Here is the situation------

What fixed my USB problems was switching the devices to different USB ports. I know sounds silly/nonsensical but in my case worked. I moved the USB mouse to a different port now it's works 100% of the time. And that other USB port works perfect with other USB devices. Go figure.

 

WEll, after all that it appears that the problem is associated with the powered external drive. The odd thing is that one of the first things I did when I began having problems was try a different drive as well as try the offending drive on the laptop. The 2nd powered drive would not connect and the offending drive worked fine on the laptop. Now, whenever I connect the offending drive I have a problem (on the desktop) if I use any other drive everything works fine. Perhaps the difference now is the fact that the card reader has been unplugged. Perhaps the card reader caused the PC to "hold on" to whatever glitch the offending drive caused and now that its not connected, when I remove the drive, the PC becomes fully functional again. Any way I will begin the process of getting things set up on the PC again and see how things go as time goes by. I have decided to partition the terabyte drive and use the old drive for Linux so I expect I will be asking for help doing this at some point.

1 question I would like to ask now is the following -----

I have read about partitioning the drive so the OS is on one partition and the apps etc are on a 2nd partition. I have an image of my entire system (Acronis True Image) and was wondering if I can use this image to set things up like this. If this will be a big job I will let it go until I get a new PC (probably about a year from now) and set it up then. Now I would partition the terabyte drive reserving 300 gig for the C drive and use the balance for data storage.

Thanks again for all your help regarding the drive issue and thanks in advance for any comments regarding my question.

PS: I tried changing the cable I was using with the offending drive and it made no difference.

 

Since the new drive is larger than the old is very easy to do it:
Step 1: Restore only the mbr from the image.
Step 2: Restore the image of your OS in the restored partition
Step 3: From windows create a new partition for your data.

Panagiotis

 

Thank you , I will do as you suggest.

 

One thing regarding the drive issue.....

I find it odd that I had problems if I plugged the drive into the front ports but not if I plugged it into the back. Or rather does this not mean that I do have issues with the front ports even though other drives work with them. In other words should I not be concerned about these ports or is this such a unique situation (this particular drive in these particular ports)that I should just forget about it?

 

I'm done with my USB problem. Computers are funny sometimes. So what if my USB mouse doesn't work in 1 port but works in another.

 

So it does not bother you that there is clearly a problem with the port? After all, the mouse should work in every port if it works in 1 of them. I am just concerned that the problem with the ports in question may get worse and cause possibly a serious problem down the road. An ounce of prevention and all that sort of thing.

 

Nope. I've worked on computers for years. They are weird. I remember once doing a specific repair I'd done dozens of times. I employed a solution that always, I mean always worked. I was showing a friend/client the repair. It would not work. Tried half a dozen times, then gave up. Was searching the internet for alternate solutions. None of the so called alternate solutions worked. So a couple days later, I said what the heck. Let me try the old trusty solution. It worked! Again I say computers are weird.

So if it works I don't fight it.

 

Do you by chance have installed O&O DiskImage 3 recently ? I had USB problems after install, some looking like the ones you mention.

 

So let me see, you are, in a nut-shell saying, "computers are weird", is that correct? Just kidding of course,,,,I get it. As long as it works its fine, don't fret over it.

Thanks.

 

No, I have not installed O&O. In fact, I have only installed 2 programs to a brand new OS install on a brand new drive. The 2 are Free Commander, a file sync program (for testing as one of the problems I was having before the new OS install was copying/syncing between 2 external drives, and Acronis True Image. In fact I first noticed a resurgence of problems while trying to install ATI. During previous testing I had not plugged my keyboard in as the tower had been turned around so I could more easily access the back ports as well as so I could open the tower to unplug the card reader. The cable for the keyboard was too short to reach so I never plugged it in. When it came time to input the ATI licence key I had to (of course) use the key board) so I turned the tower around and plugged the cable in. NADA, nothing, no keyboard. The keyboard has a PS2 plug so I scavenged a USB keyboard from another PC and tried it and it worked but with the other problems with ports on top of the new keyboard issue I finally threw in the towel. ----- see my new thread "A Beautiful new door-stop" if you are interested in following the serial adventure story on this subject. I threw the towel in last night but I might, depending on possible suggestions and comments try to stage a comeback. Probably would be futile at this point but as was brilliantly pointed out above, "computers are weird",,,,and I suspect so am I, well, perhaps a bit, so who knows if a comeback attempt will be mounted or not.