I recently built an old skt7 system up for my daughter and installed XP and all was well. Then she got connected to the internet via cable with a usb Modem and the printer then refused to print any image from a an internet source, (it will print perfectly as long as you download the picture or text and then disconnect fron the internet). After much head scratching I removed a network card that wasn't being used and all was well again. I've now installed a cd writer and the printer is up to it's old tricks again.
Can anyone suggest whats going on?
Regards Mike

I'm wondering if it's a power issue. How many USB devices do you have connected?

XP on a socket 7? I'm wondering if it has the system resources to do more than run XP by itself...the fastest Socket 7 CPU was 550MHz, those are not common, most motherboards were limited to 256MB RAM or less, 64MB in some cases.

The system with just XP itself running barely meets XP minimum system requirements. If it's less than a 450MHz CPU I wouldn't try running XP on it at all. (I think 400 is minimum.) Socket 7 era boards also didn't have the best USB systems around, it was brand new technology and the bugs hadn't been completely worked out yet, hardware or software.

Check the chipset of the motherboard, if it's Intel i430xx it can only cache 64MB memory, put in any more RAM than 64MB and it will always have problems. I think basically it's overloading the system in general.

Thanks for the replies, they got me thinking and maybe i should upgrade the power supply as its only a 200W unit and i've got some 250W and 300W units spare.
The system is a AMD 500K6 2, has 256mb ram and has performed perfectly up to the cable internet connection event. (I forgot to mention that when previously connected to the internet via a 56k modem and com port, there were no problems)
There is only the modem and the HP printer connected at any one time using the usb connection and this is supplied by a 4 port usb card in a pci slot. I've also been informed today that when the digital camera was pluged into the usb it also froze the system, so it's looking more like a power related issue - i think?
I'll try the higher ouput power supply first and get back with the results, but if anyone has any comments, suggestions please post them.

Many thanks

Mike

It may not be just your overall power supply, but the amount you're taxing the USB ports. These do not provide much in the electrical supply department. I think a scanner alone can pretty nearly max out the onboard USBs.

What you may need to do is look into a powered USB hub. This brings in a separate outside power source for your USB requirements.

Both the HP printer and the Modem have their own power supply thro' small transformers. I assumed that this, combined with the 4 usb ports comming off a pci expansion board, would not overload the usb connections?

Mike

Indeed, there are bus-powered (joy sticks etc.) and self-powered (those with a tranny, printers, scanners, etc.) USB devices.

My early on understanding was that there was "some" draw even if the device was self-powered. This article seems to confirm stating that there's a "minimal" draw:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/usb3.htm

Would that be enough to upset the apple cart? :confused:

On www.usb.org there appears to be a utility (Win98 and SE) that can locate devices and determine their USB power consumption...I see you're running XP. :(

I'm not quite sure what to tell you. Indications are that the bus is being overloaded. If you remove a device things work well...

Perhaps it's an incompatibility issue with devices. Only direction I can give you there would be to look at the home sites of the devices and see if the manufacturers are aware of any conflicts.

Have you looked in Device Manager to see if there are any ! or ? ...

You might want to have a look in SAFEMODE.

Just an update, I installed a higher output power supply and stil didn't cure the problem, so I assumed for whatever reason, the m/b could not cope with that kind of draw on the usb. As the printer came with a parallel lead, I thought it might be worth a try as it would take a load off the usb, and it worked! Obviously some of the old socket 7 boards have limitations when it comes to usb devices.
Anyway many thanks for the suggestions.
Mike