Portable USB-HDD crashed and system now refuses to regonise it.

[Guest_imported]

I have a device called a 'Pockey', which is a portable hard disk connected to the PC via USB. It's worked fine up until a few days ago. I'd downloaded a utility from the net, which interrupted the Widows 98 reboot. The device seemed to be affected and made strange noises. I switched it off and Windows fired up. However, 'Pockey', which was allocated to drive F:, refused to work. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers but to no avail. The drivers seem to go in OK, and appear when I do a 'Find' search, the device icon appears in the sys. tray, but says that there are 'No drivers detected' and 'USB Storage Adapter(TPP) Stopped. I have tried time and time again but, no luck. I have uninstalled the suspected conflict program. Can anyone help please?

 

[mudskipper]

Try the device on another system with known good USB ports. Does it work there? If not, possibly the device died.
If it works on other system, then device is good

If you plug the device into your system when windows is already up and running, does windows detect it (at least put an hourglass up for a moment) or does it act like you never plugged it in?

Also, does your system continue to not power up if the device is plugged in, or did issue go away?

 

[Guest_imported]

Thanks for that mudskipper.
The USB port is OK as the digital camera still operates through it.
Windows detects, and installs drivers. Or does it? The device appears in Control Oanel/Add-Remove programs.But doesn't appear in the registry? When I download the latest drivers from the manufacturers site they do install, but conflict with Zone alarm, unless I disable it. Even then it still installs.Either way it still doesn't work.
The system powers up OK now, and diplays the device icon, which shows it as 'Stopped'.
In System/Device Manager there is a yellow exclamation mark against the device.
When I switched the device on and off today the message 'File tppaldr.exe' is needed. Please place Win98 CD inPlayer and press OK', or words to that effect. I messed this up and cancelled it in error!! Haven't been able to repeat.
The device has been back to the manufacturer, Pockey Europe Ltd, who have been very, very helpful. They say the actual device is OK. Therefore it must be my compter? But what??
By the way they have a good web site, check it out.

http://www.pockeyeurope.com.

Any more offers please, apart from a large hammer!!!

 

[mudskipper]

I have seen quite a few computers give issues on USB ports like you are describing....Here is my guess.
-Your computer is confused about the drivers that are installed. Because you have already installed the device (sorta), when you unplug and plug back in, the computer puts back the confused info.
-Many machines that do this can be fixed by deleting the USB key in the registry (but fair warning, you may end up re-installing all USB devices).

The following is done at your own risk, but here is what I did to fix a couple of similar problems:

Start, run, regedit
expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
expand Enum
highlight USB, delete the whole key
Reboot, re-install USB ports
Re-install device exactly to manufacturer's recommendations (some devices need drivers installed before device is plugged in)

Please post back w/ results!!!

 

[Guest_imported]

Thanks mudskipper,you help is much appreciated.
I've done what you suggested, but it's still not working!
The USB Ports installed OK. I then followed the manufacturers instructions to the letter(You have to connect the device before installing the drivers).I installed the the drivers from the supplied CD-Rom, but on reboot, the system configuration did not show as being updated. However, when I installed the drivers from the manufacturers WebSite, they were updated. All went well, but to no avail. Everything seems to be installed OK -'find' shows drivers are there.I tried twice, just in case, but NO LUCK!!
Have you got any other suggestions please, apart from a large hammer!!?
Look forward to your reply.

 

[Guest_imported]

Mudskipper
It was the USB-PCI card which was failing and eventually failed completely, showing so in Device Manager. Quite why it worked on some applications-Digital Camera-and not the Pockey remains a mystery. Any ideas?
I installed a new Card and all is now well. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[mudskipper]

Wow. I sure didn't guess that one!
No, I have no idea why the other worked...just a fluke, I suppose.

Glad to hear that it is going, though. Enjoy it (and thanks for the post back).