External Hard Drive using USB 2.0

[Guest]

Whenever I plug in my USB external hard drive (or flash card) I either get a
'blue screen' crash or my PC just 'hangs'.

It used to work if I plugged in the device immediately after turning on the
PC but before Windows started. Now it crashes all the time. (Just installed
service Pack 2).

Any suggestions

 

[R. McCarty]

I would suspect you've had a problem all along and SP2 is merely
preventing you from using your workaround. Did you note the msg
details from the BSOD ? For problems like this, you need to give
more hardware specifics. Things like motherboard model - are your
USB channels USB1 or the newer USB 2.0 & are they chipset
based or from an add-in PCI card. Also is the PC a commercially
built system (OEM) or a home built PC.
Sometimes inserting plugs will cause XP to fault or lock if the pins
on the USB headers are installed improperly.
For generalized troubleshooting - I'd check the System Event log
and check your Universal Serial Bus Controller category in Device
Manager for issue(s). I would also download and install the chipset
driver package for your motherboard. (Intel, Via, nVidia or SIS).
Use of USB peripherals should never require a specific time in the
boot up sequence for them to Plug-&-Play. It's possible that this
problem may be a BIOS setup type of issue.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info.

The PC is home built (my whizz kid son!). The Motherboard is a SOYO Dragon
Ultra (AMD Athalon 64) 2.19GH 1.5GB RAM. I believe the port I am using is
USB 2.0, though other posts on the PC also crash and think they are USB 1.0.
He has downloaded a newer BIOS update and installed that but it made no
difference.

Tried to look at system event log and this lists ER_KRNLCRASH_LOG errors.
This probaly doesnt add much info to my original message! (Don't really
understand whether they are Chipset based etc.)

 

[R. McCarty]

Hardware seems to be recent, and a BIOS firmware flash wouldn't
probably address the issue(s) you're having. From your description,
I would suspect it's a Setup/Configuration issue. Also, 1.5 Gigabytes
or RAM means there are multiple sticks of memory in the PC. As a
temporary measure, I would remove all but the "Single/Largest" stick.
It sounds like you have 3 individual 512 Megabyte modules. For all
normal PC activities, 512 is more than enough.

I would also consider using "Default Values" in BIOS. From the listing,
your Son may have employed aggressive settings related to RAM timing
and that's a contributing factor.

Sorry, I can't be more specific - there are just too many variables
that come into play on these types of problems. However, using a
single memory module may allow the PC to be stable enough to be
able to diagnose the USB faults better.

 

[Guest]

I'm interested in the 'Setup / Configuration' of the USB device. I just
plugged it in, Windows acknowledges the device installation (sound) but yet
it doesn't appear in 'My Computer'.

 

[R. McCarty]

Then remove the "Phantom Devices" from the USB category. Open
Device Manager, click View - tic/check "Show Hidden Devices".
Expand the USB category. Any devices shown slightly grayed out,
Right Click - Choose Uninstall. Best to unplug all USB devices
before doing this. After you clean out the category reboot and
start plugging each device in one at a time, then Check that DevMgr
properly enumerated them and they are in their correct category.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Whenever I plug in my USB external hard drive (or flash card) I either get
a
'blue screen' crash or my PC just 'hangs'.

It used to work if I plugged in the device immediately after turning on
the
PC but before Windows started. Now it crashes all the time. (Just
installed
service Pack 2).

Any suggestions

I have seen a few USB 2.0 devices fail with BSODs when SP2 is installed.
Specifically a web cam and a USB drive enclosure. Both devices would not
work on any computer with SP2 installed. A firmware update fixed the USB
drive. The web cam manufacturer acknowledged the problem and said they were
working on new drivers. Haven't seen them yet so I don't know if they will
fix the problem. It was a very cheap web cam. I advised the customer to get
a different brand. He purchased a Logitech and it worked fine. It appears to
me that SP2 changes something that causes some USB drivers to fail. I would
look for updates for the devices that are not working.

Kerry

 

[Guest]

Just been looking in the Device Manager. Plugging in the External Drive
causes a new USB mass storage device to 'appear'. However, it says no driver
is installed for this device. The Freecom drive came with a disc (and this
software is installed on my PC) but attempts to update the driver have
failed. Is the lack of a suitable driver causing these problems?

 

[Kerry Brown]

Just been looking in the Device Manager. Plugging in the External Drive
causes a new USB mass storage device to 'appear'. However, it says no
driver
is installed for this device. The Freecom drive came with a disc (and this
software is installed on my PC) but attempts to update the driver have
failed. Is the lack of a suitable driver causing these problems?

Freecom makes a lot of different USB products. Without knowing which product
you have no one can say. Have you checked out www.freecom.com?

Kerry

 

[Richard Urban]

Plug it in once. Then leave it plugged in OR remember the "exact" port you
had it plugged into. If you plug it into a different port next time you WILL
have to reinstall the drivers. Then if you go back to the original port you
will have to install the drivers yet again!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!