'power surge on root hub' message - need help

Question

Hello

I have a Dell latitude D500 (1.3 MHz PIII M
512MB RAM) Laptop running Windows XP pRO SP2 fully, virus and

spyware free. I have a USB problem.

I keep getting a message popping up saying there is a power

surge on Root Hub Root Hub. You should disconnect the device?

there a question mark on this in the picture that says"A USB

device has malfucntioned and exceeded the power limits its hub

port".

The pop up box had two buttons to press disable or reset. It

says the following: "Recomondation - To reenable to port

disconnect the hardware and press Reset. If you click close

the port will no longer function"

When I look in the Device Manager it shows no indication of a

problem. It also shows only 4 USB Root Hubs and the pop up

message says there are 6 USB Root Hubs showing the question

mark on one with the phantom surge. I don't understand this

dicrepency either.

I pressed "Reset" just to get it to stop and it still comes up.

I have no devices connected and there is no apparent reason why

it is happening. I don't understand why this message keeps

poping up. Help.

I went to the Windows Device Mansager and delete the USB entry

(Universeral Serial Bus Contrlers) then restarted Windows and

let Windows detect and re install the USB from scratch and it

did but the problem still persists.

Thanks for the help.

UDX · Answer

Wouldn't this mean that the device you are trying to attach needs more power then what the hub can handle?

Are you using an add-on card for USB 2.0? Some of these come with a power adapter as they don't want to have any power drawn through PCMCIA port. I don't think ANY card is capable of that, even expensive Adaptec PCMCIA USB 2.0 Cardbus.

Try to get a PCMCIA card with an AC adapter (COMPAQ one is really nice - found it clearance in COMPUSA for 30 bucks - pretty cheap). Other one that I have is DYNEX and comes with an adapter that draws power from existing USB port.

What is the device you are trying to attach? One of those pocket hard disks? Pro sound card?

actionj247 · Answer

I'm seeing the same exact problem......there's an issue and I haven't found any good explanation for it, yet?

rostan · Answer

I have an Inspirion 600m with the same problem. It's not the hub attachment or the attached peripheral. Device manager says units are drawing only 100ma with 500ma available yet software states a surge condition!! Sounds like a Dell S/W problem. Hey Dell, how about a review and a fix!!

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"power surge on root hub" message - need help

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