Device recognized for 3 mins & then not?

I saw there were a lot of USB device not recognized threads, but this is a bit different.

One of my clients has an Olympus ds-4000 handheld digital voice recorder for dictation and a docking station to transfer the files to the PC. The computer will recognize the device for the first 3 minutes or so. After that time it will not recognize the device at all. In order to transfer files again she must reboot the computer and try to quickly dock the handheld and transfer all the files within that three minute window.

She only had this problem starting 4 months ago when her company's IT guy came over and started messing with stuff. He swears he didn't touch anything, and his only solution is to try and move the docking station to another computer. (Which would be a major pain and cost $100 for new program licenses)

What could cause a computer to recognize a device just fine for a few minutes and then stop recognizing the device? I believe she is running XP. Thanks for taking the time to view this thread.

 

Hello,
You might want to try to disable power managment on the USB hubs.

 

Thanks tgell, I'll give that a try and see if it works! I'll post back to let you know.

 

Unfortunately it didn't work. She followed those steps to keep the computer from powering down the usb hubs and it still stopped recognizing the device. :-\

 

Have you checked the Olympus support site for patches or software updates?

 

I believe the IT guy who works for the company tried that, though I'll double check. It seems like such a common sense thing to do that I assume he would have.

 

If the cable from the docking station to the PC is replaceable, you might want to try a new cable but first have her change the cable to a different USB port and see if that helps. I read that you can connect to the PC via the docking station or by separate cable. If she uses just a cable, does it stay connected? In the manual it shows that the DS-4000 uses a XD memory card. If all she wants to do is transfer files, she could take out the card and insert it in a USB adapter to transfer the files.

 

I apologize if my suggestion sounded condescending. It may sound like a simple step; however I have to confess it's one I've missed in the past.

 

@tgell, that might be a solution, I'll have to ask her when the work week starts up again on Monday.
@gman863 Don't worry, I didn't take it as condescending. It's something people often miss