usb device malfunction

martian_aphid · 29 May 2008 at 08:48

I have an external HDD that I use for storage of files, the other day it failed to copy and file and I had to switch it off at the wall as it had froze. When I turned it back on I got the "usb device malfunction" error and the drive disappeared from explorer and showed up as an unknown device under usb devices. I tried it on another laptop and it works fine on there but when I plug it into this particular laptop I get varying, but never good, results. Sometimes it will work for a few minutes, then just seem to restart itself a couple of times before popping up with various messages like it being a '1.1 device' or an 'unrecognised device' or commonly: 'usb device has malfunctioned', all of which result in it being unusable on that particular laptop.

Any ideas how this can be fixed, I'm guessing it's something to do with the usb drivers on the laptop but don't have enough specific knowledge to sort this one out :S

Any help is greatly appreciated.

thegoonden · 29 May 2008 at 10:06

Silly, questions.....
Tried each of the Laptop's ports?
Using it through a Hub?
Is it port powered?
Have you tried accessing it while the laptop is booted from CD?

martian_aphid · 29 May 2008 at 10:19

Yes i've tried on other ports with no luck, and the HDD is externally powered.

I will try a hub and the CD this evening though, thanks.

martian_aphid · 30 May 2008 at 13:15

Disabling the usb2 controller in the device manager allows the hard drive to run normally but at only 1.1 speeds which is more than 10 times slower. I think it is apparent that the usb2 controller is the problem so I will look into this further.

Any ideas anyone?