This my problem. I have an HP desktop whenever I connect a Usb device such as my juke phone or my nextar mp3 player. The computer says that the device has malfunctioned. This is what I did: I unplugged all of my usb devices and un-installed from the device manager everything under the USB controller. Then plugged in everything one by one too see where the conflict was. I found out that it was my HP Photosmart printer 3180 causing the problem. So i went to hp and downloaded that latest drivers that they have. That worked when I plugged in everything. I tried hooking it up to a powered USB hub that doesnt work. What should I try next?
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"All my devices work until I get a new device and then everything malfunctions"
That suggests to me that the USB bus is being overloaded. The power supply of the system is not the crucial factor here -- just get any 400W power supply and it will do. The issue is that the voltage delivered over the live line of the USB bus is limited to some ridiculously low amperage figure, and you can easily overload it with more than 3 usb devices, especially printers, which can draw more power. If you tried a booster to the hub and it still failed, perhaps the USB drivers are not up to date. If you have SP2, you have the latest drivers. More likely you have a motherboard with only USB 1.1m and that is a lower power spec than USB 2.x standard. Try running only the printer on the USB see if that solves it.
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by: scrathcyboyPosted on 2008-01-29 at 19:18:26ID: 20774375
"That worked when I plugged in everything. I tried hooking it up to a powered USB hub that doesnt work. "
unclear, are you saying the hub didin't work, or plugging the printer caused the same problem. Be clear.
FIrst, you need to remove any external hubs. They rely on POWER from the USB cable and if that goes to a hub and then to a printer, you are suffering a SEVERE power drain, the watts is not enough to run a printer.
DO this -- remove ALL USB devices and all hubs from the system. Plug in only the printer to a MB USB port, and if a laptop, make sure it is plugged into the wall outlet, NOT on battery. Run ONLY the printer, no other USB devices. If the pritner works fine, the problem is NOT the printer. It is daisy chaining USB ports to hub repeaters, and there simply is not enough power on USB ports to run heavy hardware.