Hi everyone, new(ish) here so go easy on me!

I'm having one or two problems with my desktop pc. This is an aging P200 (194MB RAM, 40GB HDD) of unknown origin built by an ex-girlfriend's dad (so telephone tech support has been discontinued lol). I've had a few intermittent issues with this over the last few months (namely random freezing up whilst in use) but this one is serious and is ultimately going to stop me using the machine if I can't get it sorted.

The other day I came to use Live Messenger with a USB webcam and for some reason the webcam wouldn't work. Unplugging and reconnecting made no difference, neither did the choice of USB port. All I got was a system tray message telling me that although XP had detected the cam, it was 'malfunctioning' and Windows did not recognise it. Clicking the message took me to a new window which showed 'USB Device (Not recognised)' and the other port as being free (at the time it was).

Obviously I immediately suspected the cam, so I tried reinstalling the drivers. No luck, so I tried an old webcam I ususally use on my laptop. Again it failed to recognise it. I then tried plugging in my Finepix digital camera, and again got the same error message. I have since tried all three devices on my old HP Omnibook laptop, which recognises them just fine.

My conclusion then is that my USB ports have for some reason spontaneously failed but that doesn't help me repair them. I need USB connectivity on this machine as I regularly use it for webcam, downloading photos, iPod uploads, and even the printer links through the USB. The ports seem to be attached to the motherboard so does this mean my MB has failed; is there any possibility that it would be a driver issue etc or something easily resolved? A couple of nights ago I got one of those Microsoft XP Genuine notifications (because the hardware on my machine had 'changed' since first activation) but I activated the software as instructed and it told me it was legitimate and I was all set, so I'm guessing that's probably not the issue. I can run the DAL hardware scan from my desktop if needed.

I really don't want to have to junk the machine as I have a huge amount of photos, mp3s etc stored on the HD which would be a pain to transfer to another, and I've heard that fitting an old HD to a new motherboard without a full format causes all sorts of problems. Plus, as you've probably guessed by the age of the equipment I'm using I don't have a huge amount of spare cash for hardware right now.

Many thanks in advance for any info at all on this,

Rich ;o)

Are there any errors listed in Device Manager?

It is quite possible that old motherboard has finally seen its day - you might want to run though Cleaning Out Malware just to be sure it is not malware related.

And you should insure the interior of the case is clean of dust and dirt as heat is a common cause of freezes.

You could try to uninstall your USB controller in Device Manager and reboot, with the hopes it will properly recognize your controller and reinstall the drivers.

If nothing else, you may be able to extend the life of that PC a bit longer by installing a PCI USB adapter.

I've heard that fitting an old HD to a new motherboard without a full format causes all sorts of problems

That's if you install that HD as the boot drive. But you should have no problem installing that old drive as a second drive in new computer and then be able to access your files fine. Running programs on the old drive may create some problems - but accessing any data file will be fine.

Thanks for all the tips

I've done a full scan of the system (using AdAware Free Edition and AVG Free Edition, but they've always worked for me before) and it hasn't picked anything up.

I've also been through Device Manager and it's not actually showing any devices at all in there - not helpful! So I haven't been able to reinstall the USB controller or do anything with it for that matter.

I'm therefore guessing it's hardware-related but the odd thing is that although there doesn't seem to be any data transfer from these ports they're still 'live' power-wise; last night I charged my old iPod Shuffle up from one of them! However the machine still won't 'talk' to anything I plug into it, and keeps giving me messages informing me that the devices haven't been installed properly etc. Numerous reboots haven't helped at all.

TBH I may take your advice and go down the PCI card route - that way I'll have front USB posts too (as most of the cards i've seen include a fascia panel adapter too), and it's something I can fit to a new tower or leave in the existing case should I decide to just replace the motherboard and HDD.

In any case, the integrated sound and video controllers on this board have always been 'dead' and the fellow who built it for me years ago just fitted PCI replacements which still work just fine - I can't remember how many slots are left but I can always pull the old 56K modem out to free one up.

As for the freezing I used to keep the tower on the floor where it attracted quite a lot of crud, but when i bought a proper corner desk with shelf I opened it up and cleaned it out (not with a vacuum lol!) I did check the processor fan then and it seemed to be working fine, but other people have also told me that freezing is almost always caused by an overheating CPU so maybe it needs a bigger fan / some other way of cooling it?

Looking further ahead, in terms of using an old HDD as an additional drive in a new build, how does this work? Presumably it just plugs into the power and data connectors like the primary drive but then what happens? Will Windows automaticall recongnise it and assign it a letter? Will the machine try to boot from it (as there is a copy of XP on the drive)? Would I need to start playing around with jumpers and fiddling with the registry (something I'm not 100% sure about)?

I may become a regular user of these forums lol!

Rich ;o)

A couple things here.

The +5V on USB ports is a different circuit from the data on the ports so it is not really surprising you can charge your devices, but not communicate with them.

TBH I may take your advice and go down the PCI card route - that way I'll have front USB posts too (as most of the cards i've seen include a fascia panel adapter too), and it's something I can fit to a new tower or leave in the existing case should I decide to just replace the motherboard and HDD.

