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On 13 Jun 2005 10:13:47 -0400, (Mike Rivers)
wrote:
I've found that to be the case with many (maybe all) USB devices. I
have a scanner, flash card reader, Jukebox 3 and portable disk drive
that I plug in as needed. The scanner (the oldest one of the devices)
seems to be happy plugged into either port, but if I plug the other
devices into the "wrong" port, sometimes Windows tries to re-install
the device. This doesn't seem to do any harm, but life shouldn't be
like that.
It's enough to make a Unix user out of me (but I'm not sure I have
that long to live).
WIN XP will automagically load and install a USB device that is
supported natively in the OS (such as flash drives, common printers,
card readers, etc). Thus, when you start playing musical USB ports
with the device, Windows happily re-loads the device for you. The
downside? Each time you re-load these native devices, Windows keeps
the previous "install" as a "Nonpresent Device". You cannot see these
Nonpresent Devices in Device Manager; you need to reboot in Safe Mode
and go to ViewShow Hidden Devices in Device Manager. You can now
laboriously uninstall each redundant instance of these Nonpresent
Devices (they appear as transluscent icons). This a Good Thing To Do,
as Windows will reach a limit (usually ten devices on any one port)
and then no longer let you add any more devices!
Most vendor-driver USB devices (such as your fancy-shmancy USB and
Firewire audio interfaces/controllers) are not supported natively in
Windows. Thus, when you plug the device into a different USB port,
Windows queries you to install the drivers all over again. Don't do
it. Just plug the device back into its original USB port. The device
will be recognized and loaded. If you continue to play musical USB
ports with your audio interface, you will eventually get chock full of
Nonpresent Devices. Windows will load the device again, but won't make
it available in software. Now you have to do the Safe ModeDevice
ManagerViewShow Hidden Devices and delete all those ghosted-out
Nonpresent Devices. After rebooting normally, you can re-install your
vendor drivers and get your ass back to work.
The bottom line: when you install a vendor USB audio interface, select
a USB port on your computer that you will always dedicate to this
interface. No more musical USB ports! On my rig, I actually labelled
my USB ports: printer, MIDI controller, audio interface, scanner,
flash drive, etc. I highly recommend this practice.
- TR
BTW: I'm new to this NG. I like it! You guys are the shizzle.
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