# USB Stick problem



## Snoopy63 (Mar 3, 2006)

Hey, ok here is my problem, my usb stick (its a usb2.0 flash drive PNY Attache) will not work in any of my usb ports on the computer, it shows up in my computer but when you try and access it after 5mins of waiting it says please insert disk E: or on my previous stick (a verbatim 128mb errr it was red) it would come up with that or sometimes a I/O device error message (hasnt done that yet with this one.. but have only had this one for 2 hours and counting) 

I am reasonably* sure its not a prob with the stick as it works fine on all other computers in the office, I am also reasonably* sure its not a hardware prob with my USB ports as everything that is not a USB stick works fine (eg I plugged in a USB mouse thats normally on a back port into the front (faster) ports and it worked) there are tho 5 dif sticks in this office and have tried them all in my comp to no avail they all do exactly the same thing 

Heres the thing tho it kinda does work sort of BUT only for about 10mins after the computer has been first turned on in the morning (ok it doesnt show up in my computer with a name like it does on all the other comps just as Removable Disk E: but u can open it and save things to and from it) then after that it just stops dead My Computer (if open) goes all slow and not responding u take out the USB stick and everything works as b4 (except the stick) 

The PNY website informs me that it doesnt need drivers for XP (which I am running with SP2) you can see it under disk drives in device manager so the computer knows its there there are no yellow warning signs or red ones anywhere that I can see in the device manager and hav run out of things that I can think of to try

Please if anyone has any ideasI have been searching the forums and Google and everywhere I can think of for about 3months trying all things offered as solutions for probs that even sound similar to mine with no luck finally decided to ask for help

HELP!?

*reasonably as in am not a computer tech can manage the basics just aboutso really have no idea what am talking about


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG
-------------------------- cut after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]

"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"
-------------------------- cut before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.

When this is done, reboot TWICE.

Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.


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## Snoopy63 (Mar 3, 2006)

hey... thanks for replying!

i did actually see that post in the High Speed 2.0 USB Problem post err below... and tried it exactly as was written... had minor panic attack cos of afore mentioned usb mouse... a whole erm ok what am i supposed to do now OMG my mouse isnt working.... (started again... did it last.... d'oh) when rebooted after the second time... i was able to open and view the usb stick i thought hurrah! that lasted for a whole 5th of a second before it stopped working like it does after 10mins in the morn... is something conflicting with it... ?? unfortunatly am now at home... and hav no access to works comp... so will have to wait till mon to try anything else... did use that everest thing tho and saved it to post...just in case that info would help anyone who could err.... help....


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I'm not sure what's going on. Do other USB devices work properly in your machine?


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## Snoopy63 (Mar 3, 2006)

the usb mouse does in all ports.... but any usb stick in any port ive tried doesnt and neither did my MP3 player.... (was trying everything that i could find in the office that had an usb connection...)


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## Snoopy63 (Mar 3, 2006)

update...

have been investigating IRQ conflicts... as the channel where my 'SiS PCI to USB enhanced host controller' (23) is, is apparently 'shared' by what i dont kno as i cant find anything else on that channel... and being one of XP's APIC extra channels it wont let me change it... but in the process of erm.... fiddling... I disabled it just to see what would happen... and suddenly the USB stick works... its not on the hi speed 2.0 port anymore (as i disabled it...d'oh) but it works... which leads me to think maybe its a prob with the high speed port.... but have another avenue to investgate....  

"Never trust a computer you cant throw out the window!" - Steve Wozniak


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## ozegirl (Jun 21, 2003)

Thank you for posting your solution. I had a similar problem. However in my case I didn't even get as far as you - System is XP SP2 all updated, no viruses, etc. Has USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 installed. Have used a number of USB devices on the system without a problem (though I think they have all been USB 1.1 devices up until now). Bought a Verbatim USB2.0 stick - put it in and Whammo! Instant freeze. No mouse, no keyboard.

Checked that all the latest drivers were installed. Checked the stick on 2 other computers and it worked fine. 

Figured it had to be a hardware conflict as opposed to drivers needing updating because it just froze instantly - wasn't as if it failed to load drivers or be "seen" in My computer - didn't get that far.

I also tried unplugging the USB printer in case that was the cause but no difference.

