USB troubles.

[Graham.J]

Hi chaps,

I'm fast running out of HDD space and could do with transferring all of my music onto an external HDD (I already have two HDDs in the tower itself and no more space for any more...I think).

I have about 17GB free on my 111GB HDD - 45GB of that is music - so I'd really like to get it off and stored somewhere else. However, I listen to the music all of the time so want something I can plug in when I turn the computer on, then run all my music through my player, saving space on my main HDDs.

I have used up all the USB ports at the back of the computer but I have two at the front spare.

I use one for joystick/card reader/iRiver/phone etc, whatever I need to use it for and the other one doesn't seem to work.

I've just plugged my joystick in to check and got...

In its infinite wisdom the computer said:

USB Device Not Recognized

One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it.
For assistance in solving this problem, click this message.

Obviously, clicking the message is no help whatsoever and it does this with everything I plug into the port.

I'm really in need of sorting this out. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Graham

[arcturus]

Why not get a USB Hub such as www.dlink.com/products/?pid=149

Acts like a multiway extension lead for USB devices. Plug it into an existing USB port and then you have an extra load of ports to plug devices into. Make sure you get a separately powered one rather than one that draws power from the USB line or else you will exceed the current limits (500mA per port) when you plug lots of devices into your new hub.

[Tripps]

First thing to try is going into Device Manager and seeing what that says, it may show an error against one of the USB devices. Try it with and without the joystick plugged in and refresh inbetween.

Sometimes removing the driver for an errant devices is enough to kick Windows up the @rse and get things working again.

[GregE240]

Another thing you could try is going into Device Manager and deleting / uninstalling all of your USB resources. Then reboot. Upon the restart, Windows will reinstall and reconfigure your USB ports.

I say this because i had exactly the same issue with my laptop. This solved it.

HTH
Greg

[Raify]

Do you have any spare PCI slots? A new USB PCI card should only cost about £15. You could even get a firewire port and increase the transfer speed with your (soon to be purchased) external HDD.

[road2ruin]

Firstly I have to say Wow, 45GB of music. That must take you all year to listen to. Anyway, apart from your USB problem another solution to your storage issue is to just buy a bigger hard disk. You can get a 250-300GB model for around £60.00 copy your old disk accross and still have nearly 150-200GB free! Then also if by any chance you have a spare bay and connectors on the mobo then you are sorted and can have both.

[aldi]

What make of PC is it? Some generic ones have a little bundle of wires that have to be manually connected to the motherobard in the correct sequence for the front pannel ports to work, it's easy to imagine that one could have been connected wrongy. Less of a problem with bigger brand stuff cause they use all in one keyed blocks.

[Graham.J]

arcturus said:

Why not get a USB Hub such as www.dlink.com/products/?pid=149

Acts like a multiway extension lead for USB devices. Plug it into an existing USB port and then you have an extra load of ports to plug devices into. Make sure you get a separately powered one rather than one that draws power from the USB line or else you will exceed the current limits (500mA per port) when you plug lots of devices into your new hub.

Hmm, I've seen these advertised and wondered if they were any good/reliable. If I can't come up with anything else, I'll have to look into one of these I think. Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely bear that in mind

Tripps said:

First thing to try is going into Device Manager and seeing what that says, it may show an error against one of the USB devices. Try it with and without the joystick plugged in and refresh inbetween.

Sometimes removing the driver for an errant devices is enough to kick Windows up the @rse and get things working again.

Hi Rob! No errors unfortunately, just says "Unknown Device".

GregE240 said:

Another thing you could try is going into Device Manager and deleting / uninstalling all of your USB resources. Then reboot. Upon the restart, Windows will reinstall and reconfigure your USB ports.

I say this because i had exactly the same issue with my laptop. This solved it.

HTH
Greg

Thanks Greg, I'll give this a go I think. It'll be nice to get it working for the first time in its life.

Raify said:

Do you have any spare PCI slots? A new USB PCI card should only cost about £15. You could even get a firewire port and increase the transfer speed with your (soon to be purchased) external HDD.

Umm, I'm not sure actually. I don't think so, my tower isn't particularly brilliant and it's a bit packed as it is. I'll have to have a look into this. I've heard good things about firewire, it'd save faffing about with USB too.

road2ruin said:

Firstly I have to say Wow, 45GB of music. That must take you all year to listen to. Anyway, apart from your USB problem another solution to your storage issue is to just buy a bigger hard disk. You can get a 250-300GB model for around £60.00 copy your old disk accross and still have nearly 150-200GB free! Then also if by any chance you have a spare bay and connectors on the mobo then you are sorted and can have both.

Haha, I have a lot of different playlists for different moods/music etc so I can listen to whatever tickles my fancy at the time.

I currently have 2 x '120GB' (which actually turns out to be 111GB) HDDs and I *think* my computer chap told me I couldn't fit anything bigger in, which is why I went for those. If I can get a 250-300GB HDD for £60 I might give him a call and see if he can make up an external drive out of one...I think he was doing that for another client when I was last in.

aldi said:

What make of PC is it? Some generic ones have a little bundle of wires that have to be manually connected to the motherobard in the correct sequence for the front pannel ports to work, it's easy to imagine that one could have been connected wrongy. Less of a problem with bigger brand stuff cause they use all in one keyed blocks.

