To tscenter:
In the interest of brevity, I am not quoting word-for-word what you posted, I will attempt to paraphrase and minimize the points made as necessary, etc.
To reiterate the problem:
I have a board that has the problem I stated, and nothing can be done to "handwave" away the problem as I stated it before. I'm glad for you that you have a totally different board that doesn't exhibit my specifically and repeatedly observed problems.
I never made any claims about Microsoft providing the relevant filter file, however, since clearly the contents first of the released XP Service Pack 2, and then later, the somewhat different replacement VIA innards vis-a-vis this problem clearly indicate that VIA and Microsoft were attempting to include driver support for XP once raised to the SP2 install level. That the two attempts differ from each other despite merely the short time frame between release of a stand-alone SP and the RTM release embedding it into the install CD, tells me that the work performed back then left something to be desired at the minimum.
Relative to my problem, neither of them work. Before SP2, the drivers provided on the CD associated with the motherboard worked fine for post-SP1 systems; the subsequent VIA downloads brought the same support for post-SP2 systems, as long as the system was never repair-installed.
Few people actually do repair installs; fewer still are prepared to notice nuanced problems caused by the repair install; I am for whatever dubious worth implied, one of them, since I made heavy use of this motherboard having generally good performance and reliability in all other aspects driver-related, and when this problem of the filter file was fixed, no problems whatsoever, etc.
However, the driver, not worked on since 2005, is in fact defective. I defined my term "broken" and you can object to it all you want. Regardless, the driver as provided by VIA is not capable of providing what it perfectly is capable of doing on an initial installation on a repair installation. And in my specific case with this particular motherboard, that is essentially a fatal problem. It is perfectly understandable that VIA never tested it through a repair-install cycle, etc.
Regarding some of your other points, I fail to see how your experience with a board that used different VIA chips from mine negates my statement about "this class of motherboard" since AFAIK you should have the same stuff on it to qualify. It seems you have better, not the same, etc. and perhaps that explains why you need not care about this issue; unfortunately, I don't have that "luxury" etc. Part of my original post was to pass that warning on to others who might potentially have the same problem.
Additionally, XP takes nothing from the BIOS for USB other than gross identification purposes which are primarily self-discovered by XP's plug-and-play software. About the only thing relevent is the exact quantity of root hubs defined as a function of how many interfaces are enabled. That's not a BIOS rev level issue, rather just enabling or not the hardware for XP to self-discover, etc.
In any case, I leave it to VIA as the final authority. When 260 or 270 is installed on an initial installation on this board, the filter file is always available. However, once a repair install mangles the driver to no longer have it, this same VIA code is incapable of restoring the original driver stack. Clearly, this is a bug since you cannot get identical results before and after a repair install. [At least one of the situations is broken; you can voice your own opinion about which one is which.]
I guess we can just chalk this up to the fact that we have separate experiences, and neither of us should be commenting on the "validity" of the other, etc.
Thus, I am still seeking a remedy, to cause the before and the after to agree with each other. The only other alternative for this otherwise serviceable board is to start the install all over again. What I actually do to make a complete installation is a rather laborious process I would sincerely like to avoid given that it would appear to otherwise have been successful, etc.
cjl
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