Help needed w/usb port

  • Thread starter Thread starter Uncle Vinnie
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Uncle Vinnie

I am not sure if this is hardware or XP software.. so I hope it's Ok if I
start here!

My daughter has a fairly new Dell laptop running XP... (about a year old,
school issued)...

When plugging in a pandigital photo frame in any of the 4 USB ports (2
back/2 side), it sometimes identifies it as a USB device and that it can run
faster under 2.0, click for available ports, etc...

Most times, nothing happens.. it's not seen as an additional drive.... so
you cannot drag/drop.... It was seen once, photos dragged, but only once...

Plugging it into another PC verifies the frame is working....
Any ideas where to look?? She's had some trouble in past with USB printers
and currently has a USB ZEN mp3 player...

Hardware at times does identify Generic mass storage, but that's the extent
of it...

Any advice where to look??? thank you!
 
As far as what I understand, is that If you plug a device into a USB port, you should get a small box that comes up on your screen, that asks what you want to do with that drive, ex: open it, or transfer files to computer using your photo hardware, or copy files to a folder, etc. If this is not happening, then go and click Start/ and go to My Computer, click My Computer, and the file drives will be there. It should identify the device that you plugged into your USB port, if not, then there is something wrong with the USB device or the plug that you plugged into the USB port. Also, your picture frame should have come with a very small cd, this will be the driver for your picture frame, you may have to load it onto your computer. I hope this helps.
 
Uncle Vinnie said:
I am not sure if this is hardware or XP software.. so I hope it's Ok if I
start here!

My daughter has a fairly new Dell laptop running XP... (about a year old,
school issued)...

When plugging in a pandigital photo frame in any of the 4 USB ports (2
back/2 side), it sometimes identifies it as a USB device and that it can
run faster under 2.0, click for available ports, etc...

Most times, nothing happens.. it's not seen as an additional drive.... so
you cannot drag/drop.... It was seen once, photos dragged, but only
once...

Plugging it into another PC verifies the frame is working....
Any ideas where to look?? She's had some trouble in past with USB printers
and currently has a USB ZEN mp3 player...

Hardware at times does identify Generic mass storage, but that's the
extent of it...

Any advice where to look??? thank you!
Click to expand...

Would the ports where it sometime reports that it would run faster under
USB2 be the front ones perchance? The number of times that I have seen
these wired with unsuitable ribbon cable is beyond belief. Such cable does
not carry the USB2 signals reliably and in your case is just marginal.
 
Hi, thank you for responding...

I really don't know, I have not opened it - and because it's a school issued
unit, probably should not...but it's a problem with the 2 side USB ports as
well as the 2 rear ones.

I've noticed that starting up in Safe Mode, XP (Pro) sees the internal
memory of the frame (Pandigital 7.0) but not the added SD chip.. under
Normal startup, XP sees neither... however XP does see her mp3 player as
well as her camera... So the workaround has been using the camera to
drag/drop her photos to, and then put the card back into the frame...

BTW, the frame works fine when tested on 2 other PCs (XP/Vista)..and she has
had USB problems in past...
 
Uncle Vinnie said:
Hi, thank you for responding...

I really don't know, I have not opened it - and because it's a school
issued unit, probably should not...but it's a problem with the 2 side USB
ports as well as the 2 rear ones.

I've noticed that starting up in Safe Mode, XP (Pro) sees the internal
memory of the frame (Pandigital 7.0) but not the added SD chip.. under
Normal startup, XP sees neither... however XP does see her mp3 player as
well as her camera... So the workaround has been using the camera to
drag/drop her photos to, and then put the card back into the frame...

BTW, the frame works fine when tested on 2 other PCs (XP/Vista)..and she
has had USB problems in past...
Click to expand...

It therefore sounds as though something is a bit marginal (and it could be a
combination of factors). My first thought here would be the USB cable
itself used to make the connection. Is it a decently sized cable or a thin
piece of string? If the latter try a thicker cable.
 
Would the ports where it sometime reports that it would run faster under
USB2 be the front ones perchance?  The number of times that I have seen
these wired with unsuitable ribbon cable is beyond belief.  Such cable does
not carry the USB2 signals reliably and in your case is just marginal.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

If you read the original post, the PC is a laptop. Most laptops all
have most to the USB ports directly on the motherboard.
 
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