pen drive & pcmcia problem

On my Toshiba notebook using Windows XP Professional SP2, I went and defrag the hard drive. The next time I booted the computer and plugged in a USB 2.0 pen drive the drive opened showing the folders on the drive. Then I got this error message. Power Surge Mass Storge Device has malfunctioned and exceeded the power limits of its hub port. You should disconnect the device. Recommendation: To reenable the port, disconnect the hardware and click Reset. If you click Closed the port will no longer function. The notebook has 3 USB 1 ports and a pcmcia USB 2 card with 2 ports. All of the other USB ports were not used. I never had this problem before. If I plug the pen drive into one of the USB 1 ports the drive will work. The drive will also work in the pcmcia card if I use the power supply that came with the card. If I have the drive in the USB 2 card without having it powered and start the computer it will not boot. What do you think changed that I need to use the power supply to use the pen drive in the pcmcia card when I did not have to before? The pen drive works fine in my desktop off of a pci USB 2 card.

 

Hi Russ,

I don't know what changed, perhaps the PSU is protecting itself, just a quess, don't know enough about hardware.

I've seen other posts like yours, and as far as I can tell, Laptop PSU's seem to have a problem with non-powered USB devices.

Its also my understanding that the larger the drive capacity, the more power required.

Regards - Charles

 

I could only think that the Power Supply system might be slowly failing, but Charles' reply made me wonder if it might be starting to overload the usb ports. I would not use that drive on those ports.

 

Thanks for the information. I know when I always plugged in a USB external 2.5 hard drive I had to power the card. Just wondering if something has gone wrong with the card.