MP3 players keep failing mainboard

**tquinn** · 20th July 2005

I have a 2.8 gig computer with an MSI mainboard. I've run many USB devices and a firewire camcorder with it successfully. But when I plugged in 2 different MP3 players to the USB port, I have serious problems. Once it failed the mainboard. Last night I did it with a different device, and got the message from XP Pro SP2 that the device exceeded power limits on its hub. Now I know what that means, and figured I could overcome it with an externally powered hub, but afterwards the system was unstable and locked up later.

I uninstalled the MP3 software and driver back to a prior restore point, and the computer is stable now.

The MP3 is a Samsung, and I cannot find anything on the web indicating it has an inherent problem. I also experienced the same problem once before with a different MP3 player.

Any suggestions on what is going on here?

Terry

**mattman** · 21st July 2005

Hi Terry,

I had a problem installing drivers for a MP3. The drivers on the install CD did not work at all. After updating the USB controller drivers for the motherboard and not getting any further, I sent an email to the MP3 manufacturer. They directed me to the website of a different manufacturer and to get their drivers. It now works fine

The "bad" drivers may be overloading your USB system.

Try asking the MP3 manufacturer about drivers.

Matt

**tquinn** · 21st July 2005

Thanks for the suggestion on the driver. I think I've got it fixed now, and it was something like that.

The Samsung MP3 that I had had some conflicting installation instructions. The installation software said to definitely install the USB driver that came with it. A separate manual had a notation (small print) that the driver was only needed on Win98.

So I started over with the installation and did not install the driver that came with the MP3 device. Instead XP Pro found a correct driver for it. That seemed to solve the software problem.

The other thing I did was to move the USB from the front port on my computer to a port that came right off the mainboard. A local computer store suggested that. This eliminated the warning about overloading the hub, and it didn't lock up.

So I have my fingers crossed that these two changes have solved the problem. We shall see.

**mattman** · 22nd July 2005

Hope that works. I am a little surprised that Win XP would have allowed foreign drivers to be installed, it's usually hard enough to make it install the correct drivers

Thanks for letting us know.

Matt

**tquinn** · 23rd July 2005

The driver that came up from XP Pro was properly labeled as Samsung (the brand of the MP3 device). I'm not sure how else it would have gotten there other than coming with the O/S.

Terry