Don't confuse add-in cards with front panel add-ins. PCI cards generally leave the ports in back. Most front panel add-ins I have seen connect to the motherboard's EXISTING USB connections and merely extend them to the front - which would not resolve your problem.

As far as your on-board video and sound never working, I wonder if they were ever initially enabled in BIOS - that MUST be done with new motherboards.

System locks up are often caused by over heating, but I would not say "almost always". Malware, corrupt drivers, failing video card, failing motherboard, failing RAM, failing or over-stressed power supply can cause system lock ups too.

Presumably it just plugs into the power and data connectors like the primary drive but then what happens? Will Windows automaticall recongnise it and assign it a letter? Will the machine try to boot from it (as there is a copy of XP on the drive)? Would I need to start playing around with jumpers and fiddling with the registry (something I'm not 100% sure about)?

Yes, you connect the data cable and spare power connector to it and mount it in a drive bay.
Yes, it will be recognized and a letter will be assigned.
No, it will not become the boot drive, if added as a secondary or "Slave" drive.
Maybe - you might have to move a jumper on your primary (Master) and a jumper on the secondary (Slave).
No, you will not have to edit the registry.

Again, thanks for the info.

I think for the time being I'm going to back up as many of my important .mp3 and .jpg files as I can onto CDs with a view to prolonging the life of this machine until I can spend some cash on a decent replacement tower (or at the very least a motherboard & HD). I know you said to beware of USB panels which are actually only an extension from the existing sockets - the one I had in mind is this PCI adapter from Maplin which seems to combine a PCI card with 3 front ports in a 3.5" bay and 2 back ports on the card (and is still about £12 cheaper than PC World want for the card alone!)

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...rce=14&doy=2m8

D'you think this would do the trick?

Rich

Yeah, that looks fine because it does not connect to the USB headers on the motherboard.

Something I did not mention earlier - many folks have prevented or resolved their USB issues by using USB devices that are powered from external power sources, instead of drawing power from the computer's power supply. It is generally not a problem with 1 or 2 devices, but if you use more, then I recommend getting a powered hub - this is often more of a problem with laptops, but something to think about. The nice thing about a hub is you can place it in a more convenient spot, like up on your desk, next to your monitor.

Well at the moment I don't ever have enough devices running at any one time to warrant a separate USB hub (and I live in a 150-year old house that doesn't have anywhere near enough power points for all the equipment I have at the moment!) So I think that Maplin card will probably serve my USB needs for the time being. 5 ports is probably about 3 more than I'll ever use simultaneously! And again, thanks for all the advice, you've been a great help

150 year old house? Wow. Then I would recommend you get an UPS with automatic voltage regulation (AVR) to protect your computer from anomalies coming down the power lines. Note that surge and spike protectors are not much more than fancy (and expensive) extension cords, and provide no regulation in the event of sags, dropouts, or extended surges. I generally recommend 900-1000VA to provide protections for your computer, 2 LCD monitors or 1 17" or smaller CRT monitor, and all your network equipment. Note I have not mentioned battery backup - that's because that is only the icing on the cake - the AVR is the important part.

Actually, a 150 year old house makes little difference - every computer should be on an UPS! That is, if there are any high wattage devices in the building such as refrigerators, microwaves, coffee pots, hair dryers, air conditioners, etc.

OK, update time.

I acquired a 4-port USB PCI card from a friend over the weekend and fitted it this evening. However when I then restarted it the machine wouldn't boot at all. So i removed the card and this time it booted fine, so i tried swapping the slots over (network card and USB card). This time again it wouldn't boot (it really doesn't like the USB adapter for some reason, though it's from a trusted source and given the other issues I've no reason to doubt it!) and furthermore, when I plugged the network card back into its original slot it wouldn't recognise that either - so I now have a very big, rapidly failing word processor that won't accept external devices or even connect to the Internet

I'm guessing this is pretty terminal and hence have spent most of the evening transferring what music I can onto CDs in readiness for purchasing a new(er!) PC or (given that I still have a lot of perfectly good components in this one) just a motherboard and HD. Fortunately i use iTunes which seems to store all the MP3s in one folder and which may make transferring it to another PC easier (in fact the readme that comes with iTunes tells you how to do exactly this). I'm guessing that the best way would be to use the old drive as a slave as you suggested earlier in the thread, copy the iTunes music folder into its new counterpart at which point I intend to junk the 40GB Seagate rather than bother formatting and reusing it, as it's getting very noisy and I don't trust it one little bit not to also fail on me in the very near future.

As a final stab in the dark someone at work suggested that I needed to reinstall the motherboard drivers, but am I right in suspecting this one is too far gone for help? besides, when I had the case open today I looked for identifying marks on the motherboard and couldn't find any, which presumably I would need to search online for drivers. The chips are marked 'VIA' and 'Atapi' but nothing on the PCB itself. Is there any other way of identifying the board?

Everest should tell you all about your computer.