A Beautiful New Doorstop

Well, for those who have been following the trials and tribulations of my desktop PC I thought I would let you know how things stand. I GIVE UP! The PC was working fine and then, as I was getting things sorted out in terms of setup (physical in my office) the keyboard stopped working at the same time as the new drive (external froze up). Unplugged the keyboard, managed to shut down the drive, rebooted, no keyboard (and yes, I had plugged it back in). The keyboard is one that came with the PC (it has - I think its called - a PS2 plug so the port problems are not limited to the USB ports, which, if you stop to think of it, is not surprising since I was also having issues with the card readers). Interestingly enough a USB keyboard works with no problem,,,,for now. I think its clear that some gremlin has taken up residence in the PC and that its time to let go. For the time being I will us my laptop and at some point in the future I will get myself a new desktop setup.

Thanks to all who tried to help with this one. I do appreciate the efforts very much.

 

Just put it aside for a week or so. Then give it a try. You'd be surprised.

 

Maybe it's just a faulty motherboard... Can you RMA it?

 

I read some of your other thread briefly. Seems like you are having USB issues too? Have you tried updating the BIOS? What board is it BTW?

 

Maybe an underpowered powersupply,to weak to get all the stuff rolling.
Have you installed hardware lately ?
How many watts is that thingy ?

That said i must humbly confess that it could be anything.

Have you posted on other forums like ars technica or geeks to go ?

 

Sorry, but it is hard to keep up with everything.
How about writing down exactly what your system components are; your OP System and software; and in what order things happened, and then strated going wrong. Save it as a word file on your computer so you can paste and repaste it here and perhaps at other forums.

One small driver issue can scramble a whole PC's operation.

Also record what you have tried, so we don't end up suggesting things you already tried.

From the post, I get that you had a PC that was working fine until you physically moved it, but didn't change any software ?
If so, top categories would be
1. Remove and reinstall all connectors to make sure properly seated and xclean.
2. Run CKDSK to see if the system disk got dammaged.
3. System file check (SFC /scannow at ADMIN level command promt in VISTA)
4. Reset BIOS

5: Open and vacuum out the case; reseat PCI boards and all connectors
6. Hook up a different power supply and try it.

 

Can't you fry your keyboard and mouse ports if you plug and unplug them while the computer is on?

 

I have never heard of that happening.

Also you mention an ASUS P5Q-SE MOTHERBOARD in this thread ( https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1418980&postcount=1 )\.
Is that what you ended up getting? If so, ASUS has a BIOS update that fixes a USB issue similar to the one you mentioned in another thread.

 

Seeming more and more like a mobo problem. whether it is or is not you have nothing to lose by giving this a try.
First you need unplug all USB devices. Then ->

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press [Windows]+[Break] to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

 

PS2 yes, USB no.

 

I have no idea what that is. Could I trouble you for a bit of clarification on this?

 

Basically, return it to have it repaired or replaced by the manufacture.

 

I have not tried updating the BIOS and would like to mention that a Sony tech installed a new OS as well as the latest firmware on a new drive for me. I would hope/think, he set things up correctly. I have no idea how to update a BIOS anyway so .......

I have no idea what board it is. If someone can tell me how to find out I would appreciate it and will report back.

I was talking to the service manager at my local Best Buy today and he also suggested the mother board. He asked me how old the PC is. I am not certain but its at least 2 but more likely 3 years old (I told to him 3 to 4 years old) and he suggested it could be a problem replacing a board that old. That I might be better off just buying a new PC. I have no problem with the idea of a new PC although I would prefer not spending the cash just now but I really do not want to have to reinstall all my apps and getting the PC set up the way I like it. I run a number of graphics apps and they have a fair number of plug-ins associated with them, as well as a number of CAD programs which would be a job to set up as well. In addition there are a number of propriatory apps associated with my day job that would have to be installed and configgered so all told we are talking a major undertaking. I had asked him if there was any way to migrate the apps and their configurations as well as my data files and he made a face and said he thought that could be a problem because I would need to have the registry files as well. I mentioned that ATI is supposed to allow for migration to a different PC with dissimilar hardware and he said he was not familiar with ATI and he felt I would run into problems (thats when he mentioned registry files) and that he does not see how this could work going from an XP machine to a Vista PC. He said finding the correct drivers to allow things to run properly would be a real major undertaking. If I could find a reasonable way to accomplish this I would just get a new PC and be done with the problem child.

I am open to suggestions though. Either in terms of getting the problem child to behave, or in therms of migrating to a new system. If this last is in fact possible I would love to know it since eventually I will have to upgrade to a new PC and making it as painless as possible would be real nice.

 

No, no new hardware prior to adding the new terabyte drive. I had thought there may be a power supply issue but the Sony tech did not seem to think so. He may reconsider this (or other possibilities) at this point. I called him today but he has not returned my call as of yet.

I have not posted on other forums, do you suggest I do so? I guess you do or you would not have mentioned it. I am pretty new to this one having just recently (relatively) found it while searching for some guidance/help on ejecting drives and some guidance on rollback type software. I doubt I would understand much of what I would find on a hardcore tech site (not that the folks here are slouches by any means). The fact of the matter is that I have trouble following what is suggested here. I am a bit intimidated at what I might find elsewhere. Besides, between the folks here and the Sony tech I think the most probable solutions are likely to be covered. If these don't work I expect its time to move on to a new PC.

