what's wrong with my USB?

today I tried using several USB devices on my new e1705. every time, the install new hardware wizard came up and tried to install drivers instead of just letting these go plug and play.

 

it would help to know what usb devices you are talking about

 

any and all...i have tried a hard drive and a card reader..today is my first day trying to use USB on this new puter...no real help from Dell chat...tried all their suggestions to ensure usb plug and play was on...now they want me to check the motherboard...is Dell QA/QC really so poor they don't make sure USB works properly before it leaves the factory?

to sumamrize the issue. when i plug in a device i get a popup box that correctlly identifies the name/type of device...then instead of just saying "ready to use" it activates the add new hardware wizard looking for a driver which of course cant be found so the device isnt properly installed...

 

did you do a fresh install?

what service pack on you running?

the card reader i have requires drivers (granted, it's old). is it a 2.5 drive or a 3.5 drive?

 

no fresh install...xp sp2...

just curious what this means on my system info page "T2400 @ 1.83GHz 988Mhz, 2.00 GB of RAM"...what does 988 MHz mean in that context?

 

1. Dell quality control obviously cannot check every single computer that rolls off the assembly line. I don't know the exact percentage, but I'm sure it's in the single digits. The sheer volume of computers would make it cost prohibitive to QC a large quantity of items.

2. Intel's Speedstep technology means your 1.83GHz processor runs at idle speed (988MHz) until more computing power is required. It then "steps up" to full speed. This is completely normal and expected behavior. There are a few topics about this.

3. You can try this: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310575

 

maybe you need to download th chipser drivers for windows to use the USB or BETTER yet, download the drivers for the device

 

reinstalled the chipset drivers...thats what the tech rep suggested...still doesnt work....the instructions for the device clearly state "don't need to installl driver when using xp"...

 

Did you try #3 in my previous post?

 

...yes...everything except removing and reinstalling the usb controllers...and i'm just not going to do that...

from that microsoft troubleshooting page here is the situation that applies: "Malfunctioning, incorrectly configured, or missing device driver. When you plug in a USB device, the computer should load and then configure the device without ever requesting a device driver (assuming that the device falls within the defined and supplied class drivers). If the computer prompts you for a device driver, check with the manufacturer of the device to determine if a driver is available. "....well the mfr of these devices (e.g., hard drive and memory card reader) doesn't have drivers for XP and specifically states they're not needed.

the tech rep (ha ha ha) thinks it may be a faulty motherboard so it is going back to a repair facility...i realize QA/QC in the factory won't catch everything but this shouldn't be my problem to diagnose and repair at my time and expense...

 

Removing the controllers is ridiculously easy. Just remove them from the hardware list and reboot. It's something I would try before sending the laptop back, since it takes all of a few seconds.

 

just the controllers, or the hubs as well? what about the bluetooth card that's listed under USB controllers? in any case, the ports are working just fine, they correctly recognize the type of device when its plugged in, but then it goes off on the inappropriate driver search...

i was actually thinking i'd try a repair reinstall of XP to see if that corrected the problem...

 

Before reinstalling, just remove the controllers and hubs and reboot. If it works, you saved yourself several hours of unnecessary work. If it doesn't, and you have the OS install disk, do a reinstall.

 

Not only did it not work (drivers couldn't be found), I had to system restore in order to get the controllers and hubs back since they did NOT automatically reinstall. Did a google search on this issue and found some references indicating it could indeed be a faulty motherboard.

 

It looks like you've eliminated everything except a hardware failure. I was hoping the hub/controller action would fix it for you.