USB Port difficulties - ideas, anyone?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Deepest Europe...
Age: 39
Posts: 224
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
USB Port difficulties - ideas, anyone?
Hello chaps and chapesses,
My girlfriend bought a Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB MP3 player recently. It worked fine for about half a day, until a strange problem started occurring. I've since gathered from Googling the error message that there is no easy fix for it, but I'm still at a loss to understand what to do or how to go about repairing it.
Basically, later in the day after it had been working she once more plugged it into her computer (specs below) but instead of recognising it as normal, the device itself refused to go into "USB connected" mode and instead just tried to start playing music again. It then froze, and a message appeared on the computer screen (not the MP3 player screen) saying the USB device has malfunctioned, not been recognised - the usual. She returned the MP3 player as faulty and received a new one within a couple of days (excellent service from Amazon as ever.) The new one has exactly the same problem.
I've looked around on the internet for possible causes and solutions. There are suggestions on the Creative website to download new drivers, update other drivers, the usual. Also there were a couple of solutions that had worked for others, including changing something in the registry relating to the USB ports. No luck there either. Also tried deleting all the USB host controllers and root hubs from Device Manager and letting Windows reinstall them automatically - no joy.
We've narrowed it down to a problem between Windows and the USB ports themselves, in that the USB ports still function with her printer, mouse and flash memory stick but will no longer recognise the Zen Vision:M, external USB hard drive or (oddly enough) the integrated webcam (which is actually run as a USB device.) Ever since the fault occurred on that day, the computer will no longer recognise either of them - it recognises a device is connected, but keeps saying that it's malfunctioned. Right clicking My Computer and going into "Disk Management" indicates that neither the MP3 player or external hard drive are being recognised as such, nor are they being assigned drive letters. They just don't appear. The devices themselves, of course, work on other computers. Tried all devices in all 4 USB ports; again, nada.
I'm pretty sure it's not a driver issue with one of the devices - everything that could be removed and reinstalled has been done. It's obviously something to do with the interface between the USB ports and the way Windows reads them, particularly given that two of the "malfunctioning" devices have hard drive storage. Solving something like this, however, is not my area of expertise - it tends to be a bit of trial-and-error and at the moment I'm getting short of ideas.
Has anybody ever experienced any problems like this before? What did you do to fix it? Has anybody else got any other suggestions? Thanks very much.
System specs:
Asus A6U-B090H laptop
AMD Sempron Mobile 3100+
512MB RAM
SiS M760GX IGP
80GB Hard drive
Wireless, LAN, modem, DVD-Ram, etc...
My girlfriend bought a Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB MP3 player recently. It worked fine for about half a day, until a strange problem started occurring. I've since gathered from Googling the error message that there is no easy fix for it, but I'm still at a loss to understand what to do or how to go about repairing it.
Basically, later in the day after it had been working she once more plugged it into her computer (specs below) but instead of recognising it as normal, the device itself refused to go into "USB connected" mode and instead just tried to start playing music again. It then froze, and a message appeared on the computer screen (not the MP3 player screen) saying the USB device has malfunctioned, not been recognised - the usual. She returned the MP3 player as faulty and received a new one within a couple of days (excellent service from Amazon as ever.) The new one has exactly the same problem.
I've looked around on the internet for possible causes and solutions. There are suggestions on the Creative website to download new drivers, update other drivers, the usual. Also there were a couple of solutions that had worked for others, including changing something in the registry relating to the USB ports. No luck there either. Also tried deleting all the USB host controllers and root hubs from Device Manager and letting Windows reinstall them automatically - no joy.
