Problem installing USB ADSL SAGEM fast800

Farene,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
Here are some general USB troubleshooting steps that may help.
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General USB troubleshooting.

1.Turn off power management for the USB ports:
Right click My Computer, click Properties.
Click on the Hardware Tab, Device manager button.
Left-click the plus (+) sign next to Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Right click USB Root Hub or USB 2.0 Root Hub, click properties.
Click the Power Management tab.
Uncheck the box for: "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
Click Apply and OK.
You need to perform this step for each listing of USB Root Hub or USB 2.0 Root Hub.

2.Disable any USB devices in the system bios.
If your system supports USB Devices such as a "Bluetooth Wireless Card", try disabling the
device in the system bios. Also, if your system bios supports "USB Emulation", try disabling
that as well.
Note: USB EMULATION provides support for USB devices in dos.
If your turn this feature off, your USB devices such as a USB KEYBOARD will not work in dos.
In such a case, you will need to use a PS2 Keyboard to go back into the system bios and turn
that feature back on. Portable system keyboards will also work to get back into the system bios.

3.Try removing and re-detecting the USB ports.
--For Windows 95, 98, and Me , click the Device Manager tab of the window.
--For Windows 2000 and XP , click the Hardware tab of the window.
Once at the Hardware tab, click the Device Manager button located in the center.
Highlight the USB ROOT HUB icon in Device manager.
Right-click the USB ROOT HUB and click Remove.
A Confirm Device Removal window appears.
Click OK.
Physically remove any devices that are plugged into the USB ROOT HUB.
Close the Device Manager window.
Click Start.
Click Shut Down.
Select Shutdown.
Click OK.

4.Remove or disable other devices from the system.
Another device could be causing a problem with the system.
-Remove all external devices such as printers, scanners, cameras, ect.
-Remove all other USB devices and test that particular USB device by itself.
-Disable unused devices in the system bios.
Try disabling your: Parallel port, Serial Port, Infrared Port, Wireless Devices,
Smart CPU, Power management options, ect.
Once you have disabled these bios devices, test the system and USB device.
If the USB device works, then go back into the system bios and enable one device at a
time until you find the device that may be causing the problem.

5.Reinstall appropriate drivers or updates.
-Make sure you have all the latest operating system updates.
For Windows 2000, make sure you have the latest service pack.
For Windows XP, make sure you have at least Service Pack 1.
-If your system requires the Dell Notebook System Software (NSS), reinstall the
latest version of the software.
-Install any available Dell OS updates for your system and operating system.
-Install the latest system bios.

6.Try using a USB powered hub.
USB powered hubs are suppose to fix any power or timing issues the component may be
having with the system. Many external USB components require more power then the system
USB ports can provide.
Note: USB 2.0 standard states each USB controller must provide 500mA of power.
Also, usually each USB controller will have two USB Root Hubs.
Each root hub has to split the power the USB controller provides.
So, if you have 2 USB controllers, with 4 USB Root Hubs, each USB Root Hub provides
250mA of power.

7.Test each USB port if you have more then one, to see if the device works
on one port but not another.
Test a simply USB device, like a mouse, on each port to verify that each port is working.

8.Restore your system to a previous working date.
If using Windows98 you can use "scanreg /restore".
If using WinME or XP, you can use "System Restore".

9.Reinstall Windows if you have the time.
When reinstalling Windows perform the reinstall in the following method.
-Format the hard drive completely.
-Reinstall Windows.
-Reinstall the latest Windows updates and service packs.
-Reinstall the notebook chipset drivers.
-Reinstall the Dell Notebook System Software.
-Reinstall any additional hardware drivers or software.

Thanks. The USB powered hub was the solution. I didn't think of it (though I've read about this problem many times) because the problem didn't occure with my precedent laptop, so I just forgot about it.

I had the same problem...same solution: powered usb hub!

Thank you