new cruzer jump drive turns itself off

[K515]

The other day I brought a brand new Cruzer SanDisk 4 GB jump drive from walmart, and I used it both on my laptop and my Dell Dimension 8200 computer. Both computers have Windows XP. This jump drive worked fine in both computers yesterday, and it contnues to work in my laptop, but today when I copied some jpeg photos onto it from my laptop and inserted the jump drive into the USB slot in my Dell PC, it's orange (it's a retractible USB drive) light stayed on for a couple of seconds and then the drive turned itself off. This is so frustrating. How do I get it to turn back on/stay on when I put it into the USB (the front USB slot on the PC tower) slot?

Plus, today, when I inserted this jump drive into the USB slot on my laptop, it's orange light would go dim, go back to normal, then go dim again repeatedly every couple of seconds. Is this a warning sign that in a day or so, it'll start turning itself off when inserted in my laptop, also? Is it defective? Should I exchange it for a new one?

[nuz]

Might be a power saving mode or something. Can Device Manager see the drive? Does it show in explorer?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Plus, today, when I inserted this jump drive into the USB slot on my laptop, it's orange light would go dim, go back to normal, then go dim again repeatedly every couple of seconds. Is this a warning sign that in a day or so, it'll start turning itself off when inserted in my laptop, also? Is it defective? Should I exchange it for a new one?
Reply With Quote

If my memory serves, it would be it's possibly this stick uses the light to indicate activity as in feeding info to, or receiving info from, the mem stick.

If you are using any media that has no physical control to be able to disable writing to it, and you are experiencing 'activity' signs, I would HIGHLY suspect malware.

I now use exclusively, an SD card reader. But more specifically is that I use cards for the reader with mechanical write protection levers, knobs, switches, whatever you want to call them. I put anti-

malware
virus
and also:
maintenance softwares

to rejuvenate customer computers.

Keeps me relatively safe as well... :cool:

[K515]

Thanks, all - but I've decided that I'm going to return this jump drive to walmart tomorrow and exchange it for a different one.

[rond36]

I have 2 of those drives a 2GB and a 4GB and the light is only lit when the the drive is being read from or written to. The drive also has a U3 Launch Pad program that auto-runs when the drive is inserted. The drive has some portable apps on it CruzerSync U3 edition, Sighnup Shield, Avast Antivirus, and Skype.

Do not remove the drive from your USB port when the light is lit, it can cause data corruption or file system corruption that can make the drive unreadable.

To properly remove your SanDisk Cruzer:
Right click on the U3 icon in the system tray next to the clock.

Click on the eject button in the lower right corner of the U3 dialogue box.

Wait for the light to go out before removing the drive from the USB port.

Edit: If your drive was accessible there was nothing wrong with it. If it was inaccessible you probably removed it when the light was lit :eek:

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Thanks, all - but I've decided that I'm going to return this jump drive to walmart tomorrow and exchange it for a different one.

Why do I feel this is insignificant to the problem?

[K515]

If it was inaccessible you probably removed it when the light was lit :eek:

yes, I Think that's what I did - when it was accessable (when I first used it in my Dell Dimension 8200 desktop PC) I couldn't find an "eject" icon anywhere on my taskbar nor my computer screen (I looked but in vain couldn't find "eject" icon) so I gave up and removed the jump drive without ejecting it. The USB port is on the PC tower at the bottom near the floor and the jump drive goes in only 1 way - upside (light underneath hidden from my view) down at a 45-degree angle, so I think the light was on when I pulled it out (without first ejecting it) of the USB port.

Yes I exchanged it for this one:

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd225/KellySt10/4gbjumpdrivebrandname-1.jpg

this is the brand name;

and this is what the new jump drive looks like:

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd225/KellySt10/the4gbjumpdrive-1.jpg

This new jump drive worked only 1 time in my Dell Dimension PC as I, again, couldn't find the "eject" icon, and I gave up and I pulled it out of the USB port without first ejecting it.

How can I 1) make it accessable again in my Dell Dimension PC, and 2) find the "eject" icon after I fix the jump drive to make it accessible again?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Go into 'My Computer', right click the removable drive and choose 'eject'.

[Paul Komski]

There is usually an icon in the System Tray when Removable Drives are attached to the system; double clicking the icon should bring up the full Wizard. If it's not visible then the Remove Hardware Wizard can be invoked by going to the Run box from the Start button and entering:
RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

You can also easily make your own shortcut to open the wizard by right clicking on the desktop and choosing New - Shortcut. Then enter the same line in the first location box and on the next dialog call it Safely Remove or similar. This shortcut can be handy if the Safely Remove icon disappears, doesn't show up or if you have difficulty finding it when you want it.

After opening the wizard check the box to "Display device components" (and this is remembered in the future).

Highlight the Drive you want to be able to remove safely in the future (Kingston Data Traveller2.0 USB Device in the screenshot below) and then hit the Properties Button. Choose the Polices Tab and see whether the drive is optimized for performance or for quick removal. Most pen drives are optimized for quick removal by default and if this is the case you don't need to use the Safely Remove Icon or Wizard in the future for that drive. Hard drives default to being optimized for performance.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2cgn0ih.jpg

There are those that say the using NTFS formatted pen drives can lose data on them and that this is a weakness of the NTFS file system. In fact one must optimize a drive for performance before it can be formatted as NTFS - so with NTFS formatted drives one should probably always use the software and not just yank out the drives.

[K515]

But my jump drive no longer shows up in "My Computer" and I have it plugged into the USB port. Did I ruin it? and All of my jump drives are FAT32.

[Paul Komski]

Ruined may be a bit strong. As with your first drive does it work in the Laptop? Not "does it flash its lights at you" but can you see it in Device Manager and My Computer. Also does it not work in both the front ports and the back ports of the Desktop?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

But my jump drive no longer shows up in "My Computer" and I have it plugged into the USB port. Did I ruin it? and All of my jump drives are FAT32.
Reply With Quote

Start a thread in Security Forum and post an HJT logfile. It's the only way we'll know for sure if it isn't malware wreaking havoc with your system.

[Paul Komski]

Nirsoft's USBDeview (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html) should be able to scan both your registry and device manager to tell you all the USB devices ever installed and whether currently detected as connected - and a few other bits and pieces.