Major USB reliability problems

I am having HUGE problems with unreliable USB ports. Accessories (including
mouse and keyboard) stop working at random. New Hardware wizard does not
start when plugging in new USB accessories. Vista can never find drivers - I
have to point it to the win/system32 folder. I usually have to install
drivers two or three times before anything works.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling USB root hub drivers from Device
Manager - but this is very difficult to do in any logical and methodical
fashion because there are about eight or nine "USB root Hub" branches, none
of them really give any information about what they actually do, so if I
delete anything to do with the mouse or keyboard then I lose the interface
and because Vista will not install drivers automatically then it becomes
impossible to get back control of computer (what do you do if neither mouse
or keyboard works?). After maybe ten hard reboots, I eventually get keyboard
back, then I can get mouse back by manually reinstalling the drivers
(usually three or four times is necessary). Eventually I get things working
again - then the mouse will randomly fail again a few days later and I am
forced to start all over again.

I have installed all the USB fixes from the microsoft site.

Are there any solutions to the Vista USB problems (except XP)?

Rich T wrote:
> I am having HUGE problems with unreliable USB ports. Accessories
> (including mouse and keyboard) stop working at random. New Hardware
> wizard does not start when plugging in new USB accessories. Vista can
> never find drivers - I have to point it to the win/system32 folder. I
> usually have to install drivers two or three times before anything works.
>
> I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling USB root hub drivers from
> Device Manager - but this is very difficult to do in any logical and
> methodical fashion because there are about eight or nine "USB root Hub"
> branches, none of them really give any information about what they
> actually do, so if I delete anything to do with the mouse or keyboard
> then I lose the interface and because Vista will not install drivers
> automatically then it becomes impossible to get back control of computer
> (what do you do if neither mouse or keyboard works?). After maybe ten
> hard reboots, I eventually get keyboard back, then I can get mouse back
> by manually reinstalling the drivers (usually three or four times is
> necessary). Eventually I get things working again - then the mouse will
> randomly fail again a few days later and I am forced to start all over
> again.
>
> I have installed all the USB fixes from the microsoft site.
>
> Are there any solutions to the Vista USB problems (except XP)?

Yep, www.ubuntu.com/

Alias

Rich T wrote:
> I am having HUGE problems with unreliable USB ports. Accessories
> (including mouse and keyboard) stop working at random. New Hardware
> wizard does not start when plugging in new USB accessories. Vista can
> never find drivers - I have to point it to the win/system32 folder. I
> usually have to install drivers two or three times before anything works.

I think it's more a hardware issue. A dead USB device? Damaged metal
traces in the USB ports?

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.1
^ ^ 19:31:01 up 5:44 0 users load average: 1.02 1.05 1.01
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...ub_addressesa/

Man-wai Chang ToDie wrote:
> Rich T wrote:
>> I am having HUGE problems with unreliable USB ports. Accessories
>> (including mouse and keyboard) stop working at random. New Hardware
>> wizard does not start when plugging in new USB accessories. Vista can
>> never find drivers - I have to point it to the win/system32 folder. I
>> usually have to install drivers two or three times before anything works.
>
> I think it's more a hardware issue. A dead USB device? Damaged metal
> traces in the USB ports?
>

Instead of guessing, the OP should run a Live Ubuntu CD and see if the
USB ports work or not. I would guess that it's Windows, as usual.

Alias

> Instead of guessing, the OP should run a Live Ubuntu CD and see if the
> USB ports work or not. I would guess that it's Windows, as usual.

Not trying to protect Vi$ta, so far I don't have any USB-related problem
(other than 64-bit driver availability for some obscure/special hardware).

My motherboard is Asus M2N-E.

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.1
^ ^ 19:47:01 up 6:00 0 users load average: 1.00 1.04 1.00
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...ub_addressesa/

Man-wai Chang ToDie wrote:
>> Instead of guessing, the OP should run a Live Ubuntu CD and see if the
>> USB ports work or not. I would guess that it's Windows, as usual.
>
> Not trying to protect Vi$ta, so far I don't have any USB-related problem
> (other than 64-bit driver availability for some obscure/special hardware).
>
> My motherboard is Asus M2N-E.
>

That means nothing. I just worked on an XP computer that had a BSOD
saying that there were memory problems. It wouldn't boot into any mode,
safe or normal. I wiped XP and installed Ubuntu and, surprise, surprise,
no memory problems. The problem was that XP got borked as any version
of Windows eventually gets.

Alias

> Yep, www.ubuntu.com/

OK and can it run specialist flying software like Jeppesen Flitestar? Or
sailing software like Nobeltech Navigator?

If I just wanted a computer to look at the internet and play itunes I would
have got a Mac years ago. But I need a computer to run other software, not
just office stuff.

> That means nothing. I just worked on an XP computer that had a BSOD
> saying that there were memory problems. It wouldn't boot into any mode,
> safe or normal. I wiped XP and installed Ubuntu and, surprise, surprise,
> no memory problems. The problem was that XP got borked as any version
> of Windows eventually gets.

Mind to post a detailed spec of your PC?

I could install 32-bit XP, 64-bit Vi$ta and 64-bit Fedora 7 on my M2N-E,
A-Data DDR2-8000 RAM, 8600GT display card. May try Ubuntu later.

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.1
^ ^ 20:11:01 up 6:24 0 users load average: 1.06 1.03 1.01
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...ub_addressesa/

> safe or normal. I wiped XP and installed Ubuntu and, surprise, surprise,
> no memory problems. The problem was that XP got borked as any version
> of Windows eventually gets.

Also, Linux is more forgiving about hardware glitches than Window$ in
general. Good or Bad? I don't know...

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.1
^ ^ 20:13:01 up 6:26 0 users load average: 1.13 1.06 1.01
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...ub_addressesa/

Man-wai Chang ToDie wrote:
>> That means nothing. I just worked on an XP computer that had a BSOD
>> saying that there were memory problems. It wouldn't boot into any
>> mode, safe or normal. I wiped XP and installed Ubuntu and, surprise,
>> surprise, no memory problems. The problem was that XP got borked as
>> any version of Windows eventually gets.
>
> Mind to post a detailed spec of your PC?
>
> I could install 32-bit XP, 64-bit Vi$ta and 64-bit Fedora 7 on my M2N-E,
> A-Data DDR2-8000 RAM, 8600GT display card. May try Ubuntu later.
>

Ubuntu should run fine on that machine.

Alias