USB device causes PC to freeze. Please help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Poppe
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Poppe

Hello

When i use a USB 3G-modem dongle and start the connection, the computer
freezes. I'm unable to open start menu or programs.

If i disconnect the connection or remove the USB dongle, everything works
fine. And the programs i tried to open before, pop-up instantly. As if they
were waiting me to close the connection or remove the USB device.

The machine has USB 2.0 compatibility, and i tried with windows xp home and
pro.

what is causing the problem?
Thanks
 
Poppe said:
Hello

When i use a USB 3G-modem dongle and start the connection, the computer
freezes. I'm unable to open start menu or programs.

If i disconnect the connection or remove the USB dongle, everything works
fine. And the programs i tried to open before, pop-up instantly. As if they
were waiting me to close the connection or remove the USB device.

The machine has USB 2.0 compatibility, and i tried with windows xp home and
pro.

what is causing the problem?
Thanks
Click to expand...

If you hold down the shift key while plugging the device in,
does it freeze then ?

This device, for example, has some flash memory in CDFS format,
which apparently autoruns when plugged in. If the contents of
that CDFS were corrupted, perhaps holding down the shift key
would prevent the software from loading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei_E220

That is just the first step.

Maybe you could name the make and model number of the device.
That makes it easier to search for a match.

Paul
 
I need to add this information:

Under "Universal serial bus controllers" in Device Manager:

I do not have "USB 2.0 Root Hub", only "USB Root Hub".
But there is two "Intel ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced host controller"

Does this mean the PC does has USB 2.0 compatibility or not?

Thanks
 
Poppe said:
I need to add this information:

Under "Universal serial bus controllers" in Device Manager:

I do not have "USB 2.0 Root Hub", only "USB Root Hub".
But there is two "Intel ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced host controller"

Does this mean the PC does has USB 2.0 compatibility or not?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Two "Enhanced" (=USB2) entries is what you'd expect for an ICH9. You can
download an ICH9 datasheet from Intel, if you want to check
what devices are inside the Southbridge. My recollection is
there are two USB2 "Enhanced" ones.

This could be a picture of an ICH9 in Device Manager. here. There
are six USB Universal Host Controller entries (USB 1.1 speed,
each controls two ports, for up to 12 USB connectors off the
Southbridge). There are two Enhanced entries (each controlling six ports,
if they're split evenly). What is shown in Device Manager
is logic blocks and not ports. To find out the number of
ports controlled by a logic block, I look that up in a data
sheet to be absolutely sure.

http://mky.goliath.pseudorational.com/imagestore/usb.jpg

A port can be "bound" to a USB 1.1 or a USB 2.0 logic block,
so the choice is either/or for the port when a device is plugged
in. I think the Root Hubs are hiding further down the display,
and the person taking the screenshot should have stretched
the window a bit taller before taking the picture.

The four items at the bottom of that display, are artifacts
from things that have been plugged in. A Composite device,
means a USB peripheral has more than one hardware thing inside.
For example, my Webcam is Composite, as well as having UVC video
and USB audio. The Composite tells the OS to look underneath for
multiple things. USB Mass Storage is some kind of storage device,
and what that picture suggests is a printer with flash memory inside
it has been connected to the Southbridge.

If you want another utility to play with, there is UVCView.
This is my standard blurb for it. You start the program, and
then watch what happens when a "good" and "working" USB is
plugged in. You should be seeing the config info being read
from the device. For your broken USB item, I don't expect you'll
get any intelligence out of the program, before things freeze.
This program was originally by Microsoft, but they've been
careful to remove it from the face of the earth. They managed
to delete the copies stored on archive.org, and now we're down
to two download sites. This seems to monitor the ports
directly on the motherboard. If you built a chain of hubs,
it likely wouldn't show things at the end of the chain.
When testing, try to plug right into the computer itself
while using this.

*******
ftp://ftp.efo.ru/pub/ftdichip/Utilities/UVCView.x86.exe
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_IDs/UVCView.x86.exe

File size is 167,232 bytes.
MD5sum is 93244d84d79314898e62d21cecc4ca5e

This is a picture of what the UVCView info looks like.

http://www.die.de/blog/content/binary/usbview.png

Some information on the parameters seen in UVCView.

http://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/usb5.htm
*******

HTH,
Paul
 
Poppe said:
Hello

When i use a USB 3G-modem dongle and start the connection, the computer
freezes. I'm unable to open start menu or programs.

If i disconnect the connection or remove the USB dongle, everything works
fine. And the programs i tried to open before, pop-up instantly. As if
they
were waiting me to close the connection or remove the USB device.

The machine has USB 2.0 compatibility, and i tried with windows xp home
and
pro.

what is causing the problem?
Thanks
Click to expand...
 
Poppe said:
Hello

When i use a USB 3G-modem dongle and start the connection, the
computer freezes. I'm unable to open start menu or programs.

