USB Problems

[Ike]

When I first bought my laptop, which was pre-installed with Vista Home
Premium all my UsB ports seemed to be operating at full speed, I could charge
and load/unload my iPod as well as utilise my external hard drives at optimum
speed. A few re-installations later, i get messages telling me that all my
drives aren't USB 2.0 and on top of that, i get messages that my USB devices
are malfunctioning!!

 

[Gordon]

When I first bought my laptop, which was pre-installed with Vista Home
Premium all my UsB ports seemed to be operating at full speed, I could
charge
and load/unload my iPod as well as utilise my external hard drives at
optimum
speed. A few re-installations later, i get messages telling me that all my
drives aren't USB 2.0 and on top of that, i get messages that my USB
devices
are malfunctioning!!

May I ask, as Vista has only been out just over a year, WHY you have done "a
few re-installations"? There should be no need to re-install for years as
long as you do proper and timely system housekeeping...

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

There usually aren't usb drivers for Vista. They are integrated into the
system.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

A laptop usb bus can have too many devices attached to power the usb ports
(even if the devices all have their own power supplies). This effect can
become accute if you are using a hub.

 

[Bob W]

Very true. My HP DV9500 comes with 4 USB ports and I added a 4 port hub at one time making for 6, plus I had a power plug-thru tap for running a cooling pad so I potentially had to provide power from 7 devices off of my laptop. Since I run off of wall power 24/7 the battery wasn't an issue and several of the devices were low draw (Bluetooth dongles, flash drives) but the fans and the floppy and camera weren't. I got separate power supplies for all the items I could and the new machine has Bluetooth built-in. Still, even with all of that, everything worked OK. I never tried it on battery alone but I image that it would eat the battery up in no time.
Bob, Still Old, Still Grey, And Still A Woolf


No trees were harmed in the sending of this message and a very large number of electrons were asked their permission to be terribly inconvenienced. And a party was thrown for them afterwards for being really cool about it.

Bob's Space - Home Page of the Olde Greywoolf

A laptop usb bus can have too many devices attached to power the usb ports
(even if the devices all have their own power supplies). This effect can
become accute if you are using a hub.