Windows Forum

Ask something
Question Locked

Any usb device freezes windows xp

0 helpful
13 replies

by luc.bresciani

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
Hi! I hope someone could help me. When I plug in any usb peripheral my HP Pallion dv 5000 Windows xp freezes and I have to power off and boot again with no us device connected. It happened first time two weeks ago but, after rebooting a couple of time, the problem seemed to be fixed. Now it has happened again and there is no way to make the usb devices work. Actually the only device showing a different behaviour is the wireless mouse that isn't recognized but doesn't cause the system to freeze. Any ideas? Thanks

13 replies

by hal 9000

First power down remove the Battery and leave unplugged for about 10 minutes. After that time has passed replace the NB's battery and mains adaptor and power up and see if there is an improvement. That is M$ recommended fix for problem USB Ports with XP particularly after some XP Patches have been applied which sounds about right according to your time frame as the last lot of Patches where about 2 weeks ago now.

If that doesn't work go into Device Manager and delete the USB ports and reboot on the restart the NB should show a [b]Found New Hardware[/b] and install the USB Drivers here it wouldn't hurt to have the recovery Disc handy and see how that goes.

If you still have no joy make sure that you are logged in as Administrator and that if in a Domain there are no Group Policies blocking the USB Ports this can apply even when not directly connected to the domain as the settings carry over from the Domain Settings.

Col

by luc.bresciani

I tried to remove the battery and to replace it after 10 minutes. First time I boot with all the usb peripherals connected nothing happened, I mean nothing at all: I only saw a black screen (OS didn't load at all). So I tried to remove everithing and to boot again. Windows loaded in more than 5 minutes but fully functionally. So I plugged the mouse in and it wasn't recognized. I unplugged and tried with the HHD: not recognized but system not freezing. Same operation then I tried with the iPod: same as above. After that I plugged everything in to try to uninstall and redetect but at that time windows freezed again. Now the situation is: if I connect a device windows tries to recognize it and freezes, but if I deconnect, reconnect an deconnect again it exits from this state. As I said above something changed but...
Any other ideas? What I'm most worried about is that it could be the usb ports to be burned. Unfortunatly I'm travelling so I can't test the devices on another computer or format and reinstall windows. Anyway thank you for your suggestions.

by hal 9000

But if you can get a copy of a Live Linux from a Linux Mag or something similar at a local Newsagent and boot off the Live Linux CD and see if the problems persist.

If they do you have a hardware problem and quite likely require a new M'Board in the NB but if they go away it's a software problem that is directly connected to Windows somehow and you may have to do without any USB Devices till you get back to base/home and can fix it properly.

If you have the time to download a copy of a Live Linux Knoppix STD is probably the best and available from here

http://tinyurl.com/k7ema

Col

by meridenscrafts

Not enough Ram memory, My windows xp just shuts all the windows when it runs out of Ram memory

You might have a program that is up and running when you try to hook it up. Just reboot clean out your memory or get more Ram memory for your computer.

by luc.bresciani

If I understood correctly I don't think it could be the problem. The system has 1024 MB ram and the load isn't above 50% when the problem presents itself. Thank you anyway.

by luc.bresciani

If everything will work I think I will temporary migrate to openSUSE, as I know it should support my broadcom wireless card. I have to forget my iPod for the moment but at least I'll be able to access my data on the external hard disk. I'll let tou know. Thank you!

by luc.bresciani

No chance at all. I downloaded openSuse but the usb ports didn't work (and the wireless card needed firmware, so I've not been able to connect to the internet). In this moment I'm at home and now I'm sure the problem is in the ports because I connected the peripherals to another computer and they're working. Maybe I could buy an usb cardbus but I don't know if it will solve the problem or it will affect any usb port in the computer, no matter if connected directly to MB or not. What do you think about that?

by hal 9000

If the problem is with the M'Board then a USB PCMCIA Plug In Card should work but if it's software related then it will not have any effect.

As you've had Open SUSE on the System that tends to rule out the Software being a problem [b]Maybe[/b] so it may be a solution to your current problem. Really short of backing up the entire Drive or at least the data component and wiping the drive and performing a reload of Windows there Can be no certain answer one way or the other though personally I would tend to be looking at a hardware issue as the Open SUSE should have cured the problem if it was software related.

But that's just a [b]Best Guess Scenario.[/b]

Col

by luc.bresciani

Actually a PCMCIA card isn't so expensive so I'll try. Thank you very much for spending your time helping me.
Luca

by luc.bresciani

I bought a PCMCIA USB card and now all the peripherals are working. Thank you again!
Any idea about what could have burned my ports?

by hal 9000

But my first thoughts would be some static damage possibly when assembled that cause some degrading in one or more IC's. These tend to work till they stop working and provided that you didn't over run them by placing a greater power demand on the USB Ports than they could supply they should be working.

If you have one of the PCMCIA Cards with an additional Power connector see if you can get one of the Power Take Offs to keep the card at max available power.

Col

by Former member

I tried all the suggestions I could find on every forum on the internet related to software, nothing worked. I finally purchased a new AC adapter for $15 on ebay and PRESTO, the problem was solved!!!!!!!!

This discussion is closed to new replies.