We've narrowed it down to a problem between Windows and the USB ports themselves, in that the USB ports still function with her printer, mouse and flash memory stick but will no longer recognise the Zen Vision:M, external USB hard drive or (oddly enough) the integrated webcam (which is actually run as a USB device.) Ever since the fault occurred on that day, the computer will no longer recognise either of them - it recognises a device is connected, but keeps saying that it's malfunctioned. Right clicking My Computer and going into "Disk Management" indicates that neither the MP3 player or external hard drive are being recognised as such, nor are they being assigned drive letters. They just don't appear. The devices themselves, of course, work on other computers. Tried all devices in all 4 USB ports; again, nada.
I'm pretty sure it's not a driver issue with one of the devices - everything that could be removed and reinstalled has been done. It's obviously something to do with the interface between the USB ports and the way Windows reads them, particularly given that two of the "malfunctioning" devices have hard drive storage. Solving something like this, however, is not my area of expertise - it tends to be a bit of trial-and-error and at the moment I'm getting short of ideas.
Has anybody ever experienced any problems like this before? What did you do to fix it? Has anybody else got any other suggestions? Thanks very much.
System specs:
Asus A6U-B090H laptop
AMD Sempron Mobile 3100+
512MB RAM
SiS M760GX IGP
80GB Hard drive
Wireless, LAN, modem, DVD-Ram, etc...
Can't help with the usb problem, although I will think it over, having spent far too long solving a similair problem on Sunday.
Daughter has a Vision M, lovely device it is too, but you need to know that a straightened paper clip is your new best friend. When it misbehaves, there is a small hole next to the socket on the bottom, where the reset button lives. Use it often, doesn't delete anything.
Daughter has a Vision M, lovely device it is too, but you need to know that a straightened paper clip is your new best friend. When it misbehaves, there is a small hole next to the socket on the bottom, where the reset button lives. Use it often, doesn't delete anything.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
What is your OS? And, if it is XP, do you have SP2 installed? If not, install it.
Advise from ASUS about USB problems is:
Step1 : Please update to latest BIOS.
Step2 : Please enter BIOS by pressing F2 at start up and go to Advanced -> Chipset -> Southbridge to see whether the option of USB 1.1 OHCI Controllers and USB 2.0 EHCI Controllers are set "enabled" (only applicable for some models)
Latest BIOS for your laptop can be found here by searching on model A6U and BIOS.
Advise from ASUS about USB problems is:
Step1 : Please update to latest BIOS.
Step2 : Please enter BIOS by pressing F2 at start up and go to Advanced -> Chipset -> Southbridge to see whether the option of USB 1.1 OHCI Controllers and USB 2.0 EHCI Controllers are set "enabled" (only applicable for some models)
Latest BIOS for your laptop can be found here by searching on model A6U and BIOS.
Last edited by ORAC; 25th Oct 2006 at 10:09.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Deepest Europe...
Age: 39
Posts: 224
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sorry, yes, forgot to mention that. It's XP Home, SP2.
I've looked on the ASUS website and come across that advice, but I'm a bit reluctant to flash the BIOS at the moment for the simple reason that it was working to begin with and it seems more likely to be a Windows issue than a BIOS issue. Of course, if I run out of ideas, it's certainly something I'd have to try - thanks for that advice.
A couple of sites have suggested isolating the power supply to drain any residual power remaining in the capacitors, rather than just rebooting it or switching off/on with the power still connected. It seems to have worked for other people who've experienced similar problems. To that end, it's been left overnight with the power cable out and the battery removed. I'm not really expecting it to work, but just waiting to hear from her.
I've looked on the ASUS website and come across that advice, but I'm a bit reluctant to flash the BIOS at the moment for the simple reason that it was working to begin with and it seems more likely to be a Windows issue than a BIOS issue. Of course, if I run out of ideas, it's certainly something I'd have to try - thanks for that advice.
A couple of sites have suggested isolating the power supply to drain any residual power remaining in the capacitors, rather than just rebooting it or switching off/on with the power still connected. It seems to have worked for other people who've experienced similar problems. To that end, it's been left overnight with the power cable out and the battery removed. I'm not really expecting it to work, but just waiting to hear from her.