If i disconnect the connection or remove the USB dongle, everything
works fine. And the programs i tried to open before, pop-up
instantly. As if they were waiting me to close the connection or
remove the USB device.

The machine has USB 2.0 compatibility, and i tried with windows xp
home and pro.

what is causing the problem?
Click to expand...

Install the latest motherboard chipset drivers.
 
Poppe said:
Hello

When i use a USB 3G-modem dongle and start the connection, the computer
freezes. I'm unable to open start menu or programs.

If i disconnect the connection or remove the USB dongle, everything works
fine. And the programs i tried to open before, pop-up instantly. As if
they
were waiting me to close the connection or remove the USB device.

The machine has USB 2.0 compatibility, and i tried with windows xp home
and
pro.

what is causing the problem?
Thanks
Click to expand...

If you don't already have it, download Process Explorer from
here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Have it running as Always on top, then insert your modem and
start the connection. Process Explorer will show what process
is hogging the CPU cycles. One item to check is hardware
interrupts. It is possible the dongle could be generating constant
hardware interrupt requests when it starts the connection process,
due to faulty drivers. Hardware interrupts have priority over all
software processes.
 
Hi

I ran the process explorer. When the freezing occurs, the CPU is 100% idle,
and i'm still unable to open windows. Even the Start-menu jams up.

Only thing that uses processor while jamming is the process explorer
software, and it used it a very little.

When i disconnect or remove the USB-dongle, everything works again.

It's like putting the PC to deep freeze when using the USB device.
 
Hi

There are two "Enhanced" entries, like you thought.
But there is no "USB 2.0 Root hub" only "USB Root hub" devices.

The USB device i'm using is under one of those "USB Root hub" when i check
the "power" page, next to "general" page.

Can i plug USB device to any port, and it will be USB 2.0 compatible?

Thanks
 
Poppe said:
Hi

There are two "Enhanced" entries, like you thought.
But there is no "USB 2.0 Root hub" only "USB Root hub" devices.

The USB device i'm using is under one of those "USB Root hub" when i check
the "power" page, next to "general" page.

Can i plug USB device to any port, and it will be USB 2.0 compatible?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, I would expect you to get USB2 by using any of the ports.
It should be available.

There are some much older motherboards, where two chips were used
for USB. That meant some ports were USB 1.1 only, while others
were USB2. But that was a long time ago.

Paul
 
Poppe said:
Hi

I ran the process explorer. When the freezing occurs, the CPU is 100%
idle,
and i'm still unable to open windows. Even the Start-menu jams up.

Only thing that uses processor while jamming is the process explorer
software, and it used it a very little.

When i disconnect or remove the USB-dongle, everything works again.

It's like putting the PC to deep freeze when using the USB device.
Click to expand...

If the CPU usage is 100% idle, the freezes must be a hardware
issue. It looks like the dongle is locking up the Southbridge USB
I/O controller when it's activated, and blocking all other USB devices.
That's why the system is not responding to your keyboard or mouse
inputs. It's not affecting the CPU operation, or previously running
apps, so it's not seizing the total system. It's most likely a driver
issue with the dongle.
 
The windows i have open at the moment freezing occurs, are usable.

If i have internet explorer open when i input the USB Device, i can use
keyboard and mouse normally with it, and open websites.

The problem is that i am not able to open any new programs. Even if i try to
open the start-menu, it is frozen. Same thing if i try to press ctrl-alt-del,
the task manager will not open - until i disconnect or remove the USB 3G
Dongle.

This is pretty weird.
 
what causesthe pc t o freeze if a memory stick is plugged in
Hello

When i use a USB 3G-modem dongle and start the connection, the computer
freezes. I am unable to open start menu or programs.

If i disconnect the connection or remove the USB dongle, everything works
fine. And the programs i tried to open before, pop-up instantly. As if they
were waiting me to close the connection or remove the USB device.

The machine has USB 2.0 compatibility, and i tried with windows xp home and
pro.

what is causing the problem?
Thanks
If you hold down the shift key while plugging the device in,
does it freeze then ?

This device, for example, has some flash memory in CDFS format,
which apparently autoruns when plugged in. If the contents of
that CDFS were corrupted, perhaps holding down the shift key
would prevent the software from loading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei_E220

That is just the first step.

Maybe you could name the make and model number of the device.
That makes it easier to search for a match.

Paul
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
what causesthe pc t o freeze if a memory stick is plugged in ?
Click to expand...

Usually some incompatibility between the stick (hardware) and
the XP OS drivers. When we used Win98 we usually had to
instal new drivers for each USB device. In theory, WinXP
offered standardized USB drivers that would recognize OK every
(new, XP-oriented) USB devices, but the this sometimes fails
to happen. How old is your memory stick?
 
HoopleHeaded Eggheader strikes again..hijacking another's thread and
changing the subject line.
 
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