USB problem, or power supply problem??

[obenton]

That's a lot for a 250W power supply. You might solve the problem by plugging the USB devices into a powered USB hub, which uses external power and supplies it to the devices connected to it.

[jwmason1]

I recently added a couple of items to my computer: an ATX form card – attached to the motherboard (adds PS/2, 2 USB, and Infrared ports/connectors), a USB mouse – Razer Boomslang 2000 dpi, a sound card – Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Platinum, and a hard drive – 40gig Maxtor 5400 rpm.

Prior to installing the sound card and hard drive, everything was working fine. After installing the sound card and hard drive, I have been experiencing a problem with the USB mouse. Namely, after playing a game (any game) for about 10 minutes, Windows 98 “loses” my mouse. The mouse does not respond. In Control Panel, in the System stuff, the mouse is no longer listed.

In order to track down the problem, I first checked for any IRQ or memory conflicts. None. I then disabled the sound card, and things seemed better. I could play games, and my mouse was ok. So one thing I tried, thinking that the problem was with the sound card, is moved the sound card to another PCI slot, forcing the IRQ to change. Still had the same problem. Also, the USB port is on its own IRQ, (sharing with PCI steering, of course).

On last Friday I was playing around, and the mouse seemed ok, and I was using the sound card. I did not, however, have my parallel port zip drive plugged in. I did some trouble shooting with the zip drive connected, disconnected, etc. and it would still give me problems.

To get to the point, and reason why I believe this may be a weak power supply issue is this: if I have all of my external peripherals plugged in, the problem seems even worse. Even without playing a game, Win98 will lose my mouse. Whether the peripherals are plugged in or not, they are set up in control panel. In other words, I am NOT removing the devices from the hardware progile.

My set up is this:

PIII-450, 128 mg RAM, 250 watt power supply. ATX
Hard Drives: 8.6 gig, 40 gig, 8.6 gig
Cards: 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000, Sound Blaster Live! Platinum (with Live drive, requiring a power cable from the power supply, Adaptec SCSI controller, 3COM modem.
Input devices: USB Razer Boomslang mouse, logitech mouseman PS/2 mouse
External devices: parallel port ZIP drive, SCSI ZIP drive, SCSI Yamaha CD Burner
Other things: Kurzweil K2000 synthesizer connected to the computer via the SCSI cable. Windows sees the synthesizers internal SCSI 348 mg hard drive.

Both mice are hooked up and working (with the exception of the problem I am having with the USB mouse). I originally tested the setup without the PS/2 mouse set up and connected. Also, I have tested without anything in the SCSI chain (no synth, burner, and zip drive)

Seems as though the more stuff hooked up, the more quickly Windows loses the USB mouse.

So, is a 250 watt power supply sufficient for all of this stuff? If so, any ideas as to why windows loses the USB mouse???

John Mason
jwmason1@ix.netcom.com

[jwmason1]

Good point. Thanks for the response.

At this point, however, I'm back to pointing the finger at my Sound Blaster Live card. Last night I reduced my machine to one less hard drive, no power to the Live! drive (extra connector patch bay that sits in a drive bay), and one less fan. Still the problem exists. This was essentially the same power draw that I had before I installed the sound card. Also, I may have mentioned that the mouse did work properly before I installed the sound card.

So, if anyone is reading this who has a Sound Blaster Live card, do you have a USB mouse that works ok with this card?

[Ygor]

I have that, haven't had the problems you describe. I have the value version w/o the daughtercard.
Hope you find the cause!