PS3 PS3 Doesn't detect USB drive

[sandungas]

The fact that the PS3 can still chargue controllers doesnt means that the USB ports are fine, sometimes happens that the USB ports only provides a bit of power, enought to change the controllers but not enought for other devices

Btw, you was wondering if a third party controller dongle could damage the USB ports, but i dont think

 

[SKEPTiCK]

Both the 1GB drive and the 64GB drive are flash devices that both worked perfectly well before the 64GB drive suddenly became unrecognizable by the system. The same exact thing happened with an external HDD that worked perfectly fine until one day it just stopped being recognized. Both USB ports give stable good power when charging a controller, both the 64GB drive and the external HDD are recognizable by my laptop.

I cannot verify the issue but I seem to recall experiencing the same problem in the past with my own USB drives.

Just keep trying to format to FAT32 with default cluster, use another USB formatter maybe, there are hundreds.

So, exactly what kind of CFW are you using? I got a little confused when you said that you are using Cobra CFW on OFW... does that mean you have a Cobra ODE manually connected to the motherboard or did you use Evilnat's CFW via USB?

At this point, I can only come up with a few theories on what is preventing your USB from being recognized. Apart from what sandungas has already said, there are a couple of things that you could attempt before completely giving up

Try to "Reset USB Bus" or "Set Dongle LED" via mmCM settings. Probably won't fix the issue but worth a shot

Also, if you had Rebug Toolbox, switching between Retail and Debug mode could make a difference (only hypothetical)

and I say that it's only a hypothetical because switching System modes should have nothing to do with this problem, but I've had this issue myself before and I'm not sure how I fixed it or how anybody fixes it but this is like the 1,000th time I've read of this occuring... Whenever I can't get mmCM to recognize my USB in mmOS, I would either switch mmCM between Rebug compatible mode & full CFW mode or I would tweak my system modes between Retail/Debug and this would fix the "Ghost USB"

The only other idea I have is to freshly re-install the Cobra CFW on your PS3 again and maybe that would resolve it... hopefully.

 

[baileyscream]

Changing firmware or type wont change the 5v rail's amperage as its hardware.
I have known 3rd party controllers to blow the 5v line but that would leave the users dead .
@sandungas is giving you great advice. Its obviously a power issue.
Can you do the usb hub test he has suggested as this should resolve the issue.
And can you check inside the usb port with a bright torch ot your phone in video mode so you can use it as both touch and digital microscope to see if
1. any foreign object is in there eg fluff
2. The 4 contacts are straight not twisted
3. all 4 contacts are at the same height not stuck
4. All 4 contacts are shiny and clean not dull or black spotting.

 

[Aezaeo]

@sandungas I just remembered, with my drives, none of them are powered externally. But they all get read by ps3 in FAT32. The only issue for me at least is with NTFS. So now that I think of it, I don't see using a HUB fixing my issue. It might but if it did, it would make things more complicated in terms of understanding what is actually happening with ntfs and drive recognition.

 

[pinky]

I'm not sure I'd use an unpowered drive with the ps3. granted, they do work, but I had two hdds burn out from not using an external power source. I've never had this issue with the 360 though. the hdd plugged into my jtag- the hdd light blinks every few seconds like it's receiving power. works every time for years now.

 

[sandungas]

@sandungas I just remembered, with my drives, none of them are powered externally. But they all get read by ps3 in FAT32. The only issue for me at least is with NTFS. So now that I think of it, I don't see using a HUB fixing my issue. It might but if it did, it would make things more complicated in terms of understanding what is actually happening with ntfs and drive recognition.

Your problem seems to be something different, keep in mind the NTFS support is custom code so maybe there is some setting or stuff incorrect in your setup

 

[Aezaeo]

Your problem seems to be something different, keep in mind the NTFS support is custom code so maybe there is some setting or stuff incorrect in your setup

I'd like to believe that but I tried for 4 days to get any of the managers to recognize my NTFS drive and nothing. I made sure my NTFS formats were MBR not GPT, only did 64KB clusters tho, never tried a different cluster size cuz I read a post by someone stating it had to be 64. But apart from the drive having to b MBR there's not much else.

The only other options I can think of is maybe a reinstall of CFW like @SKEPTiCK mentioned. Or uninstall all the managers and test them one at a time to see if maybe there's some kind of issue between them. But yea, my issue seems unique, ps3 and all managers recognize my HDDs when formatted to FAT32, but when formatted to NTFS, the managers don't detect it.

