I have a Compaq Deskpro, P2 550 MHz, 768 MB, 2 USB 1.0 ports, XP Home (Yes I know it’s old and SHOULD be replaced but …). I also have a Sony Ericsson W880 canera/phone that goes thru a USB port. When I first started transfering pictures all was fine but as time went by my system started having problems recognizing a device (i.e., the W880). I would “fool” with it a bit and it would finally be okay but I had to “fool” with it longer and longer until it just wouldn’t recognize it. I swithched USB ports, tuened the W880 off and on, unplugged/replugged cables, and on and on.
I never got the system to recognize thw W880 but the screen went black and said “FF 301 keyboard error.” I switched USB ports for the keyboard, replaced the USB keyboard with a PC keyboard, rebooted, but it always came up with the same “FF 301 …” message and won’t boot.
Someone on one of the boards said I may have fried the motherboard, whatever that means. Another suggested I unplug the box and remove the battery for a few minutes. That didn’t work. Another person suggested I get a PCI USB 2 board and the system finding the USB board would bypass the fried USB stuff on the motherboard.
Short of getting a new machine, is there anything I can do? If getting a USB board is worth a try, how do I select one? I read somewhere that slapping in an incompatible USB board would limit what the board could do although he wasn’t specific about what those things might be.
