Win XP wouldn't recognize USB sound card gone

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Guest

I more or less resolved this problem, but it might still indicate some
underlying problem with my Windows XP installation, so I hope I can get some
help.

(I'm running XP SP 2, last updated about two weeks ago, on an Intel Pentium
4, 2.4GHz, 1024 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c.)

I had a Creative SoundBlaster external 24-bit USB sound card; it was the
older model with both a USB connection and a power source. After working
fine for a few months, the power source died (as I understand they're prone
to do).

When I noticed I had no sound, I thought maybe rebooting would restore
functionality. But when I rebooted, Windows wouldn't start.

It when through the boot sequence, showed me the splash screen... then the
screen became totally black. I unplugged the dead sound card from the USB
hub and tried again; same problem. I tried rebooting in Safe mode, and it
got part way or all the way through the list of drivers it was loading -- the
last one on the screen was Mub.sys, I think -- and it just stopped there,
still displaying the list of .sys files but not continuing.

Eventually, I discovered that if I went away and left it alone, then after
45-60 minutes, Windows would finally start. Once it started, it seemed to
work fine (without sound, of course).

I considered an hour to be a somewhat unacceptable reboot time. I tried
working through Microsoft telephone support with no success (Bangalore had no
idea what to do).

Eventually, it occurred to me that maybe Windows was spending that 45
minutes to an hour frantically searching for the missing sound card. Since I
need sound anyway, I bought a new external USB sound card (the newer
SoundBlaster one that is powered entirely by the USB connection). Once I
plugged it in and rebooted, Windows rebooted up quite normally.

Now, I'm pretty sure that Windows is *supposed to recognize* when a USB
device is not connected or not functioning; isn't it supposed to just display
a warning dialog, then continue with the boot-up without that device? It's
just a sound card, not critical to Windows functioning.

Does my Windows installation have a more serious underlying problem that
needs fixing? Is there some way to diagnose this problem and fix it?

Thanks,
 
Dafydd said:
I more or less resolved this problem, but it might still indicate some
underlying problem with my Windows XP installation, so I hope I can get some
help.

(I'm running XP SP 2, last updated about two weeks ago, on an Intel Pentium
4, 2.4GHz, 1024 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c.)

I had a Creative SoundBlaster external 24-bit USB sound card; it was the
older model with both a USB connection and a power source. After working
fine for a few months, the power source died (as I understand they're prone
to do).

When I noticed I had no sound, I thought maybe rebooting would restore
functionality. But when I rebooted, Windows wouldn't start.

It when through the boot sequence, showed me the splash screen... then the
screen became totally black. I unplugged the dead sound card from the USB
hub and tried again; same problem. I tried rebooting in Safe mode, and it
got part way or all the way through the list of drivers it was loading -- the
last one on the screen was Mub.sys, I think -- and it just stopped there,
still displaying the list of .sys files but not continuing.

Eventually, I discovered that if I went away and left it alone, then after
45-60 minutes, Windows would finally start. Once it started, it seemed to
work fine (without sound, of course).

I considered an hour to be a somewhat unacceptable reboot time. I tried
working through Microsoft telephone support with no success (Bangalore had no
idea what to do).

Eventually, it occurred to me that maybe Windows was spending that 45
minutes to an hour frantically searching for the missing sound card. Since I
need sound anyway, I bought a new external USB sound card (the newer
SoundBlaster one that is powered entirely by the USB connection). Once I
plugged it in and rebooted, Windows rebooted up quite normally.

Now, I'm pretty sure that Windows is *supposed to recognize* when a USB
device is not connected or not functioning; isn't it supposed to just display
a warning dialog, then continue with the boot-up without that device? It's
just a sound card, not critical to Windows functioning.

Does my Windows installation have a more serious underlying problem that
needs fixing? Is there some way to diagnose this problem and fix it?

Thanks,

Ever considered the number of devices that Windows must check
for each time it boots? And allowing 90 seconds each to time-out
in the event that the device fails or is undetected, it could very
easily take Windows up to an hour or so to go through the entire
device list. And, in this case, it is looking for a removable device.
Give Windows a chance...install an internal sound card.
 
