computer USB question

[Salty]

Hey all.
I would not normally post a problem or question about computers on this forum, mainly because I know enough about this stuff to fix the problem. However, this one has me stumped.
I was having problems with false starts when I upgraded to an AMD Athlon II x2 245. My Biostar board, MCP6P M2+, worked fine with the LE-1650 cpu that was originally in it.
In WinXP I cancelled the restart on error so I could see the error screen because it was flashing by too fast to see it.
Anyway, it indicated that the bios was not fully ACPI compatible. That seemed odd to me and after a lot of flashing bios and trying a lot of different things I could not figure it out.
Several places on the web indicated that this may have something to do with the memory not being seated or one of them may have errors. So, I dceided to try switching the memory cards and it worked fine with all the combinations I tried.
However, when I put it all back together with everything connected it failed again.
Then it occured to me that I was testing the memory without all the USBs connected.
So, through some more checking I have determined that with my SanDisk ImageMate 8 in 1 memory card reader pludded in it gives me the startup error. I tried it in several of the 4 slots on the back and each time it gave the error. In fact, if I take out the memory card and leave the unit plugged in it will start up fine.

I am now in the process of researching similar problems with this card reader and checking to see if there is an updated driver.
Anyone here seen such an error related to a USB device? I cannot figue out how a change in the CPU would effect this because when I put the LE-1640 back in with everything connected, it works fine.

Thanks for humoring an aging, self taught, computer tech.

Salty

[LCHIEN]

Is it repeatable with the particular memory card or a problem with the 8-in-one adapter?

unless you need the memory card in at startup, I'd just leave it out and plug it in when needed. Or, if you need it plugged in, try a different reader/memory card.

Or, if its the reader and not the memory card, get a new reader.

Either item can be replaced for under $20 and and probably under $10 if you shop. Not worth the time to troubleshoot and find new drivers or whatever with so many readily available cheap replacements.

[Salty]

Yea, there are other cheap solutions.
It just bugs me that such a weird thing could happen.
I tried a different memory card, different format, and got a stalled bootup at POST. So, there is something about that reader.
Oh well, it has served me well for a long time.

[sparkeyjames]

Just so happens that I have that very model of card reader as well (sddr-88). No problems here. I have an Athlon 5200 X2 CPU with an Elitegroup GF8200A motherboard. No problems here on post or boot. I highly doubt it is an issue with the new CPU. Could it be a bios setting the card reader has problems with? Turn off any booting from a usb device in the bios.

[Salty]

Booting to USB devices......now that I had not thought of.
I'll look at that this evening and let you know.
Thank you Sparkey.

[JoeyGee]

I doubt it's related, but one model of Dell's that I support at work had very similar problems. It happened if we had a USB cable going from the PC to monitor, with the monitor acting as a USB "hub". We would get similar BSOD's, and sometimes they just wouldn't boot.

I just took all the cables off and haven't had an issue since.

[mpc]

I have an external USB hard disk drive case... that, if plugged in when my PC powers ON, will screw up the boot. It basically keeps the BIOS from seeing the primary hard disk boot sector for some reason. This is an older motherboard and doesn't have "boot from USB" capability. It just doesn't like having this USB disk plugged in during initial startup.

I'm guessing it has something to do with shared interrupts. PCI allows multiple hardware items to share an interrupt line... the BIOS though may not quite work correctly if the hard disk controller and a USB interrupt happen together.

mpc

[Salty]

Sparkey...thanks again but it didn't help. There were some odd things setup after loading the defaults. I changed them but there was no change.
Currently I have a small thumb drive plugged in and it boots fine.
I'm not sure it is worth more tinkering...but I'm the type who will keep trying to find out what was wrong.
I plan to get another mainboard soon for the extra CPU and I'll try this reader in that system to see if the same problem occurs.
For now, I'm back in business.

Thanks for all the advise and suggestions.

Salty

[crokett]

Salty, IMO not worth more tinkering. I have a similar problem with my desktop and a HDD I use for backups. It won't boot with the HDD attached to the USB port. My solution is to only plug the drive in when I want to do a backup.

[LinuxRandal]

Since I don't really use XP, I am probably talking out my azz..........

How much memory do you currently have with XP? Is this one of those cards that acts as extra memory? (ready boot, readyboost, something like that)

I am wondering if your having more then the max memory (either the motherboard, or XP and readywhatever) issues.

Like I said, I am sure I am off my rocker, but that is nothing new.