USB drive always hangs

[Teknic]

For awhile now, I've noticed my computer hangs when copying files or interacting with files on my USB Drive. For example, if I copy a file it will show the transfer dialogue and hang; this message will persist until I physically remove the USB drive.

Initially I thought it was just the USB drive. However, I've tried two or three different USB drives, all of which have failed yet have worked just fine with another computer.

I've tried searching and couldn't find anything to my particular issue (I did find a hotfix, but it was for Nvidia chipsets in a system with 4GB+ of RAM and Windows wouldn't let me install it).

My system:
Windows 7 32 bit
3GB of RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo L9400@ 1.86 GHz.
Thinkpad x200 tablet

 

[Motorheader]

Do you get an error message? Does it matter what the file size is - say a couple of kb's worth of text docs versus a couple dozen mbs of music, pictures, or videos?

I've encountered this type of issue and it was system heat related.

 

[Teknic]

I don't think it's sytem heat related, because it will hang even when the system just starts up, but you probably know more than me.

There's no error message when the problem occurs. If I'm transferirng a file the progress bar will just stay in the same place, even if I hit cancel. It isn't until I physically remove the USB drive that my computer will run normally again. It will also happen even just exploring the contents of the USB drive -- it will display a frozen progress bar at the top and the text 'not responding.' Again, it clears when I remove the USB drive.

It's failure to copy a file over doesn't appear to be related to file size, at least not directly. Sometimes I can manage to copy a few pictures over, other times it fails on the first picture.

 

[Motorheader]

Any messages regarding the USB port or copying files in the Windows Event Viewer? These are usually denoted with a red or yellow icon and arranged in time of event.

Is this a clean install of Windows 7 or an upgrade installtion from another OS? Do you have any of the Thinkpad utilities installed and the system bios updated to the most recent version?

 

[THRiLL KiLL]

have you tried diffrent usb ports. are the ones you are using, are they attached to the motherboard or to the case?

sounds almost like the port you are plugging it into is grounding.

 

[Teknic]

Any messages regarding the USB port or copying files in the Windows Event Viewer? These are usually denoted with a red or yellow icon and arranged in time of event.

Is this a clean install of Windows 7 or an upgrade installtion from another OS? Do you have any of the Thinkpad utilities installed and the system bios updated to the most recent version?

What do you know, there is a message. There's one red error message, and two yellow times (I tried each of the 3 USB ports). I pulled out the USB the last two times though, when it was obvious it wasn't going to work. What do you need to know from the message? I don't know how to read it...

It's a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit edition. Afterwards, all Thinkpad utilities were installed and as far as I know, all relevant drivers should have been installed by the Thinkpad System Update.

have you tried diffrent usb ports. are the ones you are using, are they attached to the motherboard or to the case?

sounds almost like the port you are plugging it into is grounding.

It's a laptop, so I'm not sure whether it is attached to the motherboard or the case. Motherboard? Anyways, I tried all three USB ports and they all do the same thing.

I have an ultrabase that's not with me right now; next time I'll go pick it up and see if the USB ports on the ultrabase work when it's connected to the laptop.

Thanks for your guys' help.

 

[corkyg]

Laptop USB ports cannot reliably support external drives unless there is supplementary power via a "Y" cable or a powered hub.The Ultrabase ports should work OK, since they are powered separately. Thumb drives are AOK, but externals demand more steady power.

 

[Motorheader]

Doh - forgot to ask for clarification - is this a USB thumb type drive or hard drive?

Both error messages may be helpful.

 

[slayernine]

Well this sounds very familiar, nVidia chipset overheats causing various devices such as network port, usb ports to intermittently fail do to shoddy nVidia chipset manufacturing. There is a good reason why nVidia stepped out of the desktop/laptop chipset business. Not to say all their products are crap but I've seen countless issues related to their chipsets.

 

[corkyg]

My Lenovo T510 has the NVIDIA NVS 3100M video processor driving a 15.6-in LED display at 1600x900. It has been all over the world - Europe, Caribbean, South America, hotels, cruise ships, wi-fi, satellite, etc., and is my traveling darkroom for digital imagery. It has never hiccuped or blue screened - toally reliable, and no USB port problems. When home, I do, however, use a powered 4-port hub and that handles an external drive. And the eSATA/USB combo prt handles a eSATA external.

Laptop USB ports are very often under powered, especially when on battery. No problems with a "Y" cable - it came with the 2.5-in external.

 

[slayernine]

My Lenovo T510 has the NVIDIA NVS 3100M video processor driving a 15.6-in LED display at 1600x900. It has been all over the world - Europe, Caribbean, South America, hotels, cruise ships, wi-fi, satellite, etc., and is my traveling darkroom for digital imagery. It has never hiccuped or blue screened - toally reliable, and no USB port problems.

If you are referring to my comment the NVIDIA NVS 3100M is not a chipset, it driving the graphics for your system.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-NVS-3100M.24738.0.html

Back to the OP's problem I re-read the first post and noticed that your system does not have an nVidia chipset, you just tried installed a hotfix for nVidia chipsets. However I would still suggest that a motherboard/chipset issue may be causing your USB issues.

 

[Teknic]

My issue concerned USB thumb drives...and it may just be USB thumb drives. I tested my phone and I was able to transfer some songs and pictures over there without an issue. Just tested it on a tablet as well and I was able to transfer a few megabytes over there with no issues.

I'm not sure what to put down as the error message...hopefully this is what you were looking for:

Event ID - 11 "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1."

Event ID - 51 "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\DR1 during a paging operation."

Not sure why everything else seems to be working okay.

 

[Motorheader]

Did your x200 have a built in webcam? If it does then try disabling it in device manager then try the drive.

 

[slayernine]

Try booting up from a Ubuntu boot CD and see if it hangs on copying files to USB drives. Then you can at least verify if this is a hardware or software issue.

If it works in Ubuntu you might just be dealing with a Windows issue.

 

[Teknic]

Did your x200 have a built in webcam? If it does then try disabling it in device manager then try the drive.

Yes, it does have a camera. Tried disabling it just now, and it still didn't work even after a reboot. Just curious, what made you think it could have been the camera?

Try booting up from a Ubuntu boot CD and see if it hangs on copying files to USB drives. Then you can at least verify if this is a hardware or software issue.

If it works in Ubuntu you might just be dealing with a Windows issue.

Good idea. Alright, will proceed to make a boot CD. First I'll have to buy some CDs...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well this sounds very familiar, nVidia chipset overheats causing various devices such as network port, usb ports to intermittently fail do to shoddy nVidia chipset manufacturing. There is a good reason why nVidia stepped out of the desktop/laptop chipset business. Not to say all their products are crap but I've seen countless issues related to their chipsets.

This. NV USB are not good.

 

[Motorheader]

Because the onboard camera shares power with the USB hub/chip on the x200. If you were getting not enough power with the device enabled (even though the USB chain can supposedly have dozens of items without issue) then disabling a device in the chain would give more power to existing devices in the chain.

 

[corkyg]

This sort of problem can be easily resolved with a small, powered USB hub.