Latitude D630 - Freezes with External USB Drive but USB stick is ok

Try the other USB hub. If that still doesn't work, plug in one in the back and one on the side.

Does the seagate drive require both USB plugs to be plugged in?  Just because it came with a Y cable does not mean that it will require both of them to be plugged in.  Try plugging in just the data cable to one USB port and see if it works.

I've been busy with other problems but I'm back now.

 

I've tried connecting it to a powered USB hub and that did not make any difference. What I have observed though is this. When the external drive is connected to the laptop it recognises that there is a new device attached - I see a message in the notification area that a new drive has been detected STxxxxx (I'm using a 160Gb Seagte Portable drive btw). This disappears after a few seconds. I would expect the new drive to appear in Windows Explorer. What happens is that I am not able launch any applications, I can go to the control panel and click on Add Hardware. It comes back with an error message saying "Cannot run two device installations. You can install one device at a time. Another device installation is underway, when it is finished you can try this again."

 

 

 

Have you tried waiting for a while to see if the installation will complete?  Even if this takes a while, on subsequent uses, the computer should recognize the same hardware much faster.

I don't know about the original poster, but, I _have_ let the computer "sit and do it's thing" for up to an hour and it never comes back once it's frozen.  As far as process explorer is concerned, the computer is doing nothing, but, new programs won't open.  It's very odd!

I am having the exact same problem.  I have found that all external HDs will work the first time, but, subsequent connections to the computer cause the freeze/slow down that you've mentioned.  I have upgraded to SP3, no joy.  I have removed all USB devices from device manager and let the computer redetect, no joy.  It fails using any of the four connectors on the d630 itself and it fails if I'm docked and a usb drive is plugged into the dock.  I have also found that if you have the usb drive connected on power up that everything works just fine once you get into windows.  These same USB devices work just fine using an Ubuntu Live CD and on other computers.  So, there appears to be some interation between the windows usb stack and the dell hardware, but, I have no idea what it might be.  I would LOVE to have this working as I've gotten very used to using my USB external drives w/o having to worry about it.  Any and all thoughts are welcome.  Thanks!

 

 

I've been too busy recently to dig any further but I hope to have another stab at it later in the week. I've been using the external drive on a HP 6715s notebook without any problems as a temporary measure. :smileyhappy:

 

I was thinking of taking off XP and putting on Vista. I have my doubts about the XP build that Dell have put on. 

 

 

---

@zoomzoomvince wrote:

I was thinking of taking off XP and putting on Vista. I have my doubts about the XP build that Dell have put on. 

---

Go ahead and give it a try, it won't hurt. I never use the preinstalled OS as there's too much junk installed like driver utilities/apps, trialware, customizations, etc.

Hmm, I'll have to give that a shot this weekend.  I'm using ESET NOD32.  I'll post here once I've had a chance to check it out.  Thanks for the idea!

 /mtb

 

I have fixed my problem and it was easier than I thought.

 

I rebooted my machine and went into safe mode and I was surprised that the USB HD worked every time that I connected it.

 

I then went back into Normal mode and I uninstalled my anti-virus software (McAfee Enterprise) and rebooted. Logged in as normal and connected my USB HD - surprise surprise it worked and it still works after a few plugin and unplug sessions.

 

So I am going to try AVG instead.