At least, the USB ports are. The Linux Live Disks couldn’t find them either. I did a repair on WinXP and have reinstalled all drivers. Nada. So, coincidental as it seems, I think something I did fried the USB interface. The rest seems stable enough. I did discover that the front USB ports have parted company with whatever held them in place. I suppose it’s possible I broke a wire or something plugging and unplugging…

I’ve got a Belkin PCI on order. Let’s hope that solves the problem.

Sorry to be so late reporting. I spent yesterday morning working on the Faery cover, then OSGirl popped over yesterday and we pretty well blew the afternoon sitting beside the pond…a much needed relaxation for both Herself and me. Thanks OSG! Anyway, I didn’t get back at computer problems until late last night and by the time I did the repair on XP and reinstalled all the Service packs, I had another late night. Then, this morning, I got a brainstorm for the Faery cover and forgot all about bringing you up to date!

Thanks again to everyone. I let you know if the PCI port works.

That’s Japanese for everyone. One of the few Japenese words I know…

I cannot tell you how sorry I am to report that blowing the Westibule’s brains out didn’t work.  That image was just … so appealing. So, we’re back to trouble shooting. I’m taking the morning to do some very necessary office work (it being the 15th and all) but will be back on this this afternoon.

I also cannot express my gratitude for all the help. I’ve got lots of things to try I’d never have thought of.

More later.

I can’t thank you enough.

Lots of possibilities I’ve got to check out.  I’m only now sitting down to consider them.

I spent most of the day getting the OCR and scanner working on my laptop and doing some nice mindless scanning, since I have no brain anyway. when I put the OmniPage (OCR software) on the laptop, I thought I might be onto something, because it (the laptop) couldn’t find the scanner. Since the variables were now reduced, I thought about the possibility of 64bit capable program having problem with legacy, 98 compat software (the scanner software) S0 I uninstalled the scanner software and, bingo! there was the scanner. So I went up and found a newer software for the scanner, loaded it, and all went beautifully. Carolyn had gone horizontal for a bit and when she got up, I was able to turn a working system over to her and head back into the office with some optimism.

Thinking I was on to something, I began uninstalling the HP software, restarting and checking for USB function between each deletion.  A very time consuming process. Gave me time to get some much needed filing done. Then I nixed the OCR software. Still nothing.  Then, I thought…System files. Of course, finding out how to check system files in XP is exciting. You have to give a run command. Lessee…what was it… oh yeah:

sfc[space]/scannow

Of course, to do this, you have to have your original WinXP install disk available. Could I find mine? Of course not. Back when I set up the desktop, I filed it. I was sure I filed it. And I couldn’t find it. I looked in every file drawer we have…ten times! Well, at least three. And couldn’t find it. When Carolyn finally figured I was going nuts over something in a file folder…she found it in five minutes.

ARGH! Well, I did the sys file check. Nothing changed.

Bios. I’d never updated it. Okay. Let’s go check out the Bios. I found a PnP toggle that sure seemed to me like it should be on. It says if the software is able to do plug and play, turn it on, otherwise, let the Bios take care of PnP. I always thought Windows was PnP…so I turned it on. Rebooted…

And got a really scary screen of death that said, basically, Windows has terminated to keep your computer from blowing up. Oh, joy. If this is the first time, restart. I restarted, got up with no problem, got down the bios update, performed the update…and got the blue screen again. Double joy. Then, it wanted me to come up in safe mode…and then demanded that I activate an already activated install, which it wouldn’t do in that mode, and then just terminated…program and hardware.

The upshot is, I tried repairing Windows, booting from the CD. The first try went haywire, because I punched a wrong button. The second one…repaired a mostly gone now, old backup on a different disk.  I tell you, I’m getting seriously punchy. I got up a workable installation, and am now busily moving everything over onto the Free Agent drive the way I’d been meaning to for a month, using my Dell and the network, since the USB ports are still hosed. 

I came in to watch Bones thinking that I was just going to do a format and complete reinstall, but I really like this notion of a Linux disk that can at least tell me if the problem is in the hardware. Some other good ideas, too.

I can’t thank you all enough. I think, I’m going to watch Chef Ramsey yell at people for a while, then take my fried brain to bed and see if I can’t get some solid answers tomorrow.

Or is it 5? Do I count the hill of mutant ants I ran into when trying to clear the corner for the new shrubs?

And do we go by my calendar…which says it’s not tomorrow until you’ve been to bed? Or does the new day start at midnight.

After posting last night, I walked into the office to reinstall the AVG antivirus software so I could sleep soundly…wiggled my trackball to get the screen saver to quit. And nothing happened. I tapped the keyboard. Got my screen back. But there was no reaction to the trackball.

8:13 AM PT Yipes. CJ’s already posted. I do need help. Badly. Give me a minute to finish composing this. I’m operating on very little sleep so the typos are rampant.

So…back to problem. What it boils down to is…my USB ports have gone spontaneously dead.  I replaced my USB trackball with my older PS2 trackball, so I have functionality, but no printer, scanner or any other USB device. I have:

1) checked all the devices on another computer. They’re all functioning properly.

2) uninstalled and reinstalled the USB ports…several times. The computer seems to think the ports are functioning properly, but I can’t get anything to work.

3) I’ve checked the internet, found nothing beyond what I’ve already checked except for a registry fix which I’m disinclined to try since the discussion in question was dealing with a Win2K machine and I’m XP.

It could be a mobo problem, but I’m not really inclining that way, since right before it happened, I’d been doing a lot of installing and uninstalling and rerecognizing of scanners which are notoriously problematic creatures. I’m wondering if somehow I’ve screwed up the … shoot, what to do they call them? It’s been too long since I’ve had to mess with them…IRQs?  Please…if anyone has any notions, I’m so tired at the moment I can’t think straight. I was up until, I dunno, four or five in the AM trying to sort this out.

…has never been more appropriate!

P.S. I did remember to install the AVG software.

Oh…additional info: the devices are not even being recognized. Nothing is showing up in device manager when the USB devices are connected and I don’t get that “ding dong” sound that a device has been connected.

In my poking and prodding around device manager, I say something called the “Plug and Play software device enumerator. Anyone know what that is?