RichardR
Master Poster
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2001
- Messages
- 2,274
I recently bought a new Dell Dimension 8400 desktop PC. Great machine, except I’m having problems with USB conflicts.
Here is the problem. I have an external Maxtor 80 GB hard drive and a Memorex 0.5 GB thumb drive. The PC can see either one of these devices when they are plugged into a USB port by themselves. When I plug them both in together, the thumb drive disappears – it cannot be seen by the PC (I get the message that I need to install the driver).
I have the exact same problem with my two printers. I can plug in either my HP color printer or my Brother laser printer, and they are both seen by the PC and work perfectly when plugged in alone. When I try to plug them in at the same time, the Brother is not seen – the error message is (again) that it lacks a driver (although the drivers are installed).
The Maxtor external drive and Memorex thumb drive are less than two months old, did not come with driver disks (thumb drive doesn’t need one), and worked perfectly together in my old PC. The Brother laser is less than 2 months old; the HP printer is about 3 years old. I have driver disks for both. They both worked perfectly together in my old PC. I’ve tried plugging these devices into different USB ports (the new PC has 8). No difference. The problem is not the USB ports and it is not the devices or the lack of drivers.
I have spent about 20 hours on the phone with support from both Microsoft and Dell. Finally, a level 2 technician (so she said) from Dell said the problem could not be solved, and they sent me a replacement PC. I got this yesterday, and the first thing I did was to try the two disk drives and got the exact same problem. (I can’t tell if the printer problem is the same: this PC arrived with a non-functioning CD drive so I can’t load the drivers!) I can return both PCs to Dell for a full refund, but would keep the Dell if I could get these problems solved. I could keep it and unplug one device when I need to use the other, but that defeats the purpose of having 8 USB drives. It seems a little strange to me that a name brand like Dell has this problem.
The Dell is a P4 at 3.2 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. It runs Windows XP Home Edition. I have been through all the obvious stuff with the Dell technicians.
Here is the problem. I have an external Maxtor 80 GB hard drive and a Memorex 0.5 GB thumb drive. The PC can see either one of these devices when they are plugged into a USB port by themselves. When I plug them both in together, the thumb drive disappears – it cannot be seen by the PC (I get the message that I need to install the driver).
I have the exact same problem with my two printers. I can plug in either my HP color printer or my Brother laser printer, and they are both seen by the PC and work perfectly when plugged in alone. When I try to plug them in at the same time, the Brother is not seen – the error message is (again) that it lacks a driver (although the drivers are installed).
The Maxtor external drive and Memorex thumb drive are less than two months old, did not come with driver disks (thumb drive doesn’t need one), and worked perfectly together in my old PC. The Brother laser is less than 2 months old; the HP printer is about 3 years old. I have driver disks for both. They both worked perfectly together in my old PC. I’ve tried plugging these devices into different USB ports (the new PC has 8). No difference. The problem is not the USB ports and it is not the devices or the lack of drivers.
I have spent about 20 hours on the phone with support from both Microsoft and Dell. Finally, a level 2 technician (so she said) from Dell said the problem could not be solved, and they sent me a replacement PC. I got this yesterday, and the first thing I did was to try the two disk drives and got the exact same problem. (I can’t tell if the printer problem is the same: this PC arrived with a non-functioning CD drive so I can’t load the drivers!) I can return both PCs to Dell for a full refund, but would keep the Dell if I could get these problems solved. I could keep it and unplug one device when I need to use the other, but that defeats the purpose of having 8 USB drives. It seems a little strange to me that a name brand like Dell has this problem.
The Dell is a P4 at 3.2 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. It runs Windows XP Home Edition. I have been through all the obvious stuff with the Dell technicians.
