What's wrong with my USBs??

[mikey100tv]

Hi there, guys and gals...got another little poser for you.

Decided to download Skype the other day. No problem...download went nicely.

Then I decided to use my digital camera as a webcam. Used the CD-ROM that came with it to install the "PC-Cam" driver file, and as usual, I'm told to restart to complete the installation. Done this SO many times over the years, I thought nothing of it.

Now this is where things get a little bit weird..!

I have so many USB gadgets (nano receiver for mouse, Bluetooth dongle, various card readers, flash drives, etc,. etc.) that I have a seven port USB hub with its own power supply, so's I can leave most of them plugged in most of the time.

Restarted my 1100 Dell Inspiron; up came the BIOS screen; (by the way, thanks for the advice about the CMOS battery, people...exactly where you said it was; under the palm rest, soldered to the mother board...it's been replaced by a special-order item from Maplins, here in the UK, and the old one WAS just about flat!). Where was I... oh yes. Up came the BIOS screen, followed by the XP start-up screen.

Instead of going to "Windows is starting up", and a split-second later to the password screen (like it normally does), the BIOS screen came back up (and a sort of creaking sound from the speakers), then I get a system screen I've NEVER seen before.

"We're sorry, but Windows has not been able to start. If you have recently installed or altered a program, this may be the cause..." I then get the option to a) Start in one of three safe modes, b) Start in the last known secure position (!), or c), allow Windows to start as normal, on a 30-second countdown.

So I hit "enter", and select start as normal. Up comes the start-up screen, followed again by the BIOS screen (!), and back to the system screen with the message again. Well, this puts me right out, so I shut off and go outside for a smoke to have a think.

Bear with me a little longer, please.

Upon coming back in, I started up, and hey presto! she boots up as normal. So I'm thinking it's one of those strange glitches you get sometimes, and then I notice I haven't switched the USB hub back on (normally, I switch this on before powering up). So, I switch it on; and straight away, the screen goes blank, up comes the BIOS screen, then the XP startup screen, and back to the system message screen again!!

I'm getting a bit cheesed off by now...this happened half a dozen times in a row. I finally figured out the hub seemed to be the problem, so that got disconnected, and I'm thinking"well. I shall just have to go back to the old business of plugging and unplugging things as and when I need them again."

Now this is the strangest thing of all. With experimentation, I've figured out that none of my USB devices will work at all now! Every time I plug one in, screen goes blank, BIOS screen comes up, XP startup screen followed by system error message screen...this even applies to the printer...with the sole exception of the nano receiver for the mouse! This seems to work fine, AFTER re-installing itself through the Plug'n'Play.

Has ANYBODY come across anything like this before?? I've checked the root hubs and host controllers through the Device Manager, and they are apparently working as they should.

Any advice would be much appreciated; I'm getting VERY confused...HELP!!!

[fenyal]

you got me beat. when i was reading i was thinking maybe the south bridge was at fault. but since you do have 1 item still working with the usb, i don't know what could be the hiccup. have you tried using the devices with out the hub?

[mikey100tv]

Well it's got ME beat; I've never come across anything quite like it before!!

Oh. yes; that was the next thing I tried after I discovered the hub was causing the problem. But like I said...every single USB device, with the exception of the mouse receiver, the instant I plug them in, it crashes, attempts to reboot; BIOS screen, startup screen, back to BIOS screen, then error messages.

If I leave the USB device plugged in, it just keeps cycling through the aforementioned. If I want to get it running again, I have to remove the USB device, power off; power back on (error screen still up) then select "start as normal", press "enter", and it'll fire up no problem! It's REALLY annoying; I've got a portable 1Tb hard drive with years worth of photos and stuff on it...and I can't access it.

I've got all the Windows stuff up-to-date; I've run a full systems diagnostic; I've run a full Norton scan (twice); I've even run the Norton Power Eraser, which is supposed to get rid of deeply buried bugs...nothing cures it. I just don't what the next step should be...

The only thing I can think of is that the crash has somehow rewritten the registry values of the individual USB items..but it don't explain the mouse receiver, which was plugged into the hub along with the rest of them.

What d'you reckon...sound plausible?

[fenyal]

personally i wouldn't use norton if it was given to me. but anyway back on subject.

do you happen to have a windows restoration disc? or perhaps a restore point you can access before this problem occurred?

[mikey100tv]

Yeah, I've got the XP re-installation CD that came with the Dell when new (it's an old Inspiron 1100); we bought this thing YEARS ago, back in the days before Dell sold through the dealer networks...she's been as good as gold until the other day, when all this started...

You think I should re-install XP, then? A software-related problem rather than a hardware one?

