Peter_Brandon
December 3rd, 2022, 08:51 PM
My laptop, which I bought 1.5 years ago and have hardly used, always had some problems recognizing one of my two external hard disks, but no problems with a second one. With the problem disk, I had to repeatedly insert the disk, sometimes using a USB C hub, to get it to recognize.
Recently, possibly after some updates, the laptop is utterly refusing to recognize either drive, including the one that had no problems before. A much older desktop running exactly the same OS has no problems recognizing both external disks. I use external disks to synchronize my computers, so the laptop is now largely useless to me, despite being in good shape otherwise.
When I plug in the 'good' hard disk to my laptop dmesg -w shows this:
[ 99.788122] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 99.916161] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.152170] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.388130] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 100.516088] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.752170] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.860254] usb usb1-port2: attempt power cycle
[ 101.272129] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[ 101.272689] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 101.480853] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 101.688133] usb 1-2: device not accepting address 7, error -71
[ 101.816156] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
[ 101.816704] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 102.024702] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 102.232127] usb 1-2: device not accepting address 8, error -71
[ 102.232222] usb usb1-port2: unable to enumerate USB device
I've looked online for 'read/64, error -71' and have found instances of the problem being solved. I've tried these solutions and they had no effect. This includes
Adding a /etc/modprobe.d/options.conf file with the line: options usbcore use_both_schemes=y . Rebooting. From https://urukrama.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/usb-drive-not-recognised-error-71/
Adding usbcore.autosuspend=-1 to grub; update-grub; reboot. From: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1140925/how-can-i-disable-usb-autosuspend-on-ubuntu-18-04 .
I've also tried updating my bios, which has proven not possible after days of work. My laptop is a less expensive HP model, no longer has Windows installed, and does not appear to have any options at boot-up (bios / uefi) for firmware or bios updates (so there apparently is no way to activate a Windows-created USB BIOS flash rescue USB). The BIOS update says it cannot be applied under dos (FreeDOS). WindowsPE (Hiren's BootCD) seems to go through the motions, but the BIOS remains unchanged. Because it's a laptop and has microcontrollers, FlashROM would likely brick the laptop. I've considered or tried every solution here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux .
I don't know what the source of the problem is. Because it's a newer laptop and the hard disks are older USB 2 SATA drives, maybe that has something to do with the problem.
Recently, possibly after some updates, the laptop is utterly refusing to recognize either drive, including the one that had no problems before. A much older desktop running exactly the same OS has no problems recognizing both external disks. I use external disks to synchronize my computers, so the laptop is now largely useless to me, despite being in good shape otherwise.
When I plug in the 'good' hard disk to my laptop dmesg -w shows this:
[ 99.788122] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 99.916161] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.152170] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.388130] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 100.516088] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.752170] usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[ 100.860254] usb usb1-port2: attempt power cycle
[ 101.272129] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[ 101.272689] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 101.480853] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 101.688133] usb 1-2: device not accepting address 7, error -71
[ 101.816156] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
[ 101.816704] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 102.024702] usb 1-2: Device not responding to setup address.
[ 102.232127] usb 1-2: device not accepting address 8, error -71
[ 102.232222] usb usb1-port2: unable to enumerate USB device
I've looked online for 'read/64, error -71' and have found instances of the problem being solved. I've tried these solutions and they had no effect. This includes
Adding a /etc/modprobe.d/options.conf file with the line: options usbcore use_both_schemes=y . Rebooting. From https://urukrama.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/usb-drive-not-recognised-error-71/
Adding usbcore.autosuspend=-1 to grub; update-grub; reboot. From: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1140925/how-can-i-disable-usb-autosuspend-on-ubuntu-18-04 .
I've also tried updating my bios, which has proven not possible after days of work. My laptop is a less expensive HP model, no longer has Windows installed, and does not appear to have any options at boot-up (bios / uefi) for firmware or bios updates (so there apparently is no way to activate a Windows-created USB BIOS flash rescue USB). The BIOS update says it cannot be applied under dos (FreeDOS). WindowsPE (Hiren's BootCD) seems to go through the motions, but the BIOS remains unchanged. Because it's a laptop and has microcontrollers, FlashROM would likely brick the laptop. I've considered or tried every solution here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux .
I don't know what the source of the problem is. Because it's a newer laptop and the hard disks are older USB 2 SATA drives, maybe that has something to do with the problem.