USB storage devices crash my computer

[J.R]

About a month ago I turned on my external hard drive and my PC just froze. This then happened every time I tried to turn it on so I unhappily admitted to myself my hard drive was buggered however when I tried it on another computer I found it worked fine. At this point I tried connecting my iPod to my comp, this also crashed it. My USB mouse works fine so I'm guessing it's a storage device problem. I have no idea what caused this or how to sort it, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[JedMeister]

First thing to check is device manager and make sure there are no exclamation marks. Perhaps your USB 2.0 drivers have been corrupted or something? Only guessing really. Try uninstalling all USB drivers and restart.

[J.R]

Cheers mate but unfortunately this is the first thing I tried, the whole thing still freezes up every time a device is connected.

[bj-kaiser]

are you sure that isnt a hardware issue?

I had that at a workplace pc, the user broke out the plastic tray holding the contacts, causing a short circuit whenever something was plugged into that port.

Just an idea.

[J.R]

Hmm, I'm not sure. I was thinking it probably wasn't a hardware issue because my USB ports work fine if I'm plugging in my mouse or my scanner, it's just my pendrive external hard drive and iPod that crash it. I am fairly clueless though so I don't know, could it be?

[JedMeister]

Perhaps then it is the Windows Removable Storage drivers that are corrupt rather than USB drivers. Perhaps its worth running System File Check utility ("sfc /scannow" at the commandline) to check all your Windows Files are ok? Not sure if that checks the generic Windows drivers but worth a shot. Be aware though it will overwrite any patched files (if you have them - such as tcpip.sys and uxtheme.dll) with Windows originals so you will need to re patch them afterwards.

[J.R]

Hi thanks for the advice but that didn't help either. Anybody got any other thoughts by any chance?

[JedMeister]

Have you tried it in safe mode to reduce the cahnce of it being something else interfering? (Probably a long shot but worth a try).

Personally I'd try using something like a Linux LiveCD (check you get one that supports USB external drives - I think most would but pretty sure Ubunutu does) or a BartPE CD (UBCD4Win[.org] is probably the easiest way to make one if you don't know what I'm talking about).

If that works perhaps you need a clean install, or if that doesn't work it sounds like hardware issue (motherboard?).

[kooler]

i have had a couple pc's were the south chipset went bad and it only locked the pc up when i hooked a device to it that i tranfered large files like hooking usb flash drives and external harddrives... most cases it done it when i first plugged the device in and if it didnt it would later while i was transfering files.. both were nf4 chips.. 939 socket asus and dfi boards

hope it helps

[IcemanND]

Is it any port you plug you iPod and thumbdrive into or do you always use the same one?

[J.R]

Hey sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, I tried it in safe mode, still froze. I didn't understand the rest of your suggestion JedMeister but still thanks for posting it.

Yeah it's all ports IcemanND.

I reckon I'm going to have to take the computer to be fixed somewhere cause it's driving me mad.

[asbsamsf]

Did you try USB port may stop working after removing or inserting USB device?

[J.R]

Yeah I have scanned for new hardware and disabled then re-enabled the device, doesn't make a difference. Thanks anyway though.

[jaclaz]

Rather than disabling/reenabling the devices, I would try REMOVING them.

At next re-boot the System should re-detect the hardware and re-install the drivers.

By any chance, did you install at any time any "Virtual Drive" related software, like iSCSI stuff, Virtual CD drivers like Daemon Tools or the like?

jaclaz

[JedMeister]

I was suggesting you use some sort of Linux LiveCD or BartPE CD. They are basically an operating system that run from CD and RAM rather than using your current operating system (installed on your HDD). The good thing about them is that because it doesn't use your current drivers you can possibly diagnose the problem.

As you don't really know what I'm talking about I would advise using UBCD4Win (Unreal Boot CD for Windows). To create the CD you need access to a PC with a CD Burner and a Windows XP CD. Have a look here: http://www.ubcd4win.com/ Its a handy utility CD to have around.

For example in your situation (assuming you have made your UBCD4Win) you can boot from the CD and then plug in your USB device (the one that makes your installed version of Windows freeze) and see what happens. If it works fine then you can be confident that it is something to do with your current install (and perhaps a 'repair' install will fix it, but a clean install should definitely). Otherwise if it still freezes then can be somewhat confident that it is some sort of hardware issue.

Having said all that, I'd listen to jaclaz if I were you, he knows his stuff!