[fenyal]

i would try a restore point and see if that helps. only try a reinstall if all else fails. but leave the option open because stranger things have happened. i'm not real sure about the error messages. you might try looking them up and/or share them here so we can look over them? that may point to a cause.

because you are getting error messages the minute you try to use a usb device i would say it's software related. (assuming these error messages come up in black and white text and not blue and white) (black and white leads to software problems, blue and white lead to hardware problems. *usually*)

let me know some more information on the screens color and error message please. that might just point me in a more informed direction.


*****
as i reread through your first post i noticed you installed pc-cam before things when to shambles. I would like you to uninstall that and use ccleaner (if you can get it) from piriform. use the registry cleaner option after you uninstall so it can clean up the little extras. (if any) after that try a restart and see what happens when you try the usb devices again.

let me know how it goes.

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

[Guest]

Hi again, fenyal. One perplexed Brit here...

Before I go any further, thanks very much for taking an interest in this. In the words of Sherlock Holmes (edited), "once you've eliminated everything you can think of, whatever's left MUST be the answer" (or words to that effect)!

Ok. I decided to deliberately initiate the crash routine (yet again!) so that I could give you the error message word for word. Curiouser & curiouser, it's changed...

Previous routine:-

Insert USB device.
System crash...reboot.
BIOS screen appears.
Handover to XP startup screen, which lasts for about 20 seconds on average.
BIOS screen reappears, followed by
Error message & startup options.

To start, I then have to power off (just hit the power button, she goes off).
Remove USB device. Power on (error screen comes straight up).
Select start-up option, followed by normal boot & startup.

Now then, TONIGHT.

Just been reading your last reply, after doing a few other things. I plugged one of my flash drives in...

Routine as follows:-

System crash.
BIOS screen appears.
Handover to XP startup screen (20 secs).
BIOS screen reappears.
Now, this time, NOT error screen, but:-
XP startup screen (again). Then:-
BIOS screen reappears.
Handover to XP startup screen. Then:-
BIOS screen.......

You can see what's happening here, even a novice like myself. It is now TRYING to handover to Windows, but something is making it rerun the boot process, time and time again.

Since I can't get the previous error screen to appear now, I can't repeat it to you word for word, but I CAN tell you it was definitely white text on a black background.

Eventually, after 8 or 9 repeats, I simply unplugged the flashdrive without powering off (shouldn't hurt it, you're supposed to be able to do that with them), and this time, it cycled through BIOS & XP again (XP lasted for about 90-100 secs this time) then she started up as normal.

This is a letter for letter transcription of the error log you get when Windows informs you that " the system has recovered from a serious error":-

Error Signature

BCCode: 1000007e
BCP1: C0000005
BCP2: F8DE78E7
BCP3: F8DE77EC
BCP4: F8DE74E8
OSVer: 5_1_2600
SP: 3_0
Product: 768_1


Interestingly, when it showed the desktop this time, some of the icons were in yesterday morning's positions; I moved a few in the afternoon, so that shows it must have used a restore point...I think.

Don't know if the stuff above means anything to you, but it's like Greek to me!

Will try the link you gave me, download, run it, and see what happens.

Thanks again for trying...I'll leave it with you. Cheers!

[mikey100tv]

Sorry if you didn't recognise me as author of the above; I initiated the crash while still on the webpage, so of course...it logged me out!

Apologies for any confusion...

[mikey100tv]

[fenyal]

every single search for information on the top 2 error codes are pointing me directly to driver problems.

we will be at this until you get the old girl back. i don't quit either. i've been at this for 15 years so we will win even if we have to rebuild the little critter piece by piece.

as for the driver codes.
BCP1: C000001D points to graphics driver failure.
the next 3 codes point to this post.. lol

this is starting to get under my skin now.. lol ccleaner is an awesome tool by the way. (again in my personal opinion norton is an unacceptable option in computer maintenance and protection)

so here we go. i found this on the dell website. maybe it can help us with some more information.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/Product/inspiron-1100?driverId=R120895&osCode=WW1&fileId=2731111227&languageCode=EN&categoryId=AP

try that and let me know what it says. (if you can considering it's from the us version of the site. not sure if that will effect you or not)

[mikey100tv]

Hi again, mate.

I must say, it's good to know there's other folk out there who don't give up!

Yes, I have to agree with you about CCleaner; it IS an awesome piece of kit. I can't believe it's picking up on so much stuff...from so many years ago. It's like it's digging down through the layers of data...

Now, about those error codes. You say one of them is pointing to graphics driver failure? That could be a tricky one, 'cos the graphics controller on this old girl (which is the Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV, by the way), is integrated into the Intel 845GL chipset...which means, of course, that it's not simply a case of changing a graphics card.

(I freely admit that I still don't yet know enough about techie stuff in general to be able to say what the next step in THAT direction would be...but that's OK, every day that goes by on this one is increasing my store of knowledge!)