It WAS, once upon a time, a Packard Bell, but it's been completely rebuilt and upgraded over the years, so it's far from standard now. It was built by a computer techie I know so I'm guessing he's connected everything up properly. If none of the above works, I think I'll take it back to him and see if it's a problem he can fix.


Thanks all!

[agent006]

I get this on my PC too. Once i've plugged in more than X amount of things on the USB it won't take any more and the existing ones start tp flake out. I assume it's a power issue as it's usually my MP3 player that causes most problems and it charges over USB. Try getting a powered hub and see if it makes a difference.

[Graham.J]

GregE240 said:

Another thing you could try is going into Device Manager and deleting / uninstalling all of your USB resources. Then reboot. Upon the restart, Windows will reinstall and reconfigure your USB ports.

I say this because i had exactly the same issue with my laptop. This solved it.

HTH
Greg

Well, that was cheeky. I did all of the above. Everything seemed to be fine. Plugged in the joystick, said it recognised the hardware and that it'd been installed and was ready to use...

...then it said the device had malfunctioned and to click the message thing again

It was all going so well up until then. Haha.

[Graham.J]

agent006 said:

I get this on my PC too. Once i've plugged in more than X amount of things on the USB it won't take any more and the existing ones start tp flake out. I assume it's a power issue as it's usually my MP3 player that causes most problems and it charges over USB. Try getting a powered hub and see if it makes a difference.

I think I'm going to have to look into this. I'm assuming Dabs is a good place to start looking?

[Tripps]

Graham.J said:

...then it said the device had malfunctioned and to click the message thing again

Sounds like its a power issue in that case.

I have all sorts of problems with my desktop as it's got 8 USB ports but not enough power, so I need to think about what's plugged in otherwise I find my memory card reader suddenly dissapears from explorer

One thing that might be worth doing is getting a powered USB external drive that has a few USB ports of it's own, that way you'll get more bandwidth for the drive and some powered ports for other devices.

[combemarshal]

Graham.J said:

agent006 said:

I get this on my PC too. Once i've plugged in more than X amount of things on the USB it won't take any more and the existing ones start tp flake out. I assume it's a power issue as it's usually my MP3 player that causes most problems and it charges over USB. Try getting a powered hub and see if it makes a difference.

I think I'm going to have to look into this. I'm assuming Dabs is a good place to start looking?

I prefer Ebuyer

[Graham.J]

Tripps said:

Sounds like its a power issue in that case.

I have all sorts of problems with my desktop as it's got 8 USB ports but not enough power, so I need to think about what's plugged in otherwise I find my memory card reader suddenly dissapears from explorer

One thing that might be worth doing is getting a powered USB external drive that has a few USB ports of it's own, that way you'll get more bandwidth for the drive and some powered ports for other devices.

Hmm, I only have 4 USB ports. One has my modem plugged in, one has my webcam plugged in, one is the one that doesn't work and the other is the spare one for joystick/card reader etc etc.

I just checked my PCI slots and I do have a few free, I think I'm going to get a USB card to give me a couple of extra ports, I only really need one so I think I should be okay.

[Graham.J]

combemarshal said:

I prefer Ebuyer

I forgot about them. Just had a look and they seem really well priced. Thanks for the reminder

[Tripps]

Graham.J said:

I just checked my PCI slots and I do have a few free, I think I'm going to get a USB card to give me a couple of extra ports, I only really need one so I think I should be okay.

Yep, sounds like a plan, I'd suggest using the card solely for the USB drive, thus dedicating as much bandwidth do it as possible. If you do plug in other devices next to it, use those with low throughput such as mouse and keyboard.

[Graham.J]

Ah, good thinking! I'll do that

I used to have keyboard and mouse on USB but I managed to get those funky PS2 adaptors, so that was handy.

It'll only be used for the external HDD I think...I can't think of anything else I'd need to have plugged in

[GregE240]

Tripps said:

Graham.J said:

I just checked my PCI slots and I do have a few free, I think I'm going to get a USB card to give me a couple of extra ports, I only really need one so I think I should be okay.

Yep, sounds like a plan, I'd suggest using the card solely for the USB drive, thus dedicating as much bandwidth do it as possible. If you do plug in other devices next to it, use those with low throughput such as mouse and keyboard.

FFS don't plug in some shitty 1.1 device or you'll be there forever

[Tripps]

GregE240 said:

FFS don't plug in some shitty 1.1 device or you'll be there forever

Aaarrggghhh, USB 1.1, got it on the laptop I'm using now, it even manages to make the floppy drive look slow!

[Graham.J]

Tripps said:

GregE240 said:

FFS don't plug in some shitty 1.1 device or you'll be there forever

Aaarrggghhh, USB 1.1, got it on the laptop I'm using now, it even manages to make the floppy drive look slow!

It's what I imagine being in a coma to be like.

Edited by Graham.J on Tuesday 21st November 22:12