C
CWR
Running Windows XP Pro SP3 on older Dell Dimension 4400.
I long ago added an internal USB2 card and have a powered 4 port USB powered
hub connected to it.
Connected to the hub I have:
1. battery backup (so that the bkup software can talk to the bkup hardware)
2. USB cable that I use to connect to a card reader when I need it, or to a
flash drive when I need it.
3. external hard drive
I use for backups
4. can't remember (and the hub is located behind my desk UNIT where I can't
readily get to it)
All has always been well for USB on my PC until a couple of days ago. I
connected (for the 1st time) a digital picture frame to the USB cable (#2
above) and used simple drag-and-drop to transfer some pics from PC to the
frame's internal storage. The message on the main window of the frame
constantly said "connecting to PC" - it never said "connected", and the user
manual gives no clue as to whether any messages should appear at all. In
other words, the user manual is fairly useless. But the transfer seemed to
work OK, and I then used Explorer right-click to eject the picture frame, and
it disappeared from the list in Explorer (this method has always worked fine
for me with USB devices such as the others I mentioned above). Then pulled
the picture frame's USB plug from the end of the USB cable and all looked OK.
I then plugged in my card reader and things still looked OK. I wanted more
pics in the frame so I plugged it back in again and transferred more pics -
worked OK again. I tried to use Explorer as always to eject the frame, but
this time clicking on eject did NOTHING. So I looked for the icon to "safely
remove hardware" - but there is no icon. So I pulled the frame's USB plug
from the end of the USB cable and at that point the PC lost communication
with the powered hub and whatever was connected to it. Uh oh.
I unplugged the hub from the back of the PC and rebooted. After reboot I
plugged in the hub and got a small flashing USB icon in the systray that just
kept on flashing. When I displayed devices in Device Manager the display of
devices just kept flashing on-off until I unplugged the hub.
I tried to uninstall the USB stuff in device manager (planning to pick them
back up in the next reboot) but there seems to be no way to tell which USB
thing is that USB card/controller and I wound up uninstalling the USB that my
mouse is using so my mouse quit working. Ah jeez. It is working again now
after reboot, btw. It is using USB1 that came on the PC.
So anyway I did reboot and during reboot the PC decided that my HP
all-in-one (which is USB- but not plugged into the powered hub) had never
been installed before and it wanted my HP install disk. On my other PC I
downloaded an HP install CD and loaded the new CD into my Dell's CD reader,
and the HP all-in-one seemed to install (even though it did not use that new
CD at all). It does print now even though I think the install is partly
corrupt. For that device, proper install requires that the HP software be
installed prior to connecting the hardware.
The powered HUB and any devices connected to it are whacked. They don't
work. If I plug in the hub, it does not function, and the device manager list
just flashes on and off. Maybe even the actual 4-port internal USB2 card is
whacked. Any good ideas to get this fixed?
I long ago added an internal USB2 card and have a powered 4 port USB powered
hub connected to it.
Connected to the hub I have:
1. battery backup (so that the bkup software can talk to the bkup hardware)
2. USB cable that I use to connect to a card reader when I need it, or to a
flash drive when I need it.
3. external hard drive
I use for backups
4. can't remember (and the hub is located behind my desk UNIT where I can't
readily get to it)
All has always been well for USB on my PC until a couple of days ago. I
connected (for the 1st time) a digital picture frame to the USB cable (#2
above) and used simple drag-and-drop to transfer some pics from PC to the
frame's internal storage. The message on the main window of the frame
constantly said "connecting to PC" - it never said "connected", and the user
manual gives no clue as to whether any messages should appear at all. In
other words, the user manual is fairly useless. But the transfer seemed to
work OK, and I then used Explorer right-click to eject the picture frame, and
it disappeared from the list in Explorer (this method has always worked fine
for me with USB devices such as the others I mentioned above). Then pulled
the picture frame's USB plug from the end of the USB cable and all looked OK.
I then plugged in my card reader and things still looked OK. I wanted more
pics in the frame so I plugged it back in again and transferred more pics -
worked OK again. I tried to use Explorer as always to eject the frame, but
this time clicking on eject did NOTHING. So I looked for the icon to "safely
remove hardware" - but there is no icon. So I pulled the frame's USB plug
from the end of the USB cable and at that point the PC lost communication
with the powered hub and whatever was connected to it. Uh oh.
I unplugged the hub from the back of the PC and rebooted. After reboot I
plugged in the hub and got a small flashing USB icon in the systray that just
kept on flashing. When I displayed devices in Device Manager the display of
devices just kept flashing on-off until I unplugged the hub.
I tried to uninstall the USB stuff in device manager (planning to pick them
back up in the next reboot) but there seems to be no way to tell which USB
thing is that USB card/controller and I wound up uninstalling the USB that my
mouse is using so my mouse quit working. Ah jeez. It is working again now
after reboot, btw. It is using USB1 that came on the PC.
So anyway I did reboot and during reboot the PC decided that my HP
all-in-one (which is USB- but not plugged into the powered hub) had never
been installed before and it wanted my HP install disk. On my other PC I
downloaded an HP install CD and loaded the new CD into my Dell's CD reader,
and the HP all-in-one seemed to install (even though it did not use that new
CD at all). It does print now even though I think the install is partly
corrupt. For that device, proper install requires that the HP software be
installed prior to connecting the hardware.
The powered HUB and any devices connected to it are whacked. They don't
work. If I plug in the hub, it does not function, and the device manager list
just flashes on and off. Maybe even the actual 4-port internal USB2 card is
whacked. Any good ideas to get this fixed?