I think that can only refer to the moment when the crash occurs, 'cos after 3 or 4 seconds the reboot is under way, and the screen is showing what you'd expect to see during the boot process....and if it wasn't, I couldn't be communicating with you..!

Just so that you know, I downloaded and ran Dell's own "Pc Health Check" program last night. It has, amongst quite a lot of other stuff, an event history log; useful, 'cos it showed me just how many system crashes I've had over the last coupla weeks...intentional or otherwise. However, according to this, it's describing every single one of them as a "bluescreen event"; and according to what you've told me so far, black is software, blue is hardware...yes?

Will try the link, & let u know what happens. With a little bit of luck (AND some dogged perseverance) we'll get to the bottom of this one way or another. Cheers!

[fenyal]

i am fully aware of the age of the system and the fact that laptops in general lack the ability to change out their nickers when one pair gets messed up. lol HOWEVER.. a driver failure could be because the driver is not up to date. the dell website will also have the drivers for your graphics.

from the dell website the graphics is 845GM based which from what i understand is just the mobile version of the 845GL. in any case it's the driver for your graphics chip.

if you need help getting any of these, i can pull them and send them to you myself.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/Product/inspiron-1100?driverId=R112112&osCode=WW1&fileId=2731111658&languageCode=en&categoryId=VI

as for the 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV chipset. i know this chipset very well. i've owned several dells with this chipset and i've gotten it to do things it wasn't even supported to do!. lol

now for the bluescreen event log. what you are getting are bluescreen error codes but you arn't getting the bluescreens. so this explains why they are labeled as bluescreens because essentially thats what they are. but the fact that the crash is immediately directing the screen to show black instead of blue points me in the direction of software problems. (it may also be going so fast that you arn't getting a chance to see the bluescreen) besides the fact that this started directly after a restart which included installing new software. if you could share some of that information that the event history log is showing you (copy and paste maybe?) that could help in understanding more about the situation.

i did research on your exact bluescreen codes and they are pointing to software which i'm going to (by how the errors occurred) say is the right direction to look. right now i'm putting 1 and 1 together to try to understand what the computer is pointing at. sadly though bluescreen error codes tend to be highly vague almost all of the time. (case in point: i had a blue screen on my desktop that pointed me to a graphics driver problem when in fact it was actually my overclocked processor.)

now in my experience and note this is why i've come to this conclusion. also note this is also the conclusion of several local computer shops i've worked with over the years is that blue screens are in general hardware related. bluescreens generally show themselves when a cpu gets too hot, memory (ram) starts failing, graphics cards pull too much power for the power supply to handle the load or bad graphics cards, so it's various things like that. since your system has been faithful for so long until you accidentally stepped on it's toes, i'm going to assume that it's not a hardware problem.

i do want you to note that even though it's point to a graphics driver issue, it could in fact have nothing to do with the graphics. but for the sake of argument it's best to attempt to update the drivers and see if that helps. you may also want to look into trying a restore point. that usually sets the computer back to a working state before a piece of software (or virus) messed everything up.

let me know how it goes and we'll see how many more rabbits we have to pull out of the hat until this beast is satisfied.

[mikey100tv]

One more thing; meant to mention it last night but forgot.

When I downloaded Skype the other day (when all this started), something slightly odd occurred.

You know when your installer window comes up and you've got the progress bar showing? Usually it will slowly fill up from left to right as you go from 0-100% completed, yes? Sometimes you get a bar that will, instead, show an indication of left to right, left to right, over & over, while whatever you're doing is running, yes?

Well, this was one of those. Initially, it was repeating at a steady speed. After a couple of minutes, it suddenly went to light speed...literally. I mean, it was repeating so fast that you could not track it by eye! This went on for three or four minutes. Now, we've got a pretty good broadband connection here, considering we're "out in the sticks", as it were; something like about 1.3 -1.5 Mbps download speed, and Skype is not a big program...somewhere roundabout 23/24 Mb, if I recall. You would expect it to download and install fairly quickly.

After 3-4 minutes of this, with no sign of anything happening, I simply cancelled it. I had no other programs open or running at the time, so there was no interference there. There was no confirmation that it had installed, but it appeared to be there and working.

It's since been uninstalled, and having run CCleaner, it removed no end of Skype fragments...so in theory (at least) that should be the end of that. But, as you say, stranger things have happened...

Didn't know if it was at all significant, but I thought maybe I'd better mention it. I'm guessing that when you're troubleshooting like this, even the smallest piece of data can sometimes be the turning point...

Cheers!

[fenyal]

since you have uninstalled the software and are still having issues. i would try a system restore point and see if you can get your usb's back. that should in theory take your computer back to before all of this took place.

[fenyal]

since you have uninstalled the software and are still having issues. i would try a system restore point and see if you can get your usb's back. that should in theory take your computer back to before all of this took place.

this will be able to explain the process in better detail than i can.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084