Win2k problems with USB Storage Device

[time]

When first connecting a USB mass storage device (a digicam in this case) to this particular PC, the info dialog saying it's adding a drive hangs - yet the new drive really is there.

It works subsequently, but when you go to 'stop' the connected device, the dialog hangs.

If you physically disconnect the device (switch off the camera), it cannot be used again (device I/O error if you're lucky) until Windows is restarted.

I don't think this is a hardware issue - when it works it seems to transfer data quickly enough. I have the same KT133A board here and it works perfectly.

I tried the digicam with an old Apollo Pro 133 board, and the connection/disconnection sequence functioned exactly as expected.

Booted into Safe mode and removed the USB controller from Device Manager. It reinstalled okay when Windows restarted. The driver files all seem to be Microsoft's and dated late 1999.

Service Pack 2 had already been installed.

Booted from the Win2k CD and ran Fast Repair.

The only idea I have left is to reinstall Windows from scratch - anyone have any insight?

 

[blakerwry]

Did you say that you're using a kt133 with microsoft USB drivers? the 1st thing that comes to mind are the 4 in 1's.... or just the USB part of them maybe

 

[time]

It's a KT133A, and to the best of my knowledge the Via 4in1 pack doesn't include USB drivers. It was already installed anyway - I just forgot to mention.

Does anyone know if the version of the 4in1 could have a bearing on this?

 

[mubs]

Bizarre things happen if you're a little bit out of spec!

Is your cable length ok? For low-speed devices, max is 9.5 ft, for hi-speed devides, max is 15 ft. These can be doubled if you stick a powered hub in-between. I believe the maximum "hops" or tiers of hubs you can have is 5.

The other problem is if the USB device is not a "standard" USB device. Windows thinks it knows what it is, then trips over itself. Deleting the device (in standard boot, not safe mode), then rebooting sometimes clears up the problem. One time, when I did this, the system went to Microsoft's site and downloaded the "latest" drivers. This was on a W2k SP3 system!

I honestly think a re-install of W2k will be a waste of time.

Good luck.

 

[Mercutio]

Try running sfc.exe instead of reinstalling.

 

[time]

Isn't System File Checker included in a Fast Repair?

 

[Mercutio]

I've had it work when Fast Repair didn't, particularly on 2000 Server installations.

 

[Tea]

Do I recall someone posting a question about CHKDSK equivalents for CF media here? Or was it over at SR?

 

[Pradeep]

Chkdsk /f worked fine for me on my Microdrive when it misbehaved and had a few bad sectors. One thing I have noticed is that things like Firewire external drives etc work much more reliably when running winXP compared to win2k.

What is the digicam and media used?

 

[Tea]

Thanks, Pradeep. Sony Mavica errr ... FD Somethingorother and a Transcend 128MB memory stick. I couldn't run CHKSDK on it (under W2K) as it claimed the device was in use by something else. (Which it wasn't.) Or else, depending on the mood of the gods, simply claimed the drive had no media. Or else else, ran blip-blip-done without doing anything.

After a while, Belinda (who is your ultimate Computer know-nothing and aims to stay that way) rang me to say that she had managed to copy the stuff over to her hard drive after all, so the contents didn't matter. (I think she must have done something silly to produce the corrupted file size entries that meant I could see the files but not read or delete them. Either that or it was just a random glitch.)

Anyway, I then tried formatting the memory stick. No dice. W2K wouldn't touch it. The camera (which couldn't read the files either, by the way) formatted it no problem and it seems to be working just fine now.

But it is bound to happen again one day, and it would be good to know what to do when it does, especially if there are pictures on it I need to rescue. I don't mind spending up to , oh, maybe $US30 to buy a shareware utility if it is a good idea, though freeware is always best of course.

(Win XP is not an option in the Tannin household. :wink

 

[blakerwry]

i can run scandisk on a winME box to check my USB smart media... I've had a few pictures where i can see the names, but can't open the files in an image editor.

what's weird is that alot of the time I know I once was able to read the file because I often resize the picture and the resized picture has the same name with a "(small)" at the end... and i often see both files unreadable when this happens.

 

[time]

One thing I have noticed is that things like Firewire external drives etc work much more reliably when running winXP compared to win2k.

I haven't seen any problems with USB flash drives, but I recall issues with attaching a USB CDR to a particular Win2k box about 18 months ago. The problem was specific to that install of Windows 2000, so I can't agree with your statement.

Tea, I just tried Chkdsk on a CF card in a Nikon 4300, and it worked perfectly. I used the /V switch to confirm it is scanning the media.

It's possible your CF card is flaky, but I think it's more likely your camera.

 

[Pradeep]

Perhaps it's that godforsaken Memory Stick format. Undoubtedly Sony have some proprietary formatting system.

Perhaps the problem occured when the battery ran out during a write operation?