GHalleck said:
Ever considered the number of devices that Windows must check
for each time it boots? And allowing 90 seconds each to time-out
in the event that the device fails or is undetected, it could very
easily take Windows up to an hour or so to go through the entire
device list. And, in this case, it is looking for a removable device.
Give Windows a chance...install an internal sound card.

If this were true, then XP would exhibit this behavior with
ANY unplugged (and not "safely removed") USB device.

XP does not do this with any of the USB devices I use
with it.

More likely culprit - crap Creative driver. They haven't written
good drivers since the old SB 16.
 
Thanks, V Green.

When I installed the new USB sound card, I went ahead and used the supplied
CD-ROM to install the drivers and applications and such. Was this a mistake?

Should I try to go back to the driver that Windows found when first I
plugged in the device? I don't know how to do that.
 
V said:
loading -- the


had no


Since I



If this were true, then XP would exhibit this behavior with
ANY unplugged (and not "safely removed") USB device.

XP does not do this with any of the USB devices I use
with it.

More likely culprit - crap Creative driver. They haven't written
good drivers since the old SB 16.

The problem is a little bit of both. If an USB device is not
present when the computer boots up, such as a jumpdrive or
mouse, the computer's bios would report its absence while the
services were being loaded in the minute to 90 seconds prior
to Windows logon. Failing this, plug-n-play should report that
the device is missing. But should any service start, and it will
probably do so for sound, then the search for the device will
run until it times-out.
 
Dafydd said:
Thanks, V Green.

When I installed the new USB sound card, I went ahead and used the supplied
CD-ROM to install the drivers and applications and such. Was this a mistake?

Should I try to go back to the driver that Windows found when first I
plugged in the device? I don't know how to do that.


If it's working OK, I wouldn't worry.

You can try unplugging a different USB device
and rebooting. If you experience the long delay
again, it likely is a problem with XP, if you don't it's likely
a problem with the Creative driver.
 
As I suspected, it was not completely cured: I decided to update Windows,
hoping maybe it was some problem that had been corrected in the last couple
of weeks (yeah, yeah, call me Pollyanna).

When I rebooted after downloading and installing the updates... but you're
way ahead of me. This time, after about an hour of black screen, I pushed
the reset button; on the second attempt at rebooting, it booted right up.

So it's better than it was -- but it's not really fixed yet. Prior to my
sound card dying, the elapsed time between the splash screen and the
"Welcome" screen was just a couple of seconds. Now, even when it works all
right, that time gap is about 40-50 seconds. And when it goes bad, it can be
40-50 *minutes*... or even eternity, or until I get exasperated and reboot
again.

(Will Windows Vista fix everything?)
 
Dafydd said:
As I suspected, it was not completely cured: I decided to update Windows,
hoping maybe it was some problem that had been corrected in the last couple
of weeks (yeah, yeah, call me Pollyanna).

When I rebooted after downloading and installing the updates... but you're
way ahead of me. This time, after about an hour of black screen, I pushed
the reset button; on the second attempt at rebooting, it booted right up.

So it's better than it was -- but it's not really fixed yet. Prior to my
sound card dying, the elapsed time between the splash screen and the
"Welcome" screen was just a couple of seconds. Now, even when it works all
right, that time gap is about 40-50 seconds. And when it goes bad, it can be
40-50 *minutes*... or even eternity, or until I get exasperated and reboot
again.

Do you still have the "old" USB sound device? If so, plug it
in and run any uninstall you can find for it.

Then plug in your "new" device and uninstall it too.

Reboot after each uninstall.

If things get better (no long wait) install the driver for your
"new" device.

If things are still wrong, you might want to have a look
here and try the procedure listed there to see if you have
any ghost instances of your "old" device:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;241257

(Will Windows Vista fix everything?)

Gawd, no. Early adopters of Vista are no
more than beta-testers of it - and they are PAYING for the
"privilege".
 
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