In need of PC help

Rick in KY

Rick in KY

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2002
Messages
3,498
I have a Dell Dimension 8400 with the Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz chip and 1Ghz RAM running Windows XP Home Edition SP3. (I don't know if any of this matters, but...)

Anyway, my problem is my PC no longer recognizes flash drives plugged into USB ports. It knows there is something there, it just won't read what it is.

When I try to access it through Explorer, it hangs up Explorer then tells me I have an I/O issue.

Any ideas?
 
Seems to just be drives. My printer, which is connected via USB, works fine.
 
try using a port on the back of PC or update the drivers for your USB ports.
 
Tried other ports (front and back of PC) and tried to update the drivers (they report being up to date).
 
Also, (this might sound silly but...) try plugging that Flash Drive into another computer and see if a different PC will recognize it. I had two bad flash drives last year that needed to be reformatted and my laptop wouldnt recognize or let me format them. I plugged them into another PC, formatted them, then they worked fine on the laptop. Initially, I thought there was a problem with my laptop. It was weird...
 
I actually still have one of those Dimension 8400s and it intermittently had USB issues where it would go nuts and not recognize a device or drop to USB 1.0 speeds. Usually a reboot would fix it. Which leads me to: have you tried turning it off and back on again?

What do the USB devices look like in the device manager? Any of them have errors etc? Have you tried using a USB hub, one that is powered vs. one that is not. Also ditto the idea of trying the drives on another computer to make sure they're ok.

When was the last time you installed Windows? When you bought the PC in 1996? :) Especially for Windows XP I would recommend reinstalling the OS at least every six months if not more. It's not that critical now with Windows 7 but when I ran XP I reinstalled to OS every month or two. Many little issues would crop up that are hard if not impossible to fix but reinstalling Windows XP would often fix them.
 
Update:
-Rebooted
-Checked thumb drives on another PC, it recognized them, reformatted them
-No joy. :grumpy:

I've never reloaded the Windows OS, frankly I'm a bit worried I may screw up my current setup if I do.

Take it to the shop?

Maybe just time for a new machine?
 
Rick in KY said:
Update:
-Rebooted
-Checked thumb drives on another PC, it recognized them, reformatted them
-No joy. :grumpy:

I've never reloaded the Windows OS, frankly I'm a bit worried I may screw up my current setup if I do.

Take it to the shop?

Maybe just time for a new machine?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it will "screw up" you current setup. It'll wipe it out. But the thing is, doing it may solve the issue unless it is a hardware problem. I should think reinstalling Windows would be easier than getting a new PC. You'll have to move your data over and reinstall apps in either case.

This is why I keep absolutely no data in Windows file strucure or even on the same drive as the OS and backup, backup, backup. If you're at all unsure about tackling this yourself can you find a friend or family member that's done it before?
 
I see your problem, you are using Windows on a Dell. No such issues with my Mac. :p

Seriously though, probably worth it to re-install Windows, when I used to run Windows you needed to from time to time to debug the darn software.
 
It's times like these, that I NOW appreciate my Mac. It took me years.

Here's a top hit from Google which covers a similar issue on a Dell:

Microsoft Answers Forum

Good luck.

Coop
 
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