Need Help! Linksys Cable Modem/Win XP Crash-- This is stumping me!

[michaelsaxon]

OK-- I built my dad a box a while back off of a KG7/Athlon combo. It has worked great for several months. Recently, he bought a Linksys cable modem and got InsightBB broadband service.

I installed the modem for him and everything seemed to work fine... internet, email, MSN messenger, etc. That night (after I was gone), he called and told me the computer had crashed (the new XP blue screen serious error business) when he had tried to go to the web. When I troubleshot his computer, I found that his hard drive had serious problems (used the maxdiag program from Maxtor). I RMA'd the hard drive, received another, reinstalled and now it is doing the same blue screens when I try to go to the web. I'm concerned about frying his hard drive again, and I've called Linksys and they have NO recorded problems with XP and this modem.

Now, I'm currently hooked up through his modem and my laptop with the RJ45 and my NIC. His desktop doesn't have a NIC (nor do I have one available right now to test with) so I'm running his modem through the USB connection.

This is the most bizarre problem I've ever seen. Do you think that the modem is bad (on the USB side)? Do you think it is some other issue? I'm at a loss and am concerned about continuing troubleshooting because of what had happened to the hard drive the last time.

Any ideas?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Does he have any other USB devices in the system? Get ahold of a nic and try that, they're cheap and easy.

 

[michaelsaxon]

Yes, all other USB devices work fine. I was already planning to grab a NIC tomorrow and try it, but still can't figure why USB wouldn't work.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Try removing all of the other USB devices and see if that helps. You could also try RMAing the router, but I dont think thats really the best solution.

 

[michaelsaxon]

It works fine with a NIC but not USB. Oh well! As long as it works!

 

[yakko]

My USB data bridge does a similar act on my XP machine.