The saga of the USB error code BSoD and related matters
(EDIT: Connection problem solved. Somehow my network adapter's encryption settings got changed without me doing anything??? BSoD problem still potentially a problem, although I've had no recurrences yet.)
I feel kinda bad devoting my one post of the month (TM) to asking for troubleshooting help again, but here I go anyway.
My primary (desktop) computer surprised me yesterday by giving me an actual, real-life Blue Screen of Death! Oh, sure, Windows crashes in various ways all the time, but it's been years since I've actually seen a BSoD.
The relevant information was something about a USB_CODE_ERROR or something like that. My first attempt at finding a solution online told me that, if I were running XP (I am), getting Service Pack 2 would fix this known problem. Unfortunately, I already got SP2 years ago, along with SP3. While looking all this up on my netbook, I'm trying to reboot the desktop successfully. Sometimes it crashes moments after the desktop screen loads; other times it runs for a good 30 minutes or an hour before crashing. I can determine no common factor that would obviously be triggering each crash.
The next bit of online advice I find that seems reasonable is to uninstall and reinstall all of the drivers for any USB devices I use on my computer. The only one of those I have regularly hooked up is my Linksys wifi connection doodad. I can't seem to find how to uninstall its driver, but I do note that there's a more recent version, so I upgrade. And that's more or less where I stand--haven't seen any more BSoDs, but then, I haven't been on that computer today ...
... because now it can't seem to find our local network. At all. The problem started before I did the driver upgrade, so I know that's not at fault, but I'm not sure whether this issue is related to the BSoD errors or not. I do know that the problem is on that particular computer's end, as I'm having no trouble connecting to the network on my netbook right now.
So. Whew. Thoughts? On either problem? I am a duct-tape problem-solver who has run out of duct tape.
(And I'm going to try to post more often. Truly I am.)
I feel kinda bad devoting my one post of the month (TM) to asking for troubleshooting help again, but here I go anyway.
My primary (desktop) computer surprised me yesterday by giving me an actual, real-life Blue Screen of Death! Oh, sure, Windows crashes in various ways all the time, but it's been years since I've actually seen a BSoD.
The relevant information was something about a USB_CODE_ERROR or something like that. My first attempt at finding a solution online told me that, if I were running XP (I am), getting Service Pack 2 would fix this known problem. Unfortunately, I already got SP2 years ago, along with SP3. While looking all this up on my netbook, I'm trying to reboot the desktop successfully. Sometimes it crashes moments after the desktop screen loads; other times it runs for a good 30 minutes or an hour before crashing. I can determine no common factor that would obviously be triggering each crash.
The next bit of online advice I find that seems reasonable is to uninstall and reinstall all of the drivers for any USB devices I use on my computer. The only one of those I have regularly hooked up is my Linksys wifi connection doodad. I can't seem to find how to uninstall its driver, but I do note that there's a more recent version, so I upgrade. And that's more or less where I stand--haven't seen any more BSoDs, but then, I haven't been on that computer today ...
... because now it can't seem to find our local network. At all. The problem started before I did the driver upgrade, so I know that's not at fault, but I'm not sure whether this issue is related to the BSoD errors or not. I do know that the problem is on that particular computer's end, as I'm having no trouble connecting to the network on my netbook right now.
So. Whew. Thoughts? On either problem? I am a duct-tape problem-solver who has run out of duct tape.
(And I'm going to try to post more often. Truly I am.)