[m8E]

Hi guys

I've installed a 4 port USB 2.0 card in the back of the computer and I'm running an external Zip 750 drive from it, putting a shortcut on the desktop for this external Zip 750 drive. The Zip 750 Drive works good because I've tried it out on another computer without any trouble, however I've got a bit of bother with the USB 2.0 card:

From 'off' I turn the computer on and wait until the desktop shows. The desktop shows all the usual icons and shortcuts including the shortcut for the external Zip 750 drive, however, on the Zip drive shortcut there is small round question mark on it where the computer doesn't recognise the drive as being there, and subsequently the computer doesn't reconise when a disk has been put into the drive because clicking on the Zip drive shortcut only brings up a message box with the error warning 'cannot be found', and whilst looking for the Zip drive icon in 'my computer' I notice that the icon is not even there!

From experience I've found this is not a permenant situation because I can temporarily overcome this bother by re-starting my computer and this time when it gets to the desktop again the small round question mark is gone from the shortcut and the computer recognises the Zip drive is there and the drive works perfectly and can be used without any bother.

However....

If I were to then re-start the computer yet again, the desktop will once more show my Zip 750 drive shortcut with the small round question mark on it and as you can guess the computer doesn't recognise the Zip drive is there, so then I re-start my computer once again and hey presto! the small round question mark is gone again and the computer recognises the Zip drive exists.

And so it goes on like this with each re-start (there/not there/there/not there...etc) with occasional times when the computer continues to recognise the Zip drive is there after several re-starts of the computer.

One thing is constant, the first time I start up the computer from cold the small round question mark will always be on the Zip 750 drive shortcut with the computer not recognising it, and it has always recified itself with a simple re-start. However this is not supposed to happen in the first place and it would be really good to find out how to sort out this bother.

Does anyone know how this bother could be dealt with, has anyone got any suggestions?

~Thanx~

[XtremeMaC]

does your computer wait in the boot screen a lot when u recieve a question mark?
(not that I have a solution for u, but my usb stuff, when they don't get recognized affects the bootup time )

[m8E]

Hi XtremeMaC,
From cold, the first start takes about a minute to settle on the desktop, as does the re-start.

On startup it does to-and-fro from the Windows boot screen to a blank screen, ie:

blank/boot screen/blank/boot screen/blank/boot screen/blank/very blank/welcome screen/desktop/blank/desktop

or something similar

Does that mean anything to anyone? :/

~Thanx~

[X-Ecutioner]

Just a little thing to try. I learned this in my A+ course. Uninstall the root controllers and restart the computer. Let the computer reinstall the controllers and see what that does. This may or may not work but its something to try.

[XtremeMaC]

well if u're going to uninstall them show hidden devices and delete the other root controllers that have been marked hidden..

[m8E]

Thanks for the suggestion X-Ecutioner, and your added suggestion too XtremeMaC, I would like to try your suggestions but before I do can someone please let me know what a root controller is and what their function on my computer is because they sound mortally important! :modpolice:

~Thanx~

[m8E]

I've just never heard of root controllers before, can anyone tell me about them? :/

[m8E]

BTW. I don't even know how to remove them even if I knew what they were!

[m8E]

Are the root controllers found in the Device Manager? I've found a USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller there, would that be anything to do with root controllers? I'm just guessing though. :/

~Thanx~

[XtremeMaC]

yes thats a usb 2 root controller

[m8E]

Thanks XtremeMaC, I've tried that and it doesn't fix things. I've now also tried the USB2.0 Card in another computer and it works fine so I now think the problem is with the computer and not the USB2.0 Card, not what I wanted to find out

I find that when I try to install this USB2.0 Card software that during installation it asks for the location of a particular file, which is not usual, but I direct it to it anyhow, yet when installing in a different computer I find that it works fine even without installing any software whatsoever :/

Any ideas?

~Thanx~

[XtremeMaC]

I've a good idea what u can do about it, but i'm not going to say what it is

okay okay i'll say it: fOrMaT
these tiny stuff are irritating. ok format might not be a easy solution but it'll definitely wipe it out. maybe its some hotfix problem but instead of investigating that u're better of formatting...

[m8E]

Format maybe, I tried it recently but it wouldn't let me I'm thinking of changing to firewire instead now to avoid using any USB2.0 stuff.