USB Devices Not Recognized

[RexxSysProg]

I have Maxtor disk drives attached via USB (1.1). Much of the time Windows says there is no device at that disk drive letter. Other times it will open the disk in My Computer but show that it is empty with no files on the disk. This happens with two Maxtors, a few stick disks, even a printer (won't print to it)

Sometimes if I pull out the Maxtor without stopping the device it gets Windows attention. I get the "warning you did something terrible" message. Then I re-connect the device to a different USB port and now My Computer sees it, with all of its files , but with a different disk drive letter .

Sometimes (though rarely) I'll shut down and come back up and it will see it.

It also seems to be getting worse over time. It started happening once in a while and has progressed to happening every day.

Anti-virus and multiple anti-spywares are dynamically active and also do scan and sweeps daily.

Can anyone suggest what the problem is and/or what I can check to de-bug this? Thanks

 

[vacunita]

The drive may be failing, or the USB port may be failing. Judging by the other things you mention that have problems, I think the actual port maybe failing, or have some kind of short, that affects transmission in all devices attached to it.


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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[RexxSysProg]

vacunita

Is there I can verify that it is the port hardware and not XP?

 

[bracadar]

You should really update your USB to 2.0. Better performance and stability. A 4 port USB PCI card runs about $12.00. Well worth the price. That'll get rid of your problem for sure.

 

[vacunita]

Well, if you have other USB ports in your computer that work, and that one doesn't, then its most likely the port is failing.

You could also try removing all references to USB ports from Device Manager, and let windows Re-discover them and install them. If the port works after that then it was a driver/Windows issue, if not, then you can be pretty sure the port has a hardware problem.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[RexxSysProg]

bracadar: Thanks for the suggestion but I don't want to do that if the problem is really in Windows 2K. Adding the USB 2.0 wouldn't help if its the Windows software that's the problem..

vacunita: It's not one specific USB port that fails. It's whichever port has the disk drive connected to it, either when the system comes up or when I plug the disk drive in afterwards. What does seem to work is when the disk drive is in and it either doesn't see it or sees it but not the files, I pull the plug out of the USB port. After I get the warning message, I wait a few seconds and then connect the disk drive to the other USB port. Now Windows sees the device and all of the files. It doesn't matter which USB port the disk drive is first connected to; yanking the plug and moving it to the other USB, whichever the "other" happens to be, has been working the past few days. It's a limited circumvention (I can only use one USB device).

So what kind of problem does that indicate?

(Could there be some setting in the registry that affects USB operations?)

 

[bracadar]

I've had this happen before. Go to My Computer/Manage/Disk Management and assign your external drive a permanent letter like U for USB. This way when you plug it won't let XP try to assign the first available drive letter. Let me know if that'll take care of it.

 

[bracadar]

Rexx I meant W2k. Here is a link to help fix the registry entry pertaining to the troubled drive letter:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...remove-conflict-usb-or-firewire-drive-letter/

 

[GrimR]

Is it a external SATA or IDE? SATA drives tend to need more power, so going with USB 2.0 as suggested may be a good option.
Does the drive have a power supply and is it connected?

 

[RexxSysProg]

GrimR: it's a Maxtor IDE. It does not have it's own power. However, it works fine on my XP machine that is also USB 1.1.

bracadar : I did not have the time to try your suggestion yet but I will - thanks