Hi, This problem is driving me insane! Firstly I'll tell you that I am running a PC with Window XP professional SP3. Anything plugged into any of the usb ports on my pc keeps dropping out. Especially my WD external hard drive. The external hard drive is working fine elswhere, so it seems to be my PC. On first start up of the PC, when I plug the hard drive it in it works fine for a little while and then as I am working it just dropps out on it's own. Annoying when I go to save something I have been working on. So when I unplug it and then plug it back in it just doesn't recongnise anything has even been attached (nothing at all happens). The only way I have been able to get it working again is to turn the pc off at the power and leave it for a bit so it clears it's memory. As you can imagine, this is just not practiale to be doing ALL the time. This is what I have tried doing to fix the issue: I have uninstalled the USB root hubs, then rebooted. Didn't work! I have checked the device manager and nothing seems to be showing as a problem. I am so puzzled and just wnat to get this working again so I can continue working uninterrupted. Can anyone help me?
is this a recent problem? is it possible the sp3 is causing the problem? is it all usb ports or just some of them? what is the chipset of the motherboard as in via, sis, amd or intel?
Yes it is a recent problem, so yes it could be SP3! But I don't know how to go backwards to SP3. I only have new XP software that came with SP3. Um I think chipset is SIS. Any ideas?
oh an it's not ALL ports at this stage (as I have the printer etc in some of them and they work fine) It is 2 at the back and 2 at the front.
how old is this computer? i think sp3 is a seperate update & not incorporated like sp1 & sp2 was so can be uninstalled in add remove programs but don't do it yet. how many usb ports do you have total?
ok the computer is about 3 year old. It has a total of 6 USB ports (2 at the front and 4 at the back) If it come to uninstallling SP3 how do I get SP2? As I only have a new CD of XP which came as SP3. Excuse my questions - I am a nubee! that's why I love this site!
how old is the xp cd as sp3 only just came out the past few months? the 2 front usb ports are attached to the motherboard by cables, are any in the back the same way or mounted right on the motherboard?
The XP cd is VERY new (only a few weeks). I had to do a toal reboot of windows on my machine from a virus. I didn't have the original XP OS disc so bought one. This problem has only started happening over the past 2 days. It has been fine up until now. We did the reboot about 3 or 4 weeks ago. As for how the USB ports are connected I have no idea??
do a system restore to before the problem started to see if that fixes the problem. was there a windows update around that time?
ok did the restore. Seemed to work for a bit....but i think something like 30 min or more of being pluggedd in, it dropped out again! a very brief meessage poped up in a bubble from the bottom bar that said something about a usb device, but it was too quick and I didn't get a chance to read what it said! GRRRR
