disapearing drive

[kjmdigital]

Im currently running an old desktop with win98se. When I install an external harddrive, its knocks out my usb cd burner. Upon launching Nero, it performs a drive scan, and it doesnt show the cd drive
can anyone help a newbie out?.

thanks in advance....
Kevin

[oldandinthe way]

You will need to troubleshoot your USB ports.

Since this is an older system, we have to ask, Is this USB 2.0 or 1.1?

If it is USB 1.1 - stop right here, it doesn't have the bandwidth to reliably run your Hard Drive and CD burner. (I suspect that this is your problem given the vintage of SE). Buy a USB 2.0 card.

[Bjs]

Your system simply cannot supply enough amps for both devices , which is overloading the usb buss , which is not something you should continue to do , or else you run the risk of damaging the onboard apic chipset (cripple it) .

This problem will cause issues with addon agp gpu , run hotter .

Now you understand why their being knocked out .

I would seriously doubt if you will beable to locate any motherboard driver updates after this amount of time , but you could give www.driverguide.com a go . I use it a fair amount to support users with older systems to get back up and running .

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As for a usb2 pci card , forget it for usb2 speed under you current os .

It will serve as an extra hub supplying power for the other device , but again , beware of the power limitations from pci , an error here , and the whole system can go down for the count .

The first thing I would recommend you do is to get hold of a usb2 , self powered hub , which comes with its own power adapter , capable of supplying 2amps .

Belkin make an excellent unit for this purpose .

Once you have guaranteed the power needed for all usb devices , you can then reasses the problem .

If you must buy any usb2 card , then stick with nec chipest based cards for current os , and make sure the device has proper win98se drivers . Then use a belkin hub to interface between the card and the device , its cheaper , and will protect the system better by removing the current draw required away from the system all together .

Remember , you will not get full usb2 speed under your systems current os unless you upgrade to xp + sp2 , or use linux .

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Depending on your cd burners requirements , I can tell you my external dvd burner requires 2amps in order to fully function , therefore , I have 3 usb2 , self powered hubs online , all from belkin .

1: Avertv usb2 capture device requires 2amps .
2: Avlink 320gig hd requires 2amps .
3: Printer / scanner / camera , same 2amps , just supporting more than 1 device .

[ViRaL1]

Depending on your cd burners requirements , I can tell you my external dvd burner requires 2amps in order to fully function , therefore , I have 3 usb2 , self powered hubs online , all from belkin.

How much of that actually needs to come from the USB bus? I'm pretty sure most if not all external burners have their own external power.

[SCDVD]

kjmdigital, I see from your profile that you have a 450 Mhz. CPU with 256MB of RAM. I assume you have a Pentium III. You may want to consider biting the bullet and buying a new system. You can buy a very decent system for well under $400. Your system is too slow for many things that you may want to use your system for these days, especially anything to do with video work.