mouse, keybaord and USB wifi reciever freeze

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian McCabe
  • Start date Start date
B

Brian McCabe

Hello -

I am beginning to suspect that my motherboard is messed up. I
recently reformatted my computer, and lately the mouse, keyboard and
USB wifi reciever device (Linksys WUSB54G) freeze and I have no choice
but to hard reboot my machine. It never did this prior to the reformat.
The USB port that the wifi reciever is plugged into is built into the
motherboard. I have no means of testing to see if other devices plugged
into the motherboard also freeze. The monitor continues to display a
picture, but it's hooked into an AGP video card (which of course is on
the motherboard).

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has encountered this before. I am
running WinXPSP2. If buying a new motherboard is the only resolution to
the problem, so be it. I just need to know.

Thanks-

Brian McCabe
 
"Brian said:
Hello -

I am beginning to suspect that my motherboard is messed up. I
recently reformatted my computer, and lately the mouse, keyboard and
USB wifi reciever device (Linksys WUSB54G) freeze and I have no choice
but to hard reboot my machine. It never did this prior to the reformat.
The USB port that the wifi reciever is plugged into is built into the
motherboard. I have no means of testing to see if other devices plugged
into the motherboard also freeze. The monitor continues to display a
picture, but it's hooked into an AGP video card (which of course is on
the motherboard).

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has encountered this before. I am
running WinXPSP2. If buying a new motherboard is the only resolution to
the problem, so be it. I just need to know.

Thanks-

Brian McCabe
Click to expand...

What is the motherboard brand and model number ?

Paul
 
What is the motherboard brand and model number ?
Click to expand...

I apologize for not providing this initially.

It is a BioStar U8668 Grand. I have found that several components of
the board have recent driver releases, but this has never been a
problem in the past up until the last 5 days or so.

thanks -

Brian Mc
 
"Brian said:
Hello -

I am beginning to suspect that my motherboard is messed up. I
recently reformatted my computer, and lately the mouse, keyboard and
USB wifi reciever device (Linksys WUSB54G) freeze and I have no choice
but to hard reboot my machine. It never did this prior to the reformat.
The USB port that the wifi reciever is plugged into is built into the
motherboard. I have no means of testing to see if other devices plugged
into the motherboard also freeze. The monitor continues to display a
picture, but it's hooked into an AGP video card (which of course is on
the motherboard).

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has encountered this before. I am
running WinXPSP2. If buying a new motherboard is the only resolution to
the problem, so be it. I just need to know.

I apologize for not providing this initially.

It is a BioStar U8668 Grand. I have found that several components of
the board have recent driver releases, but this has never been a
problem in the past up until the last 5 days or so.

thanks -

Brian Mc
Click to expand...

I think this is the product here - maybe you can verify:

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/board.php3?name=U8668 Grand
http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_478/u8668-g/m_u8668-g.exe

S478 P4M266A/VT8235 VT6103 LAN

The reason I asked about the motherboard, is there were a raft of
frozen PCs a while back, when a certain Marvell LAN driver was
released via Windows Update. You don't have a Marvell chip on there,
so the easy fix is ruled out.

The board has two USB2.0 on the rear USB stack, and four USB2.0
available via two 2x5 header connectors. With your keyboard and
mouse, they are probably on the rear connectors. That leaves
the WUSB54G on a header interface.

My first question would be, what leads you to the conclusion it
is a USB port/USB device causing the problem, and not an
overheated CPU, bad power supply, or a memory stick that has
gone bad ? There are all sorts of coincidences in life, and
you cannot discount a hardware failure as the root of the
problem.

Since you are running WinXP SP2, I doubt there is a good
reason to go investigating stale drivers from the pre
SP1 era. Now, were you running WinXP SP2 when the system
was stable, or is SP2 a new addition to the computer as
well ?

Paul
 
I think this is the product here - maybe you can verify:

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/board.php3?name=U8668 Grand
Click to expand...

This is indeed the board.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_478/u8668-g/m_u8668-g.exe
Click to expand...

should I run this exe??
S478 P4M266A/VT8235 VT6103 LAN

The reason I asked about the motherboard, is there were a raft of
frozen PCs a while back, when a certain Marvell LAN driver was
released via Windows Update. You don't have a Marvell chip on there,
so the easy fix is ruled out.

The board has two USB2.0 on the rear USB stack, and four USB2.0
available via two 2x5 header connectors. With your keyboard and
mouse, they are probably on the rear connectors. That leaves
the WUSB54G on a header interface.
Click to expand...

I must admit, I am not terribly familiar with motherboard lingo. But I
can tell you that both the keyboard and mouse are in the PS/2 plugs in
the rear of the tower. The two USB ports are located directly adjacent
to the jacks for the keyboard and mouse. They are the only two ports on
the motherboard. I hope this info helps.
My first question would be, what leads you to the conclusion it
is a USB port/USB device causing the problem, and not an
overheated CPU, bad power supply, or a memory stick that has
gone bad ?
Click to expand...

I haven't reached that conclusion per se. it very well could be one of
the above scenarios.
There are all sorts of coincidences in life, and
you cannot discount a hardware failure as the root of the
problem.

