Win2000 SUCKS at the USB.

[Triumph]

What the hell is the deal with USB in Win2K? You can't just unplug stuff, you have to inactivate it first or something? And just today, I go to plug my scanner in, and it starts asking me to install the drivers for the scanner! I JUST used it not 3 days ago. The only thing that I can think of is that 3 days ago, I booted Windows with the scanner already plugged in. Today I just plugged it in while the computer was running. Silly me, I thought USB was capable of handling this. Can anyone tell me what is going on, and where the drivers for my scanner went? And why isn't USB "plug and play?"

 

[WarpSpeed]

USB is plug and play. It is not hot swap.

 

[owensdj]

WarpSpeed, USB does support hot-swap. Trust me.

 

[owensdj]

Triumph, I can plug in my USB scanner with the computer running and Windows 2000 doesn't ask to install any drivers.

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: owensdj
Triumph, I can plug in my USB scanner with the computer running and Windows 2000 doesn't ask to install any drivers.

Now what made my computer decide to be retarded? I mean, I know the thing works. I've scanned hundreds of times with it. It's just usually plugged in continuously, and this time it wasn't. USB should be hot swappable. This is really pissing me off.

 

[gsaldivar]

This used to happen to me under W2K if I didn't remember to hot-swap the device to the *same* USB port where it was installed to...

 

[NogginBoink]

I think that gsalvidar has the answer.

USB devices are identified both by their PnP ID and the USB port into which they're plugged. So if you plug your scanner into two different USB ports, Windows internally allocates two separate devices. Which, in a way, makes sense. Heck, you could have two physical scanners, one on each USB port.

Plugging the device into the same port each time should alleviate the problem.

 

[Nothinman]

So if you plug your scanner into two different USB ports, Windows internally allocates two separate devices. Which, in a way, makes sense. Heck, you could have two physical scanners, one on each USB port.

If only one is plugged in at a time only 1 device will be active and allocated. And since it's the same device Windows shouldn't need to reinstall the driver no matter which port you put it in.

Although Windows is really dumb at things like this, like if you move a card between PCI slots it'll want to reinstall it then too.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

So if you plug your scanner into two different USB ports, Windows internally allocates two separate devices. Which, in a way, makes sense. Heck, you could have two physical scanners, one on each USB port.

If only one is plugged in at a time only 1 device will be active and allocated. And since it's the same device Windows shouldn't need to reinstall the driver no matter which port you put it in.

Although Windows is really dumb at things like this, like if you move a card between PCI slots it'll want to reinstall it then too.

Actually, there are two allocations for the device in the registry. I learned this while developing my own custom USB device. Perhaps I'm using "allocated" too loosely here, but Windows will recognize it as two different devices when it's plugged into a different USB port.

 

[Nothinman]

Actually, there are two allocations for the device in the registry

I meant allocations in the running kernel.

Perhaps I'm using "allocated" too loosely here, but Windows will recognize it as two different devices when it's plugged into a different USB port.

I realize that, and it's really f*cking stupid.