weird usb issues

[Stern]

I have a Asrock dual-sata2 motherboard, and I've been using it a few months now. recently i tried to plug in an external harddrive, and it crashed and I got a blue screen saying "PAGE FAULT IN NON_AGED AREA" or somesuch, and the same again with a digital camera. My usb mouse and camera seem to work fine. I've tried uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling them to no avail. Does this sound like a hardware problem or might it be fix/patchable?

 

[dclive]

I'd be happy to look at it.

Send me the dump files from c:\windows\minidump, and run mpsreports and send me the computername.cab file. See my .sig for full details; remember to send the URL.

 

[corkyg]

Unless your external HDD has its own source of power, you are overlaoding your USB's draw on your power supply. Mice and flash memory, and keyboards are OK - but an HDD draws too much for most USB circuits unless you are using a powered hub.

 

[Stern]

I get this problem with usb sticks too. I don't think its a power issue. Will do what you said dclive, will send asap.

 

[Stern]

I don't seem to have a folder called c:\windows\minidump

 

[dclive]

OK, so this most likely isn't a software related crash (unless you're losing disk access) .... you can send me mpsreports if you like and I can look at it....

 

[dclive]

Summary:
you get a BSOD, but no minidump is written
there is no log in the event viewer (system eventlog) showing a crash, or even an unexpected shutdown

My guess - hardware. You can test this by setting the hard drive you use aside, acquiring another one, installing XP on it (don't activate it), and then (don't install anything) plug in your USB hard drive. If it still crashes, you've got bad hardware. If not, let's talk....

 

[dclive]

Here - try this first - if you boot in safe mode, does it still crash when you plug in the USB HDD?

If so, pls confirm if there's a c:\windows\minidump directory present - check again.

 

[Stern]

There is no minidump directory, it crashes the same in safe mode as in normal mode

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

I don't have a spare harddrive lying around at the moment but I was planning on buying one soon because I need more space. I will out your other idea when/if I do.

 

[dclive]

You can also install XP to another directory (boot from XP CD, point it to another directory when it asks where to install....) and that would be an easy test too, but from this angle, it looks hardware-ish....

 

[Stern]

Will do. Also maybe this is interesting maybe not but after I restarted after crashing from safe mode I plugged the harddrive in again, just to make sure it was exactly the same error message, and it didn't crash. However, the harddrive also didn't seem to load properly, it made a whirring sound and stopped, over and over. I plugged it out, waited half a minute, then plugged it back in again. It whirred to life and *sounded* like it should running normally, but the computer didn't seem to acknowledge that anything had been plugged in. I tried adding a harddrive manually per add/remove hardware and so on, nothing. I then unplugged it again, waited another half a minute, and plugged it back in. It started properly, my computer made some 'Busy' noises, and then crashed.

 

[dclive]

What happens with the camera?

 

[Stern]

same error, I don't have it here at the moment(it being my sisters). I didn't try it in safe mode but I'd assume the same again. My webcam and mouse work fine though.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Stern
same error, I don't have it here at the moment(it being my sisters). I didn't try it in safe mode but I'd assume the same again. My webcam and mouse work fine though.

OK, so if you stop the USBSTOR service, and then plug in the camera, does it still crash?

sc config usbstor start= disabled .... from a cmd prompt.

Key it in *exactly* as you see it there, spaces and all.

After doing that, plug in the camera and tell me if it still crashes.

sc config usbstor start= auto ... will put it back to normal.

 

[Stern]

I don't actually have the camera here you see as I mentioned above. My sister is only here occasionally. Something (possibly) interesting is when I switched my computer on just prior to writing this post it crashed just as I was logging in, BSOD with BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER. I hit restart, tried again and it worked fine.

Could I try that USBSTOR thing with the harddrive too?

 

[dclive]

yep

 

[Stern]

Ok I tried that. It still crashed as before. I guess it may just be the hardware. I don't want to try messing around with bios or anything yet until I have backed up my harddrive though, which could take a while. Unless you have any other suggestions?

 

[dclive]

Not really.

 

[Stern]

Oh well, thanks for all your help and suggestions.