Other External products

[BILLW]

I also need to add to my post about success, that I have several Maxtor external USB hard drives.  Be very sure that you have the correct power supply for the drive you are having trouble with.  I may have switched a 3100 power supply with a 3200 power supply or even a one-touch power supply with some other type...  They may all be the same specification, but one versus another may cause this problem

[AlanM]

Thanks BILLW.

I was actually surprised that the Code 10 error in Device Manager was caused by a faulty power supply.  Live and learn. Thanks for posting your results.

[Aronfire]

How did you pry the Maxtor 3200 open?

[leibo]

Great Advice--wonderful instructuons!!  Much like another poster, I, too was Terified prying the plastic case open & then having to go into my 2 year old 'Virigin" Gateway (which i have never touched inside--never had to!)  So it was quite tense--but as you said, found the P6 plug & the multifaceted pin connector (whatever you call that)--and it's working wonderfully!  So, now th e question is --WHY did the maxtor 3200 stop functioning--power light indicated current--could it be the USB cable?  i had it for over 2 years in that plastic container--no problems--maybe ventilation?  it would be nice to know the cause--.  thanks, guy--you save d a bunch of us--perhaps you should run a geberal POST  --ya did Good!!!

Leibo

[BILL WALLACE]

PROBLEM FIXED

I have had this problem and what I have now found out is that the motherboard has a current limiting circuit for the USB ports.  Sometimes this circuit gets screwed up and it affects USB mass storage devices.  Nothing is wrong with the Mass Storage devices, whether it is the Maxtor or Thumb drives that the computer will not recognize.   I just had Dell change out my motherboard and now everything is recognized and working perfectly.  This would explain all the problems described in this thread and several others on this service.

Alan: if you want more information call me.

[Wayne B]

Having similar problems as described here, but with a twist.  My 3200 is about a year old, working properly so far.  Suddenly, Vista does not recognize it properly.  Under Computer, it appears as drive"L:", but with no further information.

Right click to properties shows a box with all zeroes - used, free, capacity.

Device manager shows, under disk drives, 'Maxtor 3200 USB Device'.  Right click to properties here shows device status as working properly.

Power light is on, using original power supply that it came with.  Upon power up, I can hear the drive spinning up, no clicking or other unusual sounds.

As final check, I plugged it into a different Vista computer, with the exact same results.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Is this drive a goner?

[BILL WALLACE]

Sorry to now report that the drive/motherboard failed 24 hours later. Drive still works perfectly on second computer, but it is a Dell desktop. This leaves me with two avenues of causes. 1 the new(refurbished) Dell motherboard failed, or the drive is doing something to the motherboard to cause it to fail... It will take a lab with the proper test equipment and diag. software to figure this problem out. My tech and the tech that replaced the motherboard from Dell said that Dell has had some problems with its USB circuits, but they should reset themselves in time. Also to try a shorter cable between the devices, better quality cable, etc.,,, I am at the end of my mental capabilities to figure this problem out, but with so many people having this problem, some one needs to get hold of a machine and disk drive and figure this problem out with test equip,.

[BILL WALLACE]

Wayne: Try your drive on another computer.  Mine has worked fine on my desktop and has had the same problem you are having on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. You may not have lost a thing.  Just copy the data to another drive to back it up and find another computer to run that Maxtor from.  Get back to me on what you have found when you try this.

[BILL WALLACE]

Sorry Wayne, I forgot to say I am runninng XP the problem laptop at SP 3, which just came out and may have some Vista code in it, and my Desktop is running unupdated XP  SP 2......

Try your disk on an XP SP 2 machine if you can find one, friend, neighbor...... someone

[Wayne B]

Bill,

Thanks for the input.  I have now tried the disk on not one, but two, XP computers, as well as the original two Vista machines.  Neither of the XP's have SP 3 installed.

Same result on all.  I guess I know the answer - I'm buying a new disk.  At least I don't have to worry about data retreival, as the disk was purely a backup drive.  As long as my primary drive continues to function, I'm OK.  I'll be getting a new drive quickly, as I get nervous when I don't have a backupfor my data.

Thanks for the help.  Hope you have better luck.