Did as you said and disabled USB 2.0 controller. Voila! New hardware found - though it very cheekily informed me that I had a USB 2.0 device and scoffed at me for running it on USB1.1 and not using a USB 2.0 controller as the USB 2.0 would be a lot faster.

Well that may be so, but USB 1.1 is still faster than not going at all.

Like you, my USB controller (Intel 82801 DB/DBM) is on IRQ 23.

Like you, Windows reports nothing else on IRQ 23.

Interestingly, at boot, the POST reports that both the Network adaptor and USB 2.0 controller are using IRQ11. However in Device Manager the Network adaptor is on 20 I think, and as I said the USB 2.0 on 23.

I can't change any IRQ's in Device Manager because the option is greyed out (believe that is to do with ACPI) - I guess I could see if anything could be done in BIOS???

Not happy with fiddling around in there too much - when I run into these sorts of problems I'm always worried that by assigning IRQ's in the BIOS something else will get stuffed around and not work. 

This is actually my Uni son's computer & so I can only grind away at the problem when he's not using it. 

I might try disabling some of the other devices in Device Manager one at a time to see if first I can identify the culprit - then see if there is an easy way to change the IRQ. I think some of the ports eg serial, parallel are being unused so perhaps if they are disabled the conflicting ones might change of their own accord? Note that none of the devices in Device Manager have exclamation marks and no conflicts are reported in Device Manager (though I've been told before that this is often a lie - because I think it only reports the Windows-assigned IRQ's - is that right? In other words, could it be that the BIOS has assigned some IRQ which Windows can't see?)

Would appreciate any further input/thoughts on this.


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## ozegirl (Jun 21, 2003)

Hey to anyone else trying to resolve an IRQ hardware conflict, I also just found this great post by Rollin Rog:

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/427149-conflict-causing-hanging.html?highlight=hardware+conflict

with a reference to this tutorial on how to find hidden devices on Device Manager:

http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/3105

AND FOR ONCE, it is actually a readable, easy-to-understand explanation and method.

Meanwhile.....when my son gets off the computer I will try it.


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## fouzion (Oct 19, 2006)

I had the same problem. I have 4 USB ports but only two worked, then I tried this:
Go to Device Manager.
Go to Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Check if there are any icons with question marks.
Click reinstall driver.


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## ozegirl (Jun 21, 2003)

No there were no question marks at all, and I had already updated all drivers.
But thanks for your input.

Since then I have got onto the computer and done the ghost device manager trick - neat stuff!
However this only shows you the non Pnp and disconnected devices - of course it doesn't give you the IRQs for them (because they're disconnected) so you still can't figure out where the conflict is, only get some idea of other things to try.

I uninstalled all the redundant items. (there were a few no longer used items and some duplications which I thought might have been assigned resources erroneously).

I tried disabling the network adapter...no good.

I tried disabling various other things that I wasn't using, then I went into BIOS and actually disabled them there too...LPT port. and both COM ports...none of which are in use.

I also tried disabling one of the 3 USB1.1 controllers in case that freed up an IRQ for the USB 2.0.

Still no good.

I think I know the problem though....as I said, on boot up the BIOS assigns IRQ of 9 to both the ACPI controller and the USB 2.0 connector. It also assigns a common IRQ to the USB 1.1 and the Graphics card. Yet when I get into Windows and open Device Manager, all IRQs are different - and none are shown as conflicting.

I even tried reassigning IRQ 3 (free from the COMM port) to USB1.1 - and on POST screen the change was registered as IRQ 3, and the IRQ for the USB 2.0 then also changed on the POST screen, but get into Device Manager and lo and behold the IRQ hasn't changed from it's previous value.

I think that Device Manager is showing what IRQ's it would like to assign, or maybe what it THINKS it has assigned, but that the BIOS values are overriding it?

Now here's the next problem.

Normally for that situation, as I understand, you would go in and change the BIOS to a non PnP OS so that you could manually assign IRQ's in the BIOS that Windows wouldn't try to alter.

However I have two problems with this;
My BIOS has no functionality to select PnP OS or not, and the only IRQ I can set in BIOS is USB 1.1, not USB 2.0, which is the problem one. I can set COM1, COM2 and LPT and that's about it.

I can change the ACPI to Standard computer, and I think if I did that the "presumed" conflict I have between that and the USB 2.0 might go away. However I don't really want to mess with that as it's working OK & I don't want to do the wrong thing & have a computer that won't come out of standby or something. OK, I could change it back again, but my son likes the idea of being able to do the soft (button) shutdown.

