Bizarre USB Problem - Reads AND Restarts?

[MDRuiz]

I know you guys are pretty tough to beat on this board, but I've got a problem that's driven myself and my techie brother up the wall.

I'm running windows XP pro and two days ago I plug in my flash card reader (usb 2.0) to copy some digital photos I took earlier in the day. It read my card like it always does (I've done this 100 times before) and then rebooted my PC for no reason. On returning to windows...again...a USB mass storage device was recognized and then rebooted...caught in an endless and sensesless rebooting loop. I went nuts because I had no change in my system's configuration since the last time (only 24 hours) I retrieved photos from it. The only change was I added a flatbed scanner temporarily and then unplugged it.

As of now I've tried switching the USB ports (trying all in front and all in back), trying different devices, unplugging all other USB devices, and nothing helps. On a whim I tried my girlfriend's iPod and I got the same issue...a mass storage device being instantly read and then forcing a reboot.

Any ideas? Anyone ever heard of this? I really appreciate any help offered, you guys are the best.

 

[stduc]

Sounds to me that you need to uninstall the scanner drivers and or go back to a restore point.

It may help to change the machines behaviour on error so you can see the reason for the reboots.

Right-click on My Computer
Select Properties
Select Advanced
In the Start up and Recovery section, select Settings; this displays the Startup and Recovery dialog box
In the Write debugging information section, select kernel memory dump
While still in the Start up and Recovery dialog box, ensure that the following options are checked in the System failure section:

Write an event to the system log
Send an administrative alert

And this is UNchecked so you can see the BSOD

Automatically restart

The if you get really curious you could follow the instructions found here

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/041105-windows-crash.html?page=1

to see what really going on (Thanks to MichiganRon for posting this tip here

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1095832

)

 

[Jump1ng]

Have you tried a different PowerSupplyUnit?

As a USB device draws power from the PSU it might just push it over the edge and thus your reboot occurs.

You will probably say but it worked before....yes but a new PSU can handle more than 100% load better than a used one. So its possible that your PSU now can't handle the extra power consumption that your USB device draws.

Now it might not be the PSU but its fairly easy to test another one that is more powerfull and see if it helps.

If you check the event logs. Is there any error messages in there.



---
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

 

[MDRuiz]

Thanks for the suggestions guys...

To clarify, the scanner I added had been installed in terms of drivers and software over a year ago, my brother and I often switch it back and forth between our rooms depending on who is working with it. It just so happened that I took control of it during the time between when my mass storage devices last worked and when this started happening.

Event viewer doesn't tell me squat and acts like nothing unusual has happened.

However, when I disable automatic restarts, the blue screen of death tells me:

"
No_More_IRP_Stack_Locations

Technical Info: ***STOP: 0x00000035 (0c893C8008 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000)"

I'm going to try switching power supply tomorrow...

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;177078

 

[stduc]

I think you have a driver issue. Try analysing the system dump and see if this article helps.

http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=337

 

[MDRuiz]

All good information...but still nothing works. I've tried switching power supply and it seems that no matter what number I allocate as the IRPStackSize value...the problem still persists!

 

[linney]

Have you tried expanding Universal Serial Controllers in Device Manager and uninstalling everything USB, rebooting and letting Windows rediscover everything?

Some general things to try.

General USB troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310575&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

In the BIOS settings for your computer, load the 'Fail-Safe' default settings, and then reactivate the most frequently used options such as USB Support.

See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Explorer.

Try Safe Mode (Do you have this problem in Safe Mode?).

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

If they don't work you could try repairing windows by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

 

[MDRuiz]

linney - great ideas that I had yet to try so thank you for the post, but just as a note to anyone who might have this issue in the future - I've inadvertently FIXED the problem by defragmenting my harddrive.

I can't imagine why this worked and hadn't even intended it to, but after my monthly defragment the problem disappeared immediately for both my flashcard reader and ipod (and presumably all mass storage devices)...so if you're ever in this situation go directly for a defragment...and then perhaps uninstalling everything USB in devicemanager to let windows rediscover everything as linney suggested - very good idea as well.