Since you are running WinXP SP2, I doubt there is a good
reason to go investigating stale drivers from the pre
SP1 era. Now, were you running WinXP SP2 when the system
was stable, or is SP2 a new addition to the computer as
well ?
Click to expand...

I have been running SP2 since its release, with no prior problems.

I should mention that prior to reformatting, I only installed the USB
wifi reciever a few weeks prior to reformatting. It seemed to behave
much, much better being installed AFTER SP2 (as it was prior to
reformatting) than it has been PRIOR to the SP2 (I had to install it
before SP2 this time in order to have an Internet connection with which
to download SP2). Again, I don't know if this information is of
relevance or not.

Thanks for your assistance -

Brian mc
 
Correction:

"they are the only two ports on the motherboard"

should read

"they are the only two _USB_ ports on the motherboard"

sorry -

Brian mc
 
"Brian said:
This is indeed the board.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_478/u8668-g/m_u8668-g.exe

should I run this exe??


I must admit, I am not terribly familiar with motherboard lingo. But I
can tell you that both the keyboard and mouse are in the PS/2 plugs in
the rear of the tower. The two USB ports are located directly adjacent
to the jacks for the keyboard and mouse. They are the only two ports on
the motherboard. I hope this info helps.


I haven't reached that conclusion per se. it very well could be one of
the above scenarios.


I have been running SP2 since its release, with no prior problems.

I should mention that prior to reformatting, I only installed the USB
wifi reciever a few weeks prior to reformatting. It seemed to behave
much, much better being installed AFTER SP2 (as it was prior to
reformatting) than it has been PRIOR to the SP2 (I had to install it
before SP2 this time in order to have an Internet connection with which
to download SP2). Again, I don't know if this information is of
relevance or not.

Thanks for your assistance -

Brian mc
Click to expand...

The m_u8668-g.exe file mentioned above, is the motherboard manual :-)
It mentions you have four more USB ports, but they are located
on two 2x5 pin header arrays. You need adapter hardware to get
at those ports. In any case, the rear USB ports will have the
best electrical performance and you should continue to try to
use them.

So, your keyboard and mouse are PS/2 and not part of the problem.
That leaves just the WUSB54G.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=362481

http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/prod-4.htm (RT2500USB ?)
http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/prod-2501u.htm (RT2501USB ?)

So, according to this page, the latest drivers were released
2005/07/22.

http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/supp-1.htm

If we go to Linksys (assuming we really don't know what chipset
is being used) - there could be different models featuring the
same model number:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...ite=US&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper

Clicking the driver button on Linksys, we are offered a "2.0.2.0"
driver, while ralinktech lists a "2.0.3.0" driver. Whether they
are the same driver family, is something you can investigate
later.

http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/drivers/Windows/IS_STA_2500USB_D-2.0.3.0_U-2.3.10.0_072105_1.0.3.0.exe
(The Linksys driver link offers WUSB54Gv4_20050503.exe , an 8MB file)

Looking in the Linksys package, only the version 4 design of the
WUSB54G uses RA2500 family chipset. I cannot tell what is used
in the V1 and V2 versions of WUSB54G.

I'd try installing the Linksys package, then see what driver is
installed for the hardware. If it looks like a V4 WUSB54G,
you could experiment with the Ralinktech version of driver instead.

When you look in Device Manager, is there a USB "enhanced" entry
down near the bottom. That tells you that Windows has a USB2
driver installed for the chipset. I doubt that would be your
problem, but it is something I'd check in passing.

In the user manual for the WUSB54G, it says:

"NOTE: You must run the Setup Wizard before connecting
the Adapter to your computer."

Perhaps that install order is needed, to get the right driver
installed for the thing.

So, I'd try the Linksys download first, and see if things are
any better.

You could use memtest86+ or Prime95, for testing of the memory
and the computing core respectively. Just in case the problem
is elsewhere.

Paul
 
In messing around further with the issue, I have found that I
incorrectly isolated the frozen items to the keyboard, mouse and USB
wifi reciever. Everything, in fact, freezes.

That said, I ran the program you mentioned called memtest86+, and more
than three dozen errors occurred. I am going to re-run the test on one
memory stick at a time and see where that leads me.
 
Ummmmm are you Theeeeee Brian McCabe?
of The Toronto Maple Leafs?

The Guy who is representing Canada at the Olympics as I type?

If so I am a big fan, so just pack up your computer and send it to me I'll
make it new for ya.

If you are not that guy I'll just monitor your posts to see if I can help.
 
Hi Brian

This certainly sounds like a driver issue. Have you run Windows update since
you installed SP2?

Quite often (depending on your hardware and software installations) you will
need to run Windows Update multiple times in order to get all updates. this
is because updates are installed on your system in the released order, then
these updates in turn need to be updated. This can perpetuate 3 or 4 times.
How ever none of this affects your drivers because they are not installed
automatically. Once Update runs you can look in the frame on the left to see
if there are any driver updates ( and I seem to remember a couple of USB
updates) then you can add them to you installation.

The drivers that came with your system on a CD, (if you got any) probably
labled Mother board utilities, are a mininum for reliable performance.
Biostars web site will have the latest drivers; they may be packaged into
one update file for all MB features.

I hope this helps.

Don
 
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