Anyone seen Abhilash???

[Dragonfly]

A few days ago I followed some instructions from Abhilash and they are
appended below and refer to my pen drive which crashed my PC.
Would some kind soul take a look and advise me. I seem to have tried
everything to no avail.
Many thanks.

Neville

Dear Abhilash,

Thank you very much for this advice. I will now tell you what has happened.
Firstly, I followed your instructions re disabling background programs then
connected, disconnected the Flash Drive and on disconnecting, my computer
went into a restart routine.
Secondly, I disconnected all USB devices as told, did the same thing with
the drive and my computer crashed with the blue screen. Tried it in another
port on the back of the computer - same result.
Lastly, tried the drive in my son's computer, also XP with SP2 and it worked
perfectly OK.
If this all means that there is a conflict with the internal cardreader I am
quite happy to disable it if that can be done, as I rarely use it.I would
much rather have access to the Flash Drive.
I remain posting in the group rather than direct contact, I was just afraid
that my post was getting further down the batting order and rapidly
disappearing.

Many thanks indeed,

Neville
Silver Surfer rapidly turning White.

 

[Abhilash Tibrewal\(MCSA\)]

Hi Neville, I am back. This really is a strange problem. Since the pen drive
works fine on another computer, at least we know that the pen drive and SP2
are not causing the issue. Other possibilities:

1. conflict due to the internal card reader. If you are comfortable with
hardware, you can simply disconnect the USB cable to the internal cardreader
by opening the computer case. If not, start the computer and use the Safely
remove hardware icon to remove(disable) the card reader. The card reader
will remain disabled till the next reboot.

2. conflict/bug between some services running on the computer. Once again
perform msconfig to disable all non-Microsoft services.

Click Start and select Run.
Type MSConfig and press Enter.
Click the Services tab.
Check "Hide all non-Microsoft services" (Important step)
Click Disable All
Click OK.
Restart the system.

3. virus on your computer. If the issue persists, I suggest you update the
Antivirus software installed on your system and do a full system scan.

Let me know one more fact. Connect the pen drive to your son's computer and
note the drive letter it takes. Check whether the same drive letter was
already taken by the internal card reader on your computer.

Let us know the results.

 

[Dragonfly]

Thank you for returning to this matter.

I disabled card reader from the System Tray, but it still crashes.

I disabled all non Microsoft Services, still crashed.

My antivirus is updated everyday and I do a full scan weekly. I have done
both today but it still crashes.
My son is at work but he will check which drive letter is allocated and that
the next available letter is allocated or otherwise.

I have found a FAQ on this site which relates to the type of drive I have
and which recommends re-allocation of letter for drives. Go here
http://www.integralmemory.com/faq.aspx#55
My original post shows the allocation of letters on my PC and if
reallocation is necessary I will need to get a hard hat and act under
guidance.

I will come back to you after my son tells me which drive is allocated.

Many thanks indeed,

Neville

 

[Dragonfly]

Further to yesterday's post, I have now tried it in my son's computer and it
allocates "F" drive.
If the Flash drive is removed and he then puts in his external card reader
which has 4 drives which are allocated F,G,H,I my drive is allocated J and
still works.

Were you able to read the answer given in the link I sent to you. It was in
answer to a question relating to "Everytime I plug in my USB drive etc etc"
..

There does seem to be a question mark over the allocation of drive letters.

Perhaps I can try that under your guidance. If that doesn't work I'll give
up and use it when I need to and only remove it after my computer is closed
down. I don't like giving up on these things though.

Best wishes,

Neville

 

[Abhilash Tibrewal\(MCSA\)]

Hi Nivelle,

We are similar in that I too do not like to give up on such things. Try
changing the drive letter assigned to the pen drive:

Right-click on My Computer and choose Manage.

Find the Storage category and under it, choose Disk Management (Local).

Right-click on current drive letter and choose Change Drive Letter and
Paths.

When the drive appears in the dialog window, choose Change.

Select drive letter you want to use then click OK.

If this does not work, it may be due to some weirdness on the part of the
WinXP USB drivers on the affected system.

 

[Dragonfly]

Thank you very much for this instruction.
Before I carry it through I need to clear a couple of things up.
Do you want me to insert the pen drive in the port first. If so, it will
allocate drive L. That being the case I will right click on that drive and
change it to F, which is already allocated to DVDRom. Would that cause a
problem? Or do you want me to change the existing drive F for the DVD Rom to
L, thereby freeing up drive F.

Hope I've made myself clear.

Many thanks,

Neville

 

[Dragonfly]

Dear Abhilash,

As you were not around to answer my query I went ahead and changed the drive
letter of my DVD Rom from F to L and then plugged in the flash drive. It was
recognised as letter F, but on removing it, the computer went into restart.
So that didn't work.
Have we now exhausted the checklist?
Obviously I can get by with removing it after shutdown, but it's just
annoying not to be able to solve it.

Thanks very much for your help.

Neville

 

[Abhilash Tibrewal\(MCSA\)]

Dear Neville,

As we have tried almost everything, it is possible that the issue is with
operating system files. Even a minor difference/corruption of system files
may cause devices to work unexpectedly.
This brings us to the solution which we all avoid, that is, to reinstall
Windows. Now it is for you to decide whether it is the best time to
reinstall Windows. Generally, i format/reinstall roughly every three months
to maintain the "integrity" of those important system files.

Abhilash

 

[Dragonfly]

Dear Abhilash,

Thank you for replying.
Two things to take into account. First, my competence, and secondly the
worth of the Flash Drive, not just its monetary value but its worth to me as
a device.

NO CONTEST - I'll leave well alone.
Someone did suggest chipset drivers, way back.I have an Intel Springdale i
865PE
Many thanks indeed,

Neville