I too figured it was just not enough power but I forgot that the drives themselves work, just in FAT32 lol

 

[Aezaeo]

WELL WOULD YOU GUESS WTF JUST HAPPENED!!?!?!

DID YOU GUESS!?!?!

lol so I seen @aldostools released a new update to prepISO, 1.28

https://github.com/aldostools/webMAN-MOD/releases/download/1.47.33/prepISO_1.28.pkg

So I thought i'd give trying to get NTFS working another try. This time around I tried a different cluster size. I'll have to double check, but it was the lowest possible cluster size, I remember that. Anyway, reformatted from FAT32 to MBR NTFS lowest cluster, plugged it into ps3 started that bad boy up, ran prepISO 1.28, went into ManagunZ file manager adn there she was, 1TB NTFS Drive!!!

I'll have to do another test to see if the cluster size is the issue or if it was just the latest prepISO 1.28.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I made the partition Logical as well. Not Sure if that makes a difference but it might. And after checking google for cluster sizes in NTFS I believe what I chose was 512 Bytes.

 

[cruxers]

So, exactly what kind of CFW are you using? I got a little confused when you said that you are using Cobra CFW on OFW... does that mean you have a Cobra ODE manually connected to the motherboard or did you use Evilnat's CFW via USB?

Previously used Evilnat's CFW, reinstalled to Ferrox after the problem surfaced.

At this point, I can only come up with a few theories on what is preventing your USB from being recognized. Apart from what sandungas has already said, there are a couple of things that you could attempt before completely giving up

Try to "Reset USB Bus" or "Set Dongle LED" via mmCM settings. Probably won't fix the issue but worth a shot

Also, if you had Rebug Toolbox, switching between Retail and Debug mode could make a difference (only hypothetical)

Will try both and post results, thanks.

Changing firmware or type wont change the 5v rail's amperage as its hardware.
I have known 3rd party controllers to blow the 5v line but that would leave the users dead .
@sandungas is giving you great advice. Its obviously a power issue.
Can you do the usb hub test he has suggested as this should resolve the issue.
And can you check inside the usb port with a bright torch ot your phone in video mode so you can use it as both touch and digital microscope to see if
1. any foreign object is in there eg fluff
2. The 4 contacts are straight not twisted
3. all 4 contacts are at the same height not stuck
4. All 4 contacts are shiny and clean not dull or black spotting.

Don't have a powered usb hub, so unless there are other ways, not sure if I'll be able to.
Doing your check didn't reveal much in terms of external damage, all 4 contacts don't seem to be burned out or morphed. Blew out any possible dust with compressed air. Is it possible to spot the damage by opening up the console, if there is any?

WELL WOULD YOU GUESS WTF JUST HAPPENED!!?!?!

DID YOU GUESS!?!?!

lol so I seen @aldostools released a new update to prepISO, 1.28

https://github.com/aldostools/webMAN-MOD/releases/download/1.47.33/prepISO_1.28.pkg

So I thought i'd give trying to get NTFS working another try. This time around I tried a different cluster size. I'll have to double check, but it was the lowest possible cluster size, I remember that. Anyway, reformatted from FAT32 to MBR NTFS lowest cluster, plugged it into ps3 started that bad boy up, ran prepISO 1.28, went into ManagunZ file manager adn there she was, 1TB NTFS Drive!!!

I'll have to do another test to see if the cluster size is the issue or if it was just the latest prepISO 1.28.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I made the partition Logical as well. Not Sure if that makes a difference but it might.

Will try after I do the above steps.

 

[Aezaeo]

Yea, slow your roll on what I did. I'm actually having issues with it. It's nice that it's being recognized now but every file manager hangs when trying to open the drive.

I did mange to go from 512 Bytes to default cluster and it's still being detected but I'm still having hanging/freezing issues when tryin to view contents of the drive from the file managers, (ManaGunz, webamn Mod, Irisman). I'm doin some more tests atm going to go back to Primary partition and 64KB cluster to see if that fixes the hanging/freezing, or to see if it stops recognizing the drive again lol

 

[arcadekidflo]

Optimal cluster size depends on the USB stick's hardware ? Newer PS3 models or software have optimizations in detecting various cluster sizes ? For making a system backup then restoring it which is best, 4k or 64k ? There will be few files but up to 4GB each .