system failure when installing device drivers

[zfunk]

ok, i have been setting up a new computer system for my uncle. i have all the drivers installed and everything is working properly hardware wise. i have run several cpu and memory tests on it as well to make sure everything is good. now when i take the computer to his house everything works fine. however i installed a flat panel plasma monitor. the device drivers were loaded. on restart it wiped out all of the other device drivers for everything(fdd controller, hdd controller, gameports, etc..) it would then just crash on startup. kernel32.dll errors and fatal exception errors. last night i took the computer back to my house fdisked and reformatted it and then installed windows 98 and then windows ME upgrade over that. i then installed all the drivers for video card and mainboard etc.. and other software. everything was working great. tested it by playing games and using one hot cpu tester. i didn't get any errors or anything. now today i went back to his house to install it again. i had everything hooked up and working properly (printer, 4 port usb hub, usb mouse). i had everything working and going good and was ready to leave but then my uncle asked me if i could hook up another printer making 2 total. it was some type of hp photo smart or something. both of the printers hook up through usb. anyway i was installing the software for it first like you are supposed to and then it said to plug the usb connector in and turn it on which i did. it then restarted. and then what do you know...kernel32.dll errors and video card drivers aren't working properly. i looked in system.ini using msconfig and it had a long ass line of code which seemed like gibberish/chinese but i could see USB root in it quite a few times as well. i am just wondering if this is just a driver installation problem or if it is hardwar/motherboard related. everything worked great until i tried installing this two pieces of hardware/peripherials. the computer has an an17 motherboard with XP1800 processor running at 133fsb and 256MB DDR RAM. any suggestions are greatly appreciated. i have been having nothing but problems when i take it to his house. i've had it on my network and it works fine. it's just when you install some devices. he has this 4 port usb hub too with all the ports used and 4 more on the system itself. please help.

[saphalline]

That sounds like a power-related problem. It could be a few things...

1) - There is a short in the system related to the motherboard and case (ie they are touching and causing an electrical short). It could even involve the I/O shield (the metal piece surrounding all the ports). Test the system with the motherboard laying flat on a piece of cardboard to see if this is a problem.

2) - It could be dirty line power coming out of his outlets, perhaps even huge surges and swings. Solution? Get a UPS with built-in line conditioning. Look for that phrase specifically. If it doesn't say it, it doesn't do it!

3) - Last but not least, the PC's power supply could be insufficient in either power or quality (perhaps both). For all of that hardware, an AthlonXP system will need at least a 350W name-brand power supply. Well, 300W may do it, but 350-400W is a safer bet. Get something good like an Antec or a Sparkle. Those are good power supply names.

[zfunk]

There isn't a short in the system. Everything works fine until i tried installing the one hp photosmart printer. The driver install is kind of odd. You install the installation cd and it tells you not to plug the usb power connector in until it tells you to. We plugged it into his usb hub instead of a port on the back of the computer. Could this have been a problem? I think the problem with the other monitor was cpu related and the fact that the xp2000+ processor I was using was unstable at 133fsb. I put a XP1800 in and everything has been working fine. I am going to try and switch power supplies. The one that came with this case is 300w, but it's a piece of junk. Only has about 3 connections for hdd cdroms and 1 for floppy. All I know is that it messed up system.ini and maybe some other system files when I restarted after installing the driver. I was able to boot it up and the mouse worked when I had it disabled in msconfig. I already have it reformatted and repartioned ready to reinstall the OS tonight. I am going to make backup files of all the system files so if it screws system.ini up again I can just rename it with the backup. Hopefully everything will work fine.

[Budfred]

Replacing the power supply makes a lot of sense. It sounds like that system is really loaded up and a cheap 300 watt probably won't support that.

Budfred

[zfunk]

i just installed another power supply that is a lot more quiet and has more plugs so it's gotta be better. i think it's 350w or 300w. at least it has an amd athlon xp approved stamp on it. i also added a chip fan and another case fan. hopefully when i take it down to him tomorrow i wont have the same problems again.

[Budfred]

Do you have any idea what brand that power supply is? AMD approved for power supplies doesn't seem to mean much. The one that I had that died almost immediately was, I think, AMD approved. Also, with all the stuff you report being attached to that computer, if the power supply is only 300watt, you may have a problem.

Also, when you say you installed the chip fan, you don't mean the CPU do you. If you didn't have one before, that is probably the reason the system went wacko.

Budfred

[Whyzman]

Is this a powered USB hub, or are is it just "hubbing" the motherboard USB power?

[zfunk]

the chip fan i installed wasnt for the cpu, but ti was for the via chip. my other computer had a fan installed on it's chip, so i just installed one on this one. everything seems to be working fine now. i think the power supply that came with the case was also amd approved but it is a piece of junk. the other one is a skyhawk that came with my other case and it seems to be better considering that it is just made out of better materials, is slightly heavier, and has more connectors to power peripherals. i am not sure about the usb hub, but i am pretty sure that it is powered separately. i ran the same hot cpu test on it. before it was crashing within a few minutes and saying that memory failed. now it ran right through the whole 12hour test. i'm just hoping that when i take it down to him today that everything runs just as good as it has been after we install some of his hardware. i don't know if it crashed last time just because it was a bad driver install or what, but it said to plug the usb conenction from the printer into the back of the computer when it said to. we just plugged it into the hub and then it forced a restart and said it had to update files. then everything was messed up in system.ini.

[Whyzman]

The onboard USB has limits on power consumption by peripherals...some things such as a scanners and printers are power vampires...

Overloading the USB can cause one's system to get flaky...:(

Hopefully the hubs are powered...as it seems like there are a lot of devices....

[zfunk]

well i went and installed it yesterday afternoon and had no problems. the usb hub does have it's own power. he got a new hp printer that was similar to one of his other ones. it's an all in one scanner, copier, printer. works really well. we just hooked that one up because it can do everything his hp photosmart can, but the quality is a little better. i think he is crazy. he has like 3 top quality printers.

i am also going to assume that it was the power supply now. i have it in my other machine at home and that is having some problems now. it doesn't recognize usb ports at all when you plug something into them like a digital camera. it also is seeing my floppy drive as a 5 1/4 even when i change it in the bios to 3.5. i am going to get a new power supply and a couple of fans and it should be good again.