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XP and USB and shutting down


PhillyGeek

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First off I think this is a better forum for this as I have a significant suspicion that this is something that happend after a windows update (more on that below). If this is th wrong place let me know.

At my job we have a bunch of machines from Boxx, one model, and one model only, shortly after the Decemeber Windows Updates, started simply shutting down when a USB device was plugged in.

It is so far totally random on all of the machines in this line.

I cannot reproduce this error.

I have tried plugging in adn unpluging the devices that have been known to cause this on several machines, but no luck in duplicateing it even once.

It have happend for sure with all of the following devices:

USB Mouse

USB Card Reader

USB Flash Drive

USB Hard Drive

USB iPod connection

The machine simply powers off and will not come back online unless you unplug and replug the machine, then works perfectly with nothing in the logs to indicate an issue, other then the standard "shut down wasn't expected"

The reason i don't think this is purely a hardware issue is:

It started on all the machines at about the same time.

It has happend with devices that have been in use on the machines in question for months if not longer.

We have had no USB issues with these machines in the 18+months we have had them till this started

The only thing that makes me curious that it MIGHT be a hardware issue is that you need to unplug it before it will restart, suspecting that there is a power issue and by unplugging i reset a breaker of some kind.

I am not sure if there is something in windows anywhere on any level that may control the amount of power sent to a USB device. if so its possible that somehow the update in the begining of December caused some kind of conflict with a number of variables that i cannot see.

Yes this happens on front and rear USB panels, so miss wired front USB panels is ruled out.

If you have every seen anything like this please let me know!

If you have any ideas I could use to try to reproduce the error, or know anything about powering USB ports and Windows XPs invovlement in that if anything let me know, as I might be able to use that for more troubleshooting!

Thanks!

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If it shuts down abruptly when a device is plugged in, the most likely cause is a short circuit somewhere.

Maybe a recent power surge damaged the USB controllers in all the computers at once.

Boot to a command prompt or some other non-Windows operating system, to determine if it is really a hardware problem.

When you mentioned that it needed to be unplugged and replugged for it to power up again, that is a certain symptom of the PSU shutting off because of a short circuit. If the shutdown is accompanied shortly after by a sharp squealing or whining from the PSU, it's definitely a short circuit.

Edited by LLXX
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It might be Ghost, but the symptoms mentioned with the Ghost are a shutdown or reboot, but not "The machine simply powers off and will not come back online unless you unplug and replug the machine".

I still say this is a hardware problem.

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"It might be Ghost, but the symptoms mentioned with the Ghost are a shutdown or reboot, but not "The machine simply powers off and will not come back online unless you unplug and replug the machine".

I still say this is a hardware problem."

It isn't ghost as I just got the first copy of ghost into the office the other day.

As for hardware I think it has to be in PART hardware, however, like I said I cannot duplicate the issue. I would hope/think that if it was hardware ONLY it would duplicate it every time I plugged it in and out.

Soon as I can find a device that can cause it reliably I would love to test it in a non-Windows enviroment. I tried that with a live version of Linux, but since it can be days or weeks between shut downs I cannot test it.

I really think it may be a power spike like LLXX said, there is ONE of this model that ISN'T doing this, it has a slightly newer motherboard of the same model. All it's USB ports are "dead" IE you can plug something in and Windows, and a Live Linux Distro can't tell, but the device gets power. EXCEPT one port that the mouse was plugged into. Which is now totally dead and wont even power up a device.

I will be looking more into the power spike concern, with the partially damageing the USB controlers in some way as that makes the most sense with the avalible data.

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I really think it may be a power spike like LLXX said, there is ONE of this model that ISN'T doing this, it has a slightly newer motherboard of the same model. All it's USB ports are "dead" IE you can plug something in and Windows, and a Live Linux Distro can't tell, but the device gets power. EXCEPT one port that the mouse was plugged into. Which is now totally dead and wont even power up a device.
That would be the one that took the most damage. Completely killed the USB controller and probably blew the fuse on the "port that the mouse was plugged into".
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