flash/thumb drive

**Karen** · 2004-06-20 05:11

Bought a new 256 mb thumb drive. When you remove it from the PC it causes a reboot (has happened on both the desktop and laptop) - took it back to the shop. They replaced it even though it didn't cause their PCs to reboot. I have used other, smaller capacity thumb drives with no problem. Has anybody any ideas whether this is a known problem, or what I might do to resolve it?

Cheers

**DaveA** · 2004-06-20 13:29

Are you using the "Safe to remove" icon before removing the drive unit from the PC?

What brand is the drive unit and tell us about your PC.

**Karen** · 2004-06-20 19:57

Hi Dave - thanks for your interest.

The drive is 256mb DSE thumb drive. The desktop is a Compaq 1.8GHz, 256mb RAM, 80 Gig hard drive. The laptop is a toshiba and is similarly spec'd but is running XP Pro. With both those machines you get the same result whether or not you use "safe to remove". Additionally when you put the thumb drive in you get a message about "high speed USB device connected to a low speed USB port" - not the exact wording but you get the gist. The data copies over fine but when you remove the thumb drive the computer reboots.

Interestingly it doesn't happen on my brand new Toshiba laptop (the one above is about eighteen months old).

Any help greatly appreciated.

**bigaldoc** · 2004-06-20 20:45

<hr>...you get a message about "high speed USB device connected to a low speed USB port"... <hr>

Are the two machines in question USB 1.1 and the thumb drive USB 2.0 by chance? The drives I've looked at have been USB 2.0

Edited by Bigaldoc to add: Can you provide a URL for the drive, please? When I google for it, I come up empty.

**Karen** · 2004-06-20 20:51

I think that is what the problem is - do you know of any way around it?

**bigaldoc** · 2004-06-20 21:07

I'll quickly admit I've no experience with adapting to USB 2 but you could take a look at places like this that sell PCI and PCMCIA adapter cards. Someone else may jump in with other ideas or sources for help.

**DaveA** · 2004-06-20 21:23

Did you get some software on a CD with it ? Some makers will provide USB 1 drivers and some software to run on Windows 98.

**Karen** · 2004-06-21 07:04

Thank you both for your replies - I will install the software on my machines but the main reason I got the thumb drive in the first place was to transport data to and from client sites. Often those sites have security settings which don't allow the installation of software.

I guess I will have to buy another one which is USB 1 - didn't even know there was a difference :-(

**Bob Archell** · 2004-06-21 16:09

Hi Karen,

I had a 128mb Sony MicroVault thumb/flash drive that came with software that had to be loaded in order to establish a security partition on the MicroVault unit. When I moved files from one system to another I did not have to load the software on the "other" PC. The Sony unit was USB 1.1 compliant and could be used on v1.1 and v2.0 ports.

Then I upgraded to a Lexar Media JumpDrive 2.0 Pro 512mb... a USB 2.0 unit. There was no need to load any software for this unit and it can be used on v2.0 USB ports or v1.1. When used on a 1.1 port I get a warning message but all files can be copied without a problem.

I also have an IBM 64mb USB 2.0 unit. It came with software but again only to activate a security partition. I can use it on both v1.1 and v2.0 ports. It does complain when attached to a v1.1 port but continues without any problems.

In none of the units have I experienced any reboot situations like you have experienced. You do have to "honour" the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature but I believe that is to ensure that any file copies have completed to end-of-job successfully without any hitches.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Bob

**Karen** · 2004-06-21 20:51

Thanks Bob - I think I will take it back to the shop togeather with your comments, because although it copies the files fine as soon as I remove it (whether I use "safely remove" or not the system reboots.

This only occurs on my older (read 2 years) computers. The new one is fine, as were the ones we tried it on in the shop.

**JohnGray** · 2004-06-23 05:01

Karen

The USB hard drive/pen drive has only caused me problems on removal on Windows 98, which needs a driver to be loaded, and only has USB 1.1. Removing a USB 1.1 pen drive and inserting a USB 2.0 pen drive (and/or vice versa) sometimes causes Windows 98 to collapse in a heap. Windows XP seems far more robust.

John

**Karen** · 2004-06-23 08:58

thanks for your input John but all machines are running XP. A warning to people buying a thumb drive expecting portability I guess. I knew there were issues with NT4 and 98 but didn't expect problems when it was the same OS.

**StuartR** · 2004-06-23 09:45

I have seen similar symptoms that were caused by a BIOS problem on the PC. Can you check whether the vendor has issued any BIOS updates for yours and read the descriptions - you might get lucky.

StuartR

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