Glad to be of help Monte, its a very frustrating business - I really don't know why Dell don't fix it properly instead of letting folks struggle on. The problem has been going on for over 18 months now and it only happens with these Dell devices. I have another card reader in my printer and it works like a dream.
Well ... you will enjoy those disappearing drives for a few weeks after doing the grounding. I had that same success and they disappeared again. I must emphasis that this is my experience on a XPS 730x. I called Dell customer support and it seemed that they knew right away how to solve it. They sent a part and a technician to fix it. I think the part that they changed, in my option, is the root cause. They took out a small board that this CAB-200 Media Reader plugs in to. The packing slip identifies the board as item number TG003. This was done on Jul 28, 2009 and now over a month with solid performance without a grounding strap. I hope this helps you if it acts up again.
I just signed on to say: My Media Reader Grounding issue is now fixed on my Dell XPS/Dimension 730x running Windows 7 x64!
Thanks to Bernard for the screenshots, and thanks to others for the help.
For me, everything was fine for months... Then, one day, not only was I getting Code 10 on the USB Mass Storage Device.... but, if I didn't have that device disabled, Windows startup would take literally about 2 minutes extra, where it would just hang on a completely blank screen. I presume the OS was "trying" that device, then failing after some timeout. Disabling the device would prevent the delay, but the Media drives were not available. I wanted a FIX.
For me, I put a single wire, from the open screwhole on the Media Card reader (which involved a screw that I had handy), and put the other end of the wire to an existing screw in one of the CD-ROM slots (I had 3 vacant ones, but it looked like the screw was making contact with the case, so I went for it).
Low and behold, Windows started right up, and Device Manager is happy again.
I wonder what the best approach would be for Dell to deal with this Grounding issue? A normal user should not have to deal with it alone.
I have a XPS-410 and the Media Drive problem appeared for me as well a while back.
I think they expected the special sliding metal tray screws to properly ground the unit to the metal drive cage. The problem is that they have to be loose so the unit can side in and out (therefore a loose ground). It's only a good ground sometimes (like until it gets wiggled slightly from actually using it).
I checked the ohms on the drive cage and the rest of the case (chassis ground) and they appear to be directly connected. Therefore, I just installed a short drive screw (with the normal larger head) into the right side of the media drive (in third middle open hole) and securely attached/grounded it to the drive cage (same as chassis ground).
I think the best way for them to fix it would be to install the extra screw or even a ground strap at the factory. I think 98% of the people would never need to remove the Media Drive anyway. The other 2% wouldn't have a problem with an extra screw or strap.
I've seen the long delay on bootup also. Not related to the Media Drive, but an internal SATA LG Blu-Ray burner. For some reason, I had to remove the drive from the list of possible bootup devices in the BIOS. Once booted, it worked fine in Vista and Win7 either way. When only the original DVD burner is installed, the system boots fast either way the BIOS option is set.
harbury
2 Intern
•
213 Posts
0
August 28th, 2009 16:00
Glad to be of help Monte, its a very frustrating business - I really don't know why Dell don't fix it properly instead of letting folks struggle on. The problem has been going on for over 18 months now and it only happens with these Dell devices. I have another card reader in my printer and it works like a dream.
Bernard
BigPaulHere
7 Posts
0
August 28th, 2009 16:00
Well ... you will enjoy those disappearing drives for a few weeks after doing the grounding. I had that same success and they disappeared again. I must emphasis that this is my experience on a XPS 730x. I called Dell customer support and it seemed that they knew right away how to solve it. They sent a part and a technician to fix it. I think the part that they changed, in my option, is the root cause. They took out a small board that this CAB-200 Media Reader plugs in to. The packing slip identifies the board as item number TG003. This was done on Jul 28, 2009 and now over a month with solid performance without a grounding strap. I hope this helps you if it acts up again.
Cheers!
PUC_Snakeman
33 Posts
0
May 5th, 2010 23:00
I just signed on to say:
My Media Reader Grounding issue is now fixed on my Dell XPS/Dimension 730x running Windows 7 x64!
Thanks to Bernard for the screenshots, and thanks to others for the help.
For me, everything was fine for months... Then, one day, not only was I getting Code 10 on the USB Mass Storage Device.... but, if I didn't have that device disabled, Windows startup would take literally about 2 minutes extra, where it would just hang on a completely blank screen. I presume the OS was "trying" that device, then failing after some timeout. Disabling the device would prevent the delay, but the Media drives were not available. I wanted a FIX.
For me, I put a single wire, from the open screwhole on the Media Card reader (which involved a screw that I had handy), and put the other end of the wire to an existing screw in one of the CD-ROM slots (I had 3 vacant ones, but it looked like the screw was making contact with the case, so I went for it).
Low and behold, Windows started right up, and Device Manager is happy again.
I wonder what the best approach would be for Dell to deal with this Grounding issue?
A normal user should not have to deal with it alone.
Regards,
Jacob Klein
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.2K Posts
0
May 6th, 2010 00:00
I have a XPS-410 and the Media Drive problem appeared for me as well a while back.
I think they expected the special sliding metal tray screws to properly ground the unit to the metal drive cage. The problem is that they have to be loose so the unit can side in and out (therefore a loose ground). It's only a good ground sometimes (like until it gets wiggled slightly from actually using it).
I checked the ohms on the drive cage and the rest of the case (chassis ground) and they appear to be directly connected. Therefore, I just installed a short drive screw (with the normal larger head) into the right side of the media drive (in third middle open hole) and securely attached/grounded it to the drive cage (same as chassis ground).
I think the best way for them to fix it would be to install the extra screw or even a ground strap at the factory. I think 98% of the people would never need to remove the Media Drive anyway. The other 2% wouldn't have a problem with an extra screw or strap.
I've seen the long delay on bootup also. Not related to the Media Drive, but an internal SATA LG Blu-Ray burner. For some reason, I had to remove the drive from the list of possible bootup devices in the BIOS. Once booted, it worked fine in Vista and Win7 either way. When only the original DVD burner is installed, the system boots fast either way the BIOS option is set.