USB Memory sticks causing blue screen crash

[Brian Bemis]

I have a very inconsistent problem happening with a number of machines (all
Dell, but different models) when I plug in a USB memory stick in the front
of the workstation. Sometimes the machine will crash giving me a blue screen
stating "NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS". This doesn't always happen and it has
been difficult to reproduce it at times. I've tried updating all of the
drivers and have seen it still happen.. it's very random. So far I've seen
it on Dell Dimension 8250's and Optiplex GX270's with a number of different
USB sticks (both Dell and Lexmark). Any ideas what could be causing this???

 

[Guest]

I have the exact same problem. It's with a sandisk cruzer mini. Don't
bother checking in http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm. It's no help at all
(it's just the standard response to NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS questions).

The problem got worse after installing SP2, and eventually, the system gave
this error even after removing the USB stick. Which means I cannot start my
machine in anything but safe mode now.

The only solution I can think of is take that stick out before rebooting, or
the system could break.

 

[Brian Bemis]

Yeah, I still don't know what is causing this since it's seems to be so
inconsistent. The only thing I can think of is some sort of hardware failure
(maybe power related) on the USB ports?? Anyone else have some ideas???

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Have you checked the Event Viewer to try to determine if there is a device
or device driver incompatibility?

 

[Brian Bemis]

I've checked that and haven't found anything to indicate what the problem
might be. If it was a device or driver incompatibility, why would it work
fine sometimes and then crash the computer other times? I haven't upgraded
to SP2 yet on any of the machines and I'm hesitant to after reading Rex's
response. the last thing I want to do is make the problem worse. I have a
feeling the problem is not with the memory sticks, since I've used them in
other machines without any problems whatsoever. It just seems strange to me
that the problem has occurred in more than one machine and on different Dell
models. Does anyone else have ideas on how I can try and troubleshoot this??

 

[AJ]

I haven't rebooted yet, or had the nerve to insert a usb/firewire
device, but this looks promising:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21151997.html

I followed the instructions and found several "transparent" devices.
I've removed them all. Not sure what causes it, but I'll post more
when I've prepared myself for the BSOD and test it out by connecting a
device.

 

[AJ]

Might also change some registry settings. Seen that advice mentioned
in several posts, but didn't say what key to change.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

IRPStackSize increase by 3 or set to default of 15.

Found the location of the key here (although the article doesn't seem
related):
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q177078