I could also flash the BIOS & then I might have one which offers more choice in setting IRQ parameters. But to me the improvement gained doesn't justify the risk (you don't mess with BIOS unless you really have to).

I had a look at the USB stick operating on 1.1 and really, it's plenty fast enough. If he has a really big file he needs to transfer he can always do it on his Dad's computer which does run the USB 2.0 without fault.

I thought I'd just post all my thoughts here for the benefit of others. 

If I have written anything which is technically wrong, please somebody correct me so I'm not misleading somebody else.

I think maybe it's something to do with the BIOS or the Intel USB chip. It comes from a family of chip numbers that have been reported elsewhere as causing USB problems.

I think the problem will be resolved when he's due for a computer upgrade. We can live with it till then. Mind you, this computer is only 2 and a half years old, and the same age as his Dad's (which works) - but he has a different USB chip (SiS)


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## ozegirl (Jun 21, 2003)

Well I give up. As I said, I think it's easier to live with USB 1.1.

Just some final information,

in BIOS under PnP/PCI configurations, there are 3 PCI entries listed. Only one is in use, and it has USB 1.1 on it. (That's where I changed the IRQ setting from Auto to 3)

However the manual states that there is On-board USB 2.0/1.1. The onboard USB is enabled in BIOS.

I'm not sure - does that mean that I have a card for USB 1.1 in addition to onboard USB?

Could that be the cause of the problem? I could disable the onboard USB, but then I wouldn't get USB 2.0 anyway. So...would disabling the PCI USB 1.1 work...assuming there is onboard USB 2.0 AND 1.1?

The only thing, when I cycled through the options for the PCI card, disabling it wasn't one of the options - only AUTO or quite a few different IRQ's could be manually assigned.

Anyway I put it back to AUTO as that is where it was to begin with. 
Interestingly, on the next POST the USB 2.0 was assigned to IRQ3, and USB 1.1 was now on 9 along with ACPI so I thought "AH-HA!" and then went back and assigned the USB 1.1 to 4, thinking I might be around the problem.

But when I changed the USB1.1 to 4, the USB 2.0 didn't then stay at 3 - it changed back to 9 again!!! Oh Well!

Regardless of all that, in Device Manager they all have the same old IRQ's - USB 2.0 is on 23, and the 3 USB 1.1 entries are 16, 18 and 19 - 16 and 19 are shared with other things.

So after disabling the USB 2.0 again thinking that was the only way around this, (and at this stage I had a USB 1.1 stick in testing it to make sure that it still at least worked), I decided to re-enable the USB 2.0 one more time and try, a strange thing happened.

I clicked safely remove hardware before removing the USB 1.1 stick. After doing that, but before removing the stick, a message popped up in the system tray: Warning, Power surge to USB hub. Click here to fix. I was then told to remove the hardware and remove the unknown device.

I might just add I don't have any "add-on" hubs - just direct ports in the computer. I also had the printer switched on at this time (it's also USB, and I was testing various combinations of devices on and off).

Anyway, I then removed the stick and removed the unknown device (from the list shown), went back to disabling the USB 2.0.

Unless someone can sift through all the above & see something plain that I have missed, I'm guessing it's some hardware conflict and I'm not going to be able to solve it without losing the ACPI and/or a BIOS flash, neither of which I'm prepared to do at this stage.

Hope my ranting might have helped someone else.

And I think that's all she wrote!


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

ozegirl said:


> Hey to anyone else trying to resolve an IRQ hardware conflict, I also just found this great post by Rollin Rog:
> 
> http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/427149-conflict-causing-hanging.html?highlight=hardware+conflict
> 
> ...


Note that my registry patch that I posted in post #2 does the same thing.


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## ozegirl (Jun 21, 2003)

Yes, I realised that - I had seen your patch & was going to give it a go when I came across the ghost devices trick - but this link also gives the explanation behind the method. 

I trust you John, you've helped me before, but I also like to know what I'm doing (meaning why I'm doing it) so I can learn


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

You trust me? Boy, you really can fool some of the people all the time!


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## ozegirl (Jun 21, 2003)

I have now started a new thread for my own questions here:
http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/511584-usb-2-0-hardware-conflict.html#post4095218


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