Help! USB froze on me

[Hanuman]

Ok, I figured we have enough tech dudes in YW who seem pretty savvy. I'm hoping one of you can help me with my dilemma.

I have a HP e-vectra desktop computer. It's nothing fancy, but gets the job done for me. I bought it at an auction when my last job had to liquidate their assets (dot.com, need I say more?). Anyway, I tried to print an article and the printer didn't work. Then I tried all my USB devices, palm, digital camera, scanner, nothing. I have 2 USB ports and neither of them are working. When I insert a new device, I get that little icon on the bottom for 'safely removing' the device, but nothing works. I got an error 28 when I unplugged and plugged back in my printer, which claims I don't have the necessary drivers. I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled and nothing. I checked the hadware manager and hit the USB root and it says it's working properly, but it's not!!

Any advice would be great! I checked the Microsoft website but that didn't help at all. Thanks all!

[Craig]

This is probably not it, but hold old exactly is the computer ? Maybe the device is only equipped to use USB 1.0. Perhaps if your devices are newer they are set to run on USB 1.1 or 2.0.

Did the CD that came with your printer come with more than one set of drivers ? I was previously having printer problems and I removed the drivers and installed the generic drivers on the CD and not the model specific drivers.

[Hanuman]

If I had to guess, I'd say the computer is probably about 2 years old. I'm pretty sure that all my hardware is regular USB, not 2.0 (not sure about 1.1). So maybe that caused a conflict somewhere and why nothing is working now. I tried to uninstall and reinstall the drivers for the printer, but that didn't work. I'll try that again in the morning, but I'm a little skeptical that this will work cause, nothing is working on it at all now. Is there a way I can completely reset my USB?

[ren28]

If you have a powered USB hub that needs an a/c adaptor, maybe you just kicked out the plug? That would be the best case scenario. If worse came to worse, I'd take out all the stupid USB drivers (with no USB devices connected) and install the USB drivers again.

[himura-dono]

i'm guessing his usb is located in either the front connector extensions on his hp oem case or in the rear on the mobo. did you recently upgrade your OS? and have you contacted hp/compaq about it? although they're not very smart, they may be able to offer some trouble shooting if we can't figure it out.

i'm still kinda fuxoring around with usb front modding and such, so i really don't know much more than, stick cable in, OS recognizes, device works. now if you were having major meltdown problems, THEN i might be able to help. maybe ren and craig can help you better, but i thought i'd ask one of the obvious questions that weren't asked as these do tend to be the case of such overnight fugups to hardware.

[Hanuman]

I'm not using a hub, I'm talking about the ones in the back connected to the motherboard. I think I'll just remove all drivers and reinstall. Any tips on how to do that on windows 2000 professional? I don't have the original installation disk, if I uninstall, do you think I can get it from their website?

[BaiginLong]

in my case whenever I see a computer whether it's new or not I go into upgrading craze
every single bit of software has to be as new as you can get
os, drivers, browsers, media players, cd burning software (if applicable), productivity software, file sharing software and games
in that order
usually I just get the the drivers straight from the manufacturers' sites
their usually listed under support
one of my biggest computer pet peeves is when software is not upgraded because when ppl ask me for help it usually is fixable either by installing upgrades or reinstalling stuff properly

try figuring out where your mother board was manufactured and/or what chipset it uses and go from there

most driver updates are listed under the support sections of the company websites

[himura-dono]

um, BL i don't know if you know this, but oem's use their patented mystery uber generic boards. and oem computer distributors and resellers tend to be lazy with updates and stop generally after 2 years.

tawee, as BL did suggest a halfway decent idea without realising it, look for the serial number the mobo has printed on it, and contact hp/compaq directly through email (phone service = nono). explain you're problem as succintly as possible and they should get back to you within 3 days max.

[BaiginLong]

though they may be propietary boards they still use standard chipsets either by intel, amd, or some other company
you should be able to find out using the device manager on windows
then you can get the drivers there
Itrust customer support from OEMs like I trust George Bush Jr. to not waste our surplus
oops can't do that now can I? :P

[himura-dono]

yes, but the chipset only works so much. take the amd mpx dual socket a chipsets. dually board that were first coming out under the mpx chipset had "broken" usb. it was partially the chipsets fault, but more on the hardware's fault. some board manufacturer's have released newer revisions of the boards to fix the problem. however, it's still the same chipset. so once again chipsets could be problematic, but it tends to be more of a standing problem with hardware.

HENCE my suggesting him to contact hp/compaq to find out if the board has shown known issues, one of the few things oems DO keep track of. so, in the case that many other people griping of suddenly inoperable or non-compliant usb, they will be able to help him out more.


bush jr.
yes, amie will slapz teh shitz outta you. i had a nice long heated convo about mr. red-button....bush...dammit, mr. bush...

[BaiginLong]

yeah and new chipset drivers could fix things

[Hanuman]

Looks like I have to contact HP. I tried to uninstall the USB, and reinstall it and I downloaded all the latest drivers from the microsoft website. Still nothing. I'm about to throw the damn thing out the window. I hope HP can help, cause I'm starting to get really pissed off. Thanks all for the advice though!

[lethal]

You could also buy a PCI USB card for about 10-20 bucks. Maybe that will work?

Personally, when stuff breaks for me, I buy new parts. Probably not the best use of my money, but it saves me the most headaches.

[ren28]

Originally posted by Tawee@Dec 14 2002, 03:42 AM
Looks like I have to contact HP. I tried to uninstall the USB, and reinstall it and I downloaded all the latest drivers from the microsoft website. Still nothing. I'm about to throw the damn thing out the window. I hope HP can help, cause I'm starting to get really pissed off. Thanks all for the advice though!
You should be able to do a search on the HP website for your computer's model # and then download the drivers specifically made for your computer (if they have it). Definitely give HP a call though.

HP support page:

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/eng/support.html

HP Phone #'s:

We offer telephone support for most Hewlett-Packard products. Depending on your
product's warranty, there may be a fee charged.

before you call
For faster service and to ensure that we use your time wisely, please make sure
that you can access your hp product and have the following information available when you call:

* Product number and serial number.
* Operating system; for example Windows 98.
* Messages displayed when the problem occurred.
* Any recent changes to hardware or software.
* What you've already done to try to solve the problem.

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