HELP, USB 2.0 Exteranl Hard Drive Hangs System.

[EGC]

My Model: VAIO FE-11H (UK, 1.66 G Core Duo)
System: WinXP SP2 Media Centre

All Drivers / Patches up to date;
latest BIOS (beta) applied last week.

Its a relatively clean system because i just got the laptop for less than 2 weeks...

Now WHENEVER i plugged into a USB 2.0 External Hard Drives, the windows start to lose response and finally hangs the entrie windows. I'll have to hold the power button for 6 seconds to shut it down... !!! I've tried 3 different external HDs and the results are the same. ( Meanwhile they worked perfectly on my desktop and PowerBook ).

I also tested a USB 2.0 Memory Pen (256Mb) and it DOES NOT have this problem...

* btw... if my problem cannot be solved here, where can I ask for more support? i'm a UK customer and i don't want to send this brand new thing back to Belgium or somewhere for a month or so... =____= (tried e-support, don't know where to find the warrenty reg number)...

[EGC]

anyone got any ideas?

cheers

[Kris1990]

have you tryied using a different USB port or maby a different connection like firewire if you pc has that.

[rich912]

Are you using a mains adaptor to power the USB drive or relying on the USB port for power?

[toldcodger]

Don't know if this will help.
I had a similar problem with an old HP laptop. It only had USB 1.1 onboard, so I bought a USB2 PCMCIA card. When I plugged the USB external drive in to the PCMCI~A card it hung the system. Turns out the ENU card readers driver was buggy or corrupted. I installed an update and it was fixed.

Perhaps one or more of the USB controllers on your system is dodgy. If all else fails try updating their drivers.

Regards

Dave

[EGC]

Thanks for the replies:

1. I do have tried different external hard drives but they are all USB 2.0, the VAIO FE11H does not come with the standard "big" firewire port.

2. Some of them uses exteranl power (AC) while the others are soley usb powered.

3. Please give me some ideas how can I update the USB controller driver? Do i use the Windows Driver (for i945 chipset) or VAIO driver, since i didnt see any updates on the website...


thank you

[EGC]

my laptop just have 3 usb ports, how come so many drivers

and wat about the HUB thingy? should i delete some of them?

cheers...

[kee-lo_]

You can use a firewire 6pin > 4pin cable for connecting to the VAIO.

Do you have 5 USB ports?

[EGC]

You can use a firewire 6pin > 4pin cable for connecting to the VAIO.

Do you have 5 USB ports?

sorry but my external HDs are usb only...

and i just have 3 USB ports...

[babysmile]

I have the similiar problem towards my fren VAIO notebooks. She is using FS-415B. She can use the hard disk but when it have to shut down the Windows, it won't... Need to press the Power Button until it shut..

I just thinking there is a bug on between Sony Vaio and Windows XP.