Dumb user

thats not a dell thing, thats a windows/usb being crappy thing.

I've had it before where USB devices only work in the first port they were installed to, including camera, phone, mouse.....

Hmmmmm,

OK, I have come across this as well................mostly will Dells, but that was because there were quite a few ex-corporate ones going around at the time (Optiplex PIIIs) and we would do refurbs for home use.

I don't think it is a purely Windows thing as it didn't seem to happen with other makes or stuff you built from scratch.

I suspected the motherboard's BIOS, particularly as these boxes were intended for a corporate environment which would usually be Windows NT 4.0, which doesn't support USB. That made me suspect that although the ports were there, USB had never been thoroughly tested.

Yeah I haven't had it happen on all Dells. Mostly the lunchbox models like GX620, SX280s, etc.

The full towers and laptops seem okay. Also I have a Dell laptop, HP, IBM, a few Macs, and a custom built from parts that don't have this happen. Just one of those things I guess.

well, what I found fixed it was removing all the USB drivers and letting them reinstall. That sorted out the "single USB port" thing. I also found that it generally happens only when you have a regular habbit of putting multiple devices into the same port. So, if you have 8 USB devices and 4 ports its more likely to happen than if you have 5 devices and 4 ports, or better yet 5 devices and 8 ports. I did have that problem most when I had only 4 ports with a USB mouse, printer, scanner, phone, camera, disk, gadget camera and something else im forgetting.

ok stupid users........
Got a call from the head of the accountant departement saying there was a burning oil smell coming from the printer and should he evacuate the office. I went up to the office took one sniff and shut the window. There were roadworks outside the building and they were replacing the tarmac.
Had one guy wreck four printers in one evening. He needed to print some pages for an overhead projector. He didn't have the proper transparent sheets so he used the first transparent plastic sheets he found in the secetaries offices. The sheets got jammed and melted in the laser printer. If he done it once he could have been forgiven but trying 4 times before he gave up was a bit much.

I had this issue of the USB mouse only working with the USB port it was originally plugged into on my Vista install on the laptop. Usually it just takes a USB port a bit of time to recognise a different device then it works OK. Not this however. In the end I had to make several shots at getting it to install drivers by using the touchpad mouse to go to device manager and point the installer at C:\. After a few attempts it was recognised (along with a few bits of other stubborn hardware I tried this trick with). I find it amazing that when Vista searches automatically for hardware drivers it doesn't seem to think to search the C drive. Pretty stupid, but that's Vista for you.

Back to dumb users, I was one myself tonight. Deciding to take a peek at my wireless settings, I found a big green button on my linksys router which said "reset security settings". For some stupid, stupid reason I pressed it! Of course it reset everything, including the SSID name, password, channel, everything and my laptop wouldn't connect! Even the type of WPA encryption was reset. I spent a happy hour getting everything back to where it was .....

Hi Moira,

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Vista searches automatically for hardware drivers it doesn't seem to think to search the C drive. Pretty stupid, but that's Vista for you.

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No, that's Windows for you. The same problem has ocurred with NT 4.0, 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP. Sometimes drivers get loaded into System, System32 or even root :eek:

It seems that Windows only looks in the drivers folder so you have to point it to another folder if it is there. ;)

It's pretty stupid that Vista installs over 15GB bloat onto your hard drive and doesn't even build in basic support for stuff like microsoft mice and usb drives - I've had issues with all these. They should just plug and work, have we made no progress over the last 10 years?? As for not searching the whole C drive that's pretty crap too, not everyone would think to tell it to specifically search "C:\".

I had a stupid "user" today at work. About 20 mins after the shop had shut, she came into the car park in a taxi. As usual, runs up to the door breathless and gives us (my boss and I) some sob story about how she desperately needs the software for a Belkin wireless usb adapter because her partner couldn't last a day without playing online snooker. Probably so that we didn't have to listen to her drivel for another 15 mins, and also since she agreed to take a new adapter (since we don't have driver discs sitting around), my boss decided to give in to her.

While he's away getting everything sorted, I decide to ask her a few questions:

<me> Are you able to connect to the internet from another computer?
<her> Yes.
<me> Have you tried downloading the drivers from the Belkin website?
<her> Yes, I downloaded them for one of the other computers, but I couldn't get them onto my partner's one. I know all about computers, I've got a Belkin 55G adapter on one machine, two 125G adapters, and a [insert model] router. I downloaded the software and installed it on my computer, but I couldn't get it onto a disc. I've looked and it's not on my C, D, or E drives, and I know all about computers. *look of smug satisfaction*

At which point in time I decided it wasn't worth my while even trying to help her - let her buy a new adapter.

Probably not the best story ever (was never good at telling them), but for some reason it just frustrates me when you come across such stupidity. Plus, it always seems to be the idiots that decide to come just before, or after we close.

ac

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she desperately needs the software for a Belkin wireless usb adapter because her partner couldn't last a day without playing online snooker

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Hmmm, lemme guess?..............

Looked like she had fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down?

:D