BSOD after USB Device Installed -- HELP

Hi folks:

Need some input here.

I am running and older ASUS P5A motherboard with 3 sticks of PC100 128 RAM installed. OS = WinXP Pro. I purchased an iOmega External CD-RW Drive. Enabled USB in the system BIOS and everything was operating fine. I also purchased a BELKIN 4-port USB hub (which exhibits problems of its own -- more on that later). Anyway, I then got adventurous: purchased and installed a Microtek ScanMaker i320 about three weeks later. Installed the drivers, uninstalled them, installed the updated drivers from the Microtek web site. Either way, the BSODs started after I installed the scanner and the problem exists even with the updated drivers. It's a great scanner and does what it's supposed to do.

However, the last BDOS corrupted McAfee (which ran perfecty until now and I had to uninstall it from the system manually -- don't go there -- i did not delete any incorrect registry keys) and my internal CD-ROM drive has now failed. Belarc recognizes the device and it shows up in Device Manager, and is reported as working properly. I get a "Device Not Recognized" error when switching to the D drive in the command prompt.

I have Hotburn as my CD burning software.

I get more BSODs when running IE. Mozilla is much more stable.

Further, the BELKIN hub, being a USB 2.0 device, should be backward compatible to the older ALi chip set. However, the hub now boots into various link states, i.e., all amber LEDs, no LEDS, all green LEDs when only two USB devices are connected. Sometimes it boots fine and others, I have to disconnect the power -- then the devices are recognized, other times they are not.

One thought is to simply by a USB 2.0 four port PnP card. Somehow, I think the problem runs deeper than that.

I have heard of these issues cropping up with USB devices in other instances. Usually it is a .dll or something that is the offending item. Does anybody have some direction?

Thanks,

Zimfrim

 

Do the devices work correctly if you plug them straight into the computer and bypass the hub?

 

Get the STOP code (if thats what you are getting, should look like this : 0x00000000).

Does the error occour when no USB devices are plugged in?

I would suggest unplugging and uninstallnig all the drivers for periphrials.. make sure that you are no longer getting errors, and then install each USB device one by one, and thoroughly test after installing each one. Then you can find out which device it is that is causing this to happen. I doubt the USB2.0 hub has anythnig to do with it, and I'll take a guess and say its powered? That *should* mean that its not overloading the usb hub on the mainboard (because your power supply isnt powerful enough). But as Wyatt_Earp says, check if you get the same problem if you plug them in directly.

If you get a STOP code, type it into the Microsoft KB and see if you get any USB related articles come up that you think might be relevant.

Needless to say, I hope you have got the most up to date drivers for all your devices and have updated using Windows Update, you have scanned with an online virus scanner (as Mcaffee was corrupted) like Housecall, and also checked for spyware/malware. You can get Mcaffee Avert STINGER from MG which is a small program that scans for some specific virus threats.

 

Thanks folks.

Did the disconnect process of all peripherals. Disconnected the scanner. No more BSOD errors when the scanner is disconnected; so I'd have to conclued that the scanner is the offending device. BTW, the USB Hub is powered, however I have 500 mA available for each device and my power supply is offering enough juice to keep each USB device working. The iOmega Drive and the HP 3650 Inkjet work just fine.

I will have to hook the scanner up and run IE until I "force" a BSOD and record the error.

Note: I did check the error code 0x000000000050 in the MS KB and got nowhere.

I've contacted Microtek "Supposed" Support to see if they will provide any answers.

Reinstalled McAfee and all is well, except have to keep the scanner disconnected for now.

Thanks again,

zimfrim

 

Ok, I've got a link on general 0x50 errors.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=183169
(yes this does say that it applies to windows 2k +variants only, but its the nearest thing to your problem, and i would expect it isnt that far off the XP definition anyway, since they based on the same kernel)

I'd say email support with the stop code, which you've done. It might be that they can send you a new version of the driver to fix that specific problem before its on public release, or its a common problem and they just dont like to update their website

 

Well, based on the stop error code, that is exactly what was happening. McAfee was causing some of the issues. I conclude this since there is a troubleshooting tree on Microtek's web site, listed under support, that instructs you to disable any anti-virus software prior to installing the i320 drivers. It is interesting to note that Microtek does not tell you to disable your anti-virus software (although I am coming to the conclusion that this is good practice) in the install manual included with the device.

If necessary, I have set my machine to output a series of "minidumps" providing the details of each stop. I will send the those files as necessary to Microtek.

I conclude that the problem was a combination of McAfee AV and the Microtek drivers. BTW the hub is now stable as well. I will assume that the internal CD drive just gave up the ghost so I just purchased a new one to install.

Will wait to here from Microtek (hopefully). If not, I'll return the scanner and just purchase an HP and forget about.

Thanks for the link!

Zimfrim

 

Excelent.

You know, as I was tying that reply, it was going along the lines of "you have two possibe causes, 3rd party drivers of Mcaffee.. and you said that mcaffee stopped working after the first crash, which suggests a link with AV" but then I deleted it because I thought it was irrelevant

You should disable active monitoring in your AntiVirus whenever you install a new driver. It's a must.

BTW, if you wanna ditch Mcaffee (its not just your scanner it conflicts with...) avast! is quite good, and free