USB and Startup Problem

[drstupid]

Hi Folks,
Firstly, i'm not sure which forum to put this in, so hope this one's ok.
Right, i tried to move some files from my GF's laptop to my PC using a flash drive. The PC gave it power, but nothing else (unplugged, re-plugged etc.) Tried another flash drive and the same happened. (both work fine on the laptop). After staying plugged for a minute or so, windows eventually says there's been a 'problem' with the device and it may not work properly. (i can't even see the drive, let alone access it).
I rebooted the PC to see if this'd help, but it rebooted REALLY slowly! Stays on BIOS screen for 30 secs at least, but does get there eventually.
Now, when it finished re-booting (done twice, same both times, even after a capacitor draining unplug session) it also failed to recognise my card reader (4 drives), but still recognised my mouse (fortunately), USB hard drive, modem (again fotunately) and webcam.
Can any of you help with this, it's doing my head in.
Cheers in advance.
Bill

PS- I use windows XP SP2 if this helps.

 

[NetCablesPlus]

Have you looked at Device Manager while the flash drive is plugged in? Does it see the device and have any comments on status of it or its driver for it?

 

[drstupid]

Hi NetCablesPlus,
When i plugged the flash drive in to have a look again, it recognised it straight away!! Very weird.
I had a look in the device manager just to be safe, and there was a yellow warning icon next to the USB device (not the flash drive, one of the other two USB devices [not external HDD, so i'm guessing it's the card reader]) with the message
'This device cannot start. (Code 10)
Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device.'
When i troubleshoot, and uninstall/re-install, it tries to for ages to install something, then gives up. Yellow icon is still there.
Cheers
Bill

 

[NetCablesPlus]

Well, I will certainly defer to the more experienced members on TS, but I have seen this type of problem when the PC's power supply could not handle the extra load from the extra USB devices and a random device would not get enough power to actually work. Someone may be able to suggest a way to check for that problem.

Did Device Manager give you the option of searching for an update to the driver that you uninstalled and re-installed? That might help...

 

[drstupid]

No it didn't, i guess if it's the card reader then it's plug and play.
All the USB devices worked fine for a few months now, so i doubt the PSU is to blame. Hmmm.
Cheers for trying to help though.

 

[drstupid]

Hi again folks,
The really slow startup problem is still there, as is the problem with the card reader.
Can anyone else help?
Cheers
Bill