 

So much has been tried that detailing it could be a bit of a job. Heck, just remembering everything would be a job, but I will try to get to something like this in the next week or so. What I probably would do is go back through my posts and copy and paste the relevant text. Then edit it a bit for continuity and then post it.

I am running a Sony VIO VGC-RB30 (running XP). The only change to the system as it came off the shelf was the addition of 2 gigs of ram last fall and it turned out that one of the sticks was faulty leading to a badly corrupted PC last Dec. The PC was taken into a service center (not Sony) and a diagnosis was made and the faulty ram was replaced. The drive was reformatted and XP was reinstalled. I then used an ATI image to restore and all was well until mid Feb or so when I began having USB port issues first ejecting drives, then more recently copying data from one external device to another. Last week the PC was brought to Sony for service as I felt I had exhausted what I could do on my own (with you folks help of course). The tech said he tested all the hardware and it appeared fine, that he felt a reinstall of the OS was called for and that he was pretty sure this would resolve things. Well, as you can gather it did not solve the problem, so here we are.

As to the possibility that moving the PC caused the (or some of the) problems I would think not. The only problem that has occurred since the PC was moved is the new one of the keyboard. Everything else predates that.

I have not mentioned the previous problems with the PC (that associated with the faulty ram) earlier as I did not see any possibility of a connection. The PC was running perfectly well until, as I mentioned mid Feb, to be more specific Feb 18 when I set up an account with iDrive (an Internet data storage service). A few days after installing the iDrive app I began having the ejection issues, the issues were initially resolved using Unlocker but things continued to deteriorate. I figured that perhaps iDrive was the cause of all the problems and was very surprised when I got the PC back from Sony with the new OS install to find that this was not the case. So clearly (at least to me) iDrive was not the cause since its no longer present on the PC. The only 2 programs I have installed are Free Commander (a file sync program for testing if the problems had in fact been resolved) and ATI so I could restore my system.

You know the rest.

I just realized I have given a fairly detailed outline of the situation. If you feel it would be helpful for a more detailed account of the exact sequence of events and what was tried I will see about putting one together. I should warn you its likely to be a rather lengthly post but if it would help I am willing to do it.

 

That was a PC I was thinking of possibly getting to replace the current problematic one. I was just asking what folks thought of the system given its price. I found it offered for sale at a small mom & pop PC store that I wandered into one day while waiting for my wife to finish shopping.

 

Thanks for the suggestion but there has been a new OS install on a new drive, I don't think any drivers etc can be impacting the current, ongoing problems. The only devices plugged in have been drives used for testing if the problems were resolved by the new install of the OS. If you feel its still worth a try I am willing to do so but at the moment it does not seem likely to me that it would be of much value to do so.

 

Well perhaps thats what happened. I thought this was only possible if you were plugging and unplugging a powered device into the PC while it was on. I knew about the need to dismount external drives before unplugging and to be sure to turn off the PC before plugging a device into a serial port (or unplugging it) but not PS2 devices. Is there any way I can test this? I will mention this to the tech if I speak with him today. Perhaps the issues are the same as they were and the solution is simply to stop using the original powered drive and to only used powered drive in the back ports.

This would be a nice turn of events if it turns out to be the case.

Life is ironic,,,,,and computers are weird (I think I may make that my signature. Seems very appropriate.)

 

There is one thing I forgot to mention above. I was having a problem if I rebooted the PC when the offending hard drive was plugged in and turned on. I would get a message that a ckdisk had been scheduled for the drive (though none had been) and then the display would sit a 0% done until I manually powered down the PC and turned the drive off before booting again. The time-line on this issue is rather fuzzy but it either was the first issue in the series of issues or was very early on in making its initial appearance.

Just want to mention once again that I have never had any problem with this drive when I used It with my laptop.

 

It sure is intimidating but to sort the problem yourself is sometimes a pain but ultimately a great way to learn,and if all this stuff is humming again a deep satisfaction you derive from it.
Posting on another forums just like i mentioned is not to dismiss the crowd here on Wilders but sometimes the collective knowledge fall short to give the answer you need.
Let looking others to your problem and from there the proposed solutions can give you what you really need.

Nobody knows everything !

 

Forgot about the fresh install. Doubt my suggestion will have any affect.

Regarding the chkdsk. I have seen this happen on numerous occassions when the external drive is plugged in with the PC off and it (external drive) is formatted in other then NTFS.

That the chkdsk sets at 0% progress.......hmmmm? Did it matter which port it was plugged into? Did you ever attempt to initiate a chkdsk manually on the offending hard drive?

If these questions have already been asked apologies for the redundancy.

 

Check the 120 V electrical ground in the place you commonly have this computer installed. I wonder if it is properly grounded.

Poor ground ==> bizarre random electrostatic discharge effects.

Something to try.

 

Understood and thanks, I may give it a shot or I may give up. I really do not look forward to detailing everything and then struggling to implement suggestions in the vague hope that something will work. At some point you have to bite the bullet and move on. I am verify close to that point now.

 

I did not check this on another port but did check it on a different PC (my laptop). The PC booted fine and I was able to run a chdisk manually. It ran with no problem.

 

No idea how to check this but both PCs are now and have often been plugged into the same backup battery/surge protector. No problems with the laptop as I have mentioned.