ 50 - $ 150 but was unable to
> learn much about their capabilities.  I also found a USB protocol analyzer
> which is beyond my price range at $ 1200.
>
> I did some rough tests on my laptop by continuously copying a 1 GB file to
> a memory stick and copying back to the desktop and letting the system
> rename the file each time.  Every time I got another copy of the file on
> the system, I checked its md5 sum.  I tried this in turn on every USB port
> on the system.  All the copies worked OK.
>
> I loaded spinrite and ran it on the internal hdd.  That worked OK.
>
> I loaded spinrite and ran it on a USB memory stick.  I tried this on each
> USB port.  That worked OK.
>
> I loaded spinrite and tried to run it on the two external backup drives I
> have, attached to the USB port as before.  In one case, the computer hard
> crashes as before and the screen changes color and goes blank.  In another
> case, the machine locks up.
>
> I loaded spinrite on another pc and ran it on the two external backup
> drives and it works great.
>
> This makes no sense to me.  Since spinrite works great on the laptop in
> question with a memory stick, and based on the other tests, I believe that
> the pc and its USB controllers and spinrite are working fine.  I can only
> guess that the USB - SATA chips on the external drive enclosures are doing
> something funky.  Spinrite does't have its own USB drivers, at least in
> this version.  It relies on the bios to make the hdd visible and makes
> standard calls to the drive controller.  I think he'll be relying less on
> the bios in the next version.
>
> I ran another backup, and this time, I get no errors on it.
>
> So, it appears my computer is working fine after all.  I may have been the
> victim of an unfortunate coincidence in that I thought I saw errors on the
> backup and spinrite failed when I tried to run it.
>
> I still have no idea why I can run spinrite on this computer with a USB
> memory stick and cannot with an external hard drive.
>
> However, at least it appears that my pc is functional and ok.
>
> If anyone has any ideas, I'm still entertaining suggestions.  I never did
> find a good way to test USB ports, but there seemed to be lots of interest
> in the topic based on my googling.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> "Ron Frazier (ALE)" <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>
> >Full pass memtest done with no errors.  I think I have to look
> >elsewhere.
> >
> >Ron
> >
> >
> >"Ron Frazier (ALE)" <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
> >
> >>I had already run the mem test from the ms boot loader screen.  That
> >>passed.  I now have memtest86+ v4.00 running.  This cd was made back
> >in
> >>2009, but I don't think a newer one would work much differently.  I'll
> >>let it cook a while, but I don't think that's the problem.
> >>
> >>Presumably, if the memtest is working, then so is the cpu.
> >>
> >>Sincerely,
> >>
> >>Ron
> >>
> >>
> >>Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>>Run me test on the laptop before anything else.
> >>>On Jul 6, 2013 11:00 PM, "Ron Frazier (ALE)" <
> >>>atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Hi all,
> >>>>
> >>>> Got a bit of a weird request.  I did a backup to an external hdd on
> >>>my
> >>>> laptop connected via usb.  Then, afterwards I did a checkdisk on
> >the
> >>>backup
> >>>> disk and found errors.  I then tried running a spinrite analysis on
> >>>the
> >>>> external hdd and the computer crashes hard.  I know the spinrite is
> >>>good,
> >>>> and I even tried two different cd's of that.  I put a 2ND external
> >>>drive on
> >>>> the same machine and ran spinrite and the machine locks up.
> >>>>
> >>>> There's more to the story.  I took both external hdd's to my
> >desktop
> >>>> machine and am able to run spinrite analysis on them without a
> >>hitch.
> >>> Both
> >>>> drives work fine.
> >>>>
> >>>> I think something has happened to the USB controller on my laptop.
> >>>>
> >>>> So, the question is, I need a way to do extensive USB port data
> >>>integrity
> >>>> testing, first via loopback from port to port on the same machine,
> >>>then via
> >>>> port to port on two different machines.  I also tried switching
> >>>cables on
> >>>> the hdd that was crashing hard.  I also did a short ram test on the
> >>>pc.
> >>>>
> >>>> One tends to always assume these things just work.  But, in my
> >case,
> >>>I
> >>>> need to thoroughly test these ports so I know if I can trust them.
> >>I
> >>>> suspect that my backup is flawed at this point and all the USB
> >ports
> >>>on the
> >>>> laptop are not trustworthy.
> >>>>
> >>>> Any help is always appreciated.
> >>>>
> >>>> Sincerely,
> >>>>
> >>>> Ron
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>>
> >>>> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and
> >>K-9
> >>>Mail.
> >>>> Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch
> >>screen.
> >>>>
> >>>> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might
> >want
> >>>to
> >>>> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate
> >>>energy
> >>>> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
> >>>> quickly.)
> >>>>
> >>>> Ron Frazier
> >>>> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> >>>> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
> >>>> Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
> >>>> Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> Ale mailing list
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> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>>_______________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>
> >>Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9
> >>Mail.
> >>Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.
> >>
> >>(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want
> >to
> >>call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate
> >>energy
> >>mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
> >>quickly.)
> >>
> >>Ron Frazier
> >>770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> >>linuxdude AT techstarship.com
> >>Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
> >>Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
> >>
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Ale mailing list
> >>Ale at ale.org
> >>http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >>http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >
> >
> >--
> >
> >Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9
> >Mail.
> >Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.
> >
> >(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> >call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate
> >energy
> >mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
> >quickly.)
> >
> >Ron Frazier
> >770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> >linuxdude AT techstarship.com
> >Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
> >Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Ale mailing list
> >Ale at ale.org
> >http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
> quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
> Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
> Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>



-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
*
*Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
*
http://electjimkinney.org
http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
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