Reverse engineering the HP Z440 front USB 3.0 Round 2 (I failed & probably giving up)

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Well tried even harder and did more research. Destroyed a factory HP cable in the process. Either they didn't use conventional colored wiring for the USB or I am missing something else with those extra wires. The next step would be figuring out the data line wires by using the pinout of the TUSB8041 chip. From a financial standpoint I don't think it is worth the effort for me. I would have loved to have designed an adapter that would solve the problem for others. It wouldn't be a cost effective part to sell though. Hopefully someone can use this to figure out the final steps to figure it out.
If you want front USB3.0 best bet is to buy an expansion card with internal header.

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30 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 15

@racerrrz 3 месяца назад

One quick passing comment. The HP systems tend to give BIOS priority to set USB ports for keyboard function (rear I/O top port is the best for keyboard function). I would recommend re-testing your innovative internal USB header plug in windows. Try a few different USB devices. Windows will give you some output to help diagnose. When I plug a USB flash drive into a front USB port on my Z440 case swap windows provided an error for over-voltage (confirming some of your findings regarding 3.3V setup). I would recommend testing your keyboard, a cheap USB 3.0 flash drive and maybe a cheap optical mouse while loaded into Windows 10. See if any of those work. Check file transfers also - providing it detects. It could be worth loading up device manager or even HP Performance advisor to check how devices plugged into your modded plug report. I would like to think your wire loom would work given your meticulous research. I am totally not placing all my hopes on your efforts to avoid having to spend time to complete a planned video project myself.haha. But from your work thus far it seems likely that the dream of functional USB 3.0 through the motherboard internal USB 3.0 headers will not be feasible due to a design rework from HP. It might just be best to opt for the PCIe USB 3.0 internal header adapter route. I used those on my Z240 case swap with success and it would give full function of the case front I/O if plugged in to those adapters.

@computersales 3 месяца назад

I will give windows a shot. The bummer is even if I figure out the blue header it will only have one USB 3.0 port like the black header. If a person wants both front USB 3 ports to work on their case they will need a way to connect to both motherboard headers. I don't think it will be financially feasible to create the adapter even if a pinout is figured out.

@racerrrz 3 месяца назад

@@computersales That's is true - and that's before you figure in your time spent trying to solve the proprietary pinout. But I think your efforts have been useful to get some clarity on how the plug is configured. While I remember, it would be good to hear your thoughts on how the boot errors were bypassed on this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9xfUqQ1qaTo.html I found that clip through comments after I published my Z440 guide video but I noticed he wired his boot error bypass by spicing pins 7 and 16 (grounding a 3.3V pin), where I suggested using pins 7 and 10 (grounding the 5V). He also reported different pinout polarity for the front I/O power plug but I am fairly confident mine were correct (not that it matters for function). Maybe the best way to go to resolve the USB header issue is to find the cheapest PCIe adapter with an internal header and promote that as the best fix. I had one with 1x USB C port, 4x USB 3.0 ports and 1x Internal 20pin header for ~$15 USD (that was 2 years back - I see them listed now for ~$20 USD).

@racerrrz 3 месяца назад

@@computersales That's is true - and that's before you figure in your time spent trying to solve the proprietary pinout. But I think your efforts have been useful to get some clarity on how the plug is configured. While I remember, it would be good to hear your thoughts on how the boot errors were bypassed on this video: RU-vid search for "Фиксация ошибок HP Z440 motherboard post error" by Майнинг Котел I found that clip through RU-vid comments after I published my Z440 guide video but I noticed he wired his boot error bypass by spicing pins 7 and 16 (grounding a 3.3V pin), where I suggested using pins 7 and 10 (grounding the 5V). He also reported different pinout polarity for the front I/O power plug but I am fairly confident mine were correct (not that it matters for function). Maybe the best way to go to resolve the USB header issue is to find the cheapest PCIe adapter with an internal header and promote that as the best fix. I had one with 1x USB C port, 4x USB 3.0 ports and 1x Internal 20pin header for ~$15 USD (that was 2 years back - I see them listed now for ~$20 USD).

@computersales 3 месяца назад

@@racerrrz yeah saw that video. Pins 7 and 10 are both 3.3v. I tried grounding pin 10 but that didn't do anything. I'm still not even sure why grounding it works. Not a huge fan of doing it that way either. I will probably us a 10k ohm resistor if I follow through with the build. I did try booting in to windows with my rewired port but no luck. Wouldn't recognize anything. Card with internal USB header will probably be the cheapest option in all reality. Even if the pinout is figured a custom splitter cable will be labor intensive to make meaning expensive.

@racerrrz 3 месяца назад

@@computersales My logic was that pin 7 served as a sense pin that removed the boot error when it received volt input (so input from pin 10 or pin 16, but if you have measured 3.3V on pin 7 and saw no effect from grounding pin 10 to pin 7, that makes it less likely. (I was more concerned with solving the boot error initially rather than restoring port function). While you have the HP plug opened up, do you mind confirming if any of the internal header wires were spliced together? I presume the microchip on the front I/O manages the "sense pin" signal to satisfy the BIOS USB 3.0 check, but it would have been nice if there was two pins that were spliced together in the loom instead. The joys of trial and error.lol. That's disappointing to hear, I was hoping your efforts had found the solution. That makes retrofitting the Z440 front I/O module the best solution to retain header function (it's free if you have the case). Otherwise PCIe adapter it is. I have an extra Z440 motherboard that I planned to refit into my Z440's empty case to on-sell. I will be doing some testing on it with the oscilloscope. If I discover anything new I'll let you know, but after your discoveries I am not hopeful on a fix. My drive to find a fix is due to having no remaining free PCIe slots for a PCIe USB 3.0 header adapter.

@pepeshopping 3 месяца назад

Trivial with a cheap basic oscilloscope. USB 3 header looks standard so there may be something else going on.

@computersales 3 месяца назад

The pin out isn't standard unfortunately. They rearranged the voltage and ground lines and added 3.3v to power the hub for the front port. I have some basic oscilloscopes but I'm under the impression USB works at a higher frequency than mine support.

@joshua8389 3 месяца назад

I see you went down the rabbit hole more. At this point I would just gave up lol and mounted the original I/O panel somewhere on the case. For the front USB 3.0 I took a look and didn't find anything. I got curious and thought there would be a cable that you can connect to the internal header to convert it back to a normal USB 3.0 male port(s). This way you can skip the expansion card and just plug it into a USB 3.0 port on the back of the motherboard.

@computersales 3 месяца назад

Yeah no luck. Jumper bypass is the only way worth doing.