topic Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System. in PCs & Accessories

HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 02:27:53 GMT

My Model: VAIO FE-11H (UK, 1.66 G Core Duo)
System: WinXP SP2 Media Centre

All Drivers / Patches up to date;
latest BIOS (beta) applied last week.

Its a relatively clean system because i just got the laptop for less than 2 weeks...

Now WHENEVER i plugged into a USB 2.0 External Hard Drives, the windows start to lose response and finally hangs the entrie windows. I'll have to hold the power button for 6 seconds to shut it down... !!! I've tried 3 different external HDs and the results are the same. ( Meanwhile they worked perfectly on my desktop and PowerBook ).

I also tested a USB 2.0 Memory Pen (256Mb) and it DOES NOT have this problem...

* btw... if my problem cannot be solved here, where can I ask for more support? i'm a UK customer and i don't want to send this brand new thing back to Belgium or somewhere for a month or so... =____= (tried e-support, don't know where to find the warrenty reg number)...

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 12:52:44 GMT

anyone got any ideas?

cheers

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

Kris1990 — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 12:56:33 GMT

have you tryied using a different USB port or maby a different connection like firewire if you pc has that.

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

rich912 — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 22:55:23 GMT

Are you using a mains adaptor to power the USB drive or relying on the USB port for power?

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

toldcodger — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 00:08:09 GMT

Don't know if this will help.
I had a similar problem with an old HP laptop. It only had USB 1.1 onboard, so I bought a USB2 PCMCIA card. When I plugged the USB external drive in to the PCMCI~A card it hung the system. Turns out the ENU card readers driver was buggy or corrupted. I installed an update and it was fixed.

Perhaps one or more of the USB controllers on your system is dodgy. If all else fails try updating their drivers.

Regards

Dave

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:36:40 GMT

Thanks for the replies:

1. I do have tried different external hard drives but they are all USB 2.0, the VAIO FE11H does not come with the standard "big" firewire port.

2. Some of them uses exteranl power (AC) while the others are soley usb powered.

3. Please give me some ideas how can I update the USB controller driver? Do i use the Windows Driver (for i945 chipset) or VAIO driver, since i didnt see any updates on the website...

thank you

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:49:39 GMT

my laptop just have 3 usb ports, how come so many drivers

and wat about the HUB thingy? should i delete some of them?

cheers...

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

kee-lo_ — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:20:22 GMT

You can use a firewire 6pin > 4pin cable for connecting to the VAIO.

Do you have 5 USB ports?

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:42:41 GMT

You can use a firewire 6pin > 4pin cable for connecting to the VAIO.

Do you have 5 USB ports?

sorry but my external HDs are usb only...

and i just have 3 USB ports...

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

babysmile — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 14:42:39 GMT

I have the similiar problem towards my fren VAIO notebooks. She is using FS-415B. She can use the hard disk but when it have to shut down the Windows, it won't... Need to press the Power Button until it shut..

I just thinking there is a bug on between Sony Vaio and Windows XP.

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

kee-lo_ — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 17:11:10 GMT

You could try uninstalling all those and seeing what WIndows does, do 3 come back or 5?

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

toldcodger — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:57:57 GMT

My system physically has three USB ports but shows 5 hubs and 5 controllers.

As Kee Lo says try removing the USB controllers and see what happens.

But first make sure you have backed up any data you cannot replace.

My motto is always make a backup before you make a mistake!!!!

Sadly with advancing age and poor memory I usually remember my motto after I've made the mistake.

Regards

Dave

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

William — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 09:59:48 GMT

Apologies if this has already been suggested.:smileygrin:

You may have only three USB sockets but other bits of your vaio are USB. I am not familiar with your model but for instance the Memory Stick Reader and Wireless adapter are probably USB too.

You obviously and understandably don't want to send your lappy back to Belguim unnecessarily.

Have you tried other USB2 devices in your USB2 sockets. If other devices work it ain't a problem with your laptop.

Maybe the external drive has a problem with your USB Chipset.

Before Windows grinds to a halt can you see the drive in "My Computer"?

If not maybe it needs a drive letter assigned with Start/Run/diskmgmt.msc.

It is definately strange

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

kee-lo_ — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:46:22 GMT

I think you've got a point there William

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:42:48 GMT

Apologies if this has already been suggested.:smileygrin: 

You may have only three USB sockets but other bits of your vaio are USB. I am not familiar with your model but for instance the Memory Stick Reader and Wireless adapter are probably USB too.

You obviously and understandably don't want to send your lappy back to Belguim unnecessarily.

Have you tried other USB2 devices in your USB2 sockets. If other devices work it ain't a problem with your laptop.

Maybe the external drive has a problem with your USB Chipset.

Before Windows grinds to a halt can you see the drive in "My Computer"?

If not maybe it needs a drive letter assigned with Start/Run/diskmgmt.msc.

It is definately strange

hi william ..

thanks for your reply... i've tried other usb devices including a memory pen (128M USB2.0) , BlueTooth USB Adapter and my digital camera (USB 2.0). They worked perfect.

As i said i've tried different external hard drives (6 up to now) and the end result turned out to be the same... sometimes one or two partitions (of the external HD) show up in My Computer, but the system still hangs after 5 - 10 seconds ....

as its end of the term (i'm a university student) now i'm too busy to play around with WiNDOWS .. so maybe i'll try to re-install the system during Easter and see if the problem still exist...

sadly im a Mac switcher (since PowerBook is too slow and MacBook doesnt have native code yet) ... maybe this sony will turn me back to Apple again ....

btw... kee lo thank u as well
i've tried to delete all the usb devices and after the reboot windows just re-install them all automatically......

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

kee-lo_ — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:29:05 GMT

ECG

Are they self-powered hard disks or do they have a wall socket too?

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:35:10 GMT

hi there

One has a built-in battery (DigiMate)..
Two have Wall Socket (AC Power Adapter)

the rest are powered by USB...

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

kee-lo_ — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:42:03 GMT

Have you tried with a powered hub?

Re: HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

EGC — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:38:25 GMT

yes my hub is the Belkin Powered 7 Port USB hub