Puzzled about SAM460 USB

[kilaueabart]

If I have anything plugged into a front USB port on my case, cold booting slows way down. U-Boot will report, "5 USB devices found." Then it goes on to look for storage devices. "..." it says. Then after quite a long pause it goes on to say, "error in inquiry," and then it proceeds normally with booting.

I ruined my external USB2 hub/card reader a couple days ago. Looking for a replacement, I came across an inexpensive card reader (with one spare USB slot) that would fill a 3.5" bay on my tower. I'd really like to go that route, and I'm pretty sure I used only J13 or J12 on the mother board, internal USB, for the front USB slots, if one can really plug two of those into one connector, so I should have another one to use (too lazy to look right now).

Would doing so make that "Looking for storage devices ... [long pause] error in inquiry" permanent? I always had to leave my external hub disconnected when booting to avoid that, but could it perhaps be because it was a powered hub? I'm afraid not, because a thumb drive causes the same problem, but I can't help hoping.

I always have my mouse and keyboard plugged into the external USB ports and that never causes the problem. Is that due to some difference between "external" and "internal" USB? Anybody know for sure, maybe done something similar?

[tonyw]

First things first.

I think you have to eliminate a hardware problem with the port or the wiring, before you start looking for more difficult reasons.

Try booting with a mouse (just a common-or-garden mouse that works OK in one of the rear ports) in each of the front ports first. If it comes up OK with the mouse in each port in turn (and the mouse works OK when the system is up), then you can rule out any hardware problems.