is it hardware? software?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by muppy03, Aug 8, 2007.

  1. muppy03

    muppy03 Private E-2

    Ok any ideas?
    2 x comps, xp home sp2. 1 x modem. 1 comp connected via Ethernet, other by netgear wg111v2 usb adaptor.

    Ethernet comp perfect, no problems. USB connection was perfect. Started first go every time, last five weeks problems.
    The comp in question is shutdown every night. On first startup the next day the USB adaptor doesn’t connect. In fact doesn’t do anything (no light flash, no error message, doesn’t show in device manager. About 2 or 3 reboots later and various taking out and putting in of the adaptor it finally works. Once it is connected its perfect. No drop outs etc. Also once it is going if we should reboot for some reason it starts back up straight away. Its only the first of the day start up that we have this annoying problem.

    Modem settings have been checked, all ok. Tried diff channels etc. Don’t think the modem is the problem because as I said once connected its perfect. Adaptor and the software (latest version) for it have been replaced. Didn’t make a difference. The comp (sons) was reformatted and windows re-installed when problem first occurred in case that was the issue. Didn’t make a bit of difference. No changes in home or in path of modem from comp. He has 6 usb outlets the adaptor does the same thing in all 6. All 6 work perfectly for everything else.

    Its got to come back to the USB somewhere but I am lost. Do they need the 15 mins to warm up enough for the adaptor? Sounds crazy but that’s where I am at.

    Any I ideas at all will help at this stage.

    thanks
     
  2. Turcoloco

    Turcoloco MajorGeek

    Sorry, don't feel bad thinking people are ignoring you but I posted earlier with a valid troubleshooting step for you to try though the post got deleted as if it was a completely frivolous suggestion.

    I guess you are on your own till a mod post a reply! rolleyes
     
  3. muppy03

    muppy03 Private E-2

    ok solved

    Its taken a few week but its fixed. It wasn’t the modem or the net gear adaptor nor was it the cold. It came back to blasted USB ports/plugs/whatchamacallits.

    I am far from an expert so excuse my non technical terms. I will however try to explain as it might help someone down the track (a non technical person like myself).

    Every time a USB gadget is plugged into a computer it leaves a ghost of itself behind. Things like flash drives and in my case the wirelessUSB adaptor can be pulled out and pushed in many times and each time a ghost is left. Then one day for no apparent reason you get nothing except a ‘device not recognised error’. Now you know the gadget works because it works elsewhere and you know the USB port works because other things work on it.

    You can uninstall all USB reboot and reinstall which resets the USB. You can get lucky with this but since the ghosts are still there it is pot luck.

    Now for the really untechnical terms bit. Because the ghosts are still there when the USB adaptor was inserted the comp didn’t recognise it because it thought it was already there. Pulling out and reinserting doesn’t help because xp suspends the 'ports' when this is done repeatedly. When this happens you get nothing, no error and nothing at all showing in device manager. On reboot depending on the ‘USB stack’ you can get the USB not recognised error again or if luck is on you side (again depending on the USB stack) it will work... (Until next time)

    What is needed is the ghosts to be exercised (spooky). To do this..
    Right click my comp ---properties then choose advanced tab.

    Click on ‘environment variables’ down at the bottom of the page.
    Choose new in the SYSTEM variables box. (if you choose User box the changes are only made to that particular user)._
    A new Box will open..

    In Variable name type: DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES
    In Variable value type: 1

    Then click ok, ok and ok..

    Now open up device manager. Right click my comp,propertieshardwaredevice manager. Click view and show hidden devices.

    This will now show the usual hidden devices and the Ghosted ones. The Ghosted ones are recognisable as they are shadowed/greyed out.
    Expand your USB controllers, there should be quite a few ghosts showing, uninstall each of these are they are not present on the computer. Check if you now have an entry (a ghosted one) of other devices too. Uninstall all those ghosts too. In my case I went through every item in device manager and got rid of all my ghosts. Under Network adaptors I had a couple of ghosts for my problem device.
    I then rebooted (made sure my adaptor wasn’t it because it was when I did the above d’oh) checked device manager again. Removed the ghost from leaving it in (d’oh) then rebooted again. It probably wouldn’t hurt at this stage to unplug all usb devices and reboot. Have a nice clean stack of USB’s available.

    Anyway on reboot and plugging in Netgear adaptor I was welcomed with a found new hardware and the wireless wizard. (which I hadn’t seen before). Everything worked as it should and all was happy. The real test for me was would it work the next morning (as this was when the problems happened after a long shutdown). Needless to say it did and has continued to work problem free so far. First time every time. I have told the boy to leave it plugged in, it doesn’t need to be removed, but at least if it is and a problem occurs we know how to fix it now.

    Sorry for being so long winded.
     
  4. Turcoloco

    Turcoloco MajorGeek

    Interesting, I might have seen something vaguely similar to this but this is definitely not something very common I think.
    But I would not recommend removing all hidden devices under all sections just because they are hidden, it is not wise to do so at random.

    Anyhow, thanks for the follow up and informing the rest about this as this would help others in the future when they search for it!
     

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