Q. I run Windows XP Home, and about a month ago the machine stopped recognizing all USB connections. I was able to do a workaround for my printer (using old-fashioned cables) but cannot get the machine to recognize either MP3 player or digital camera. I tried to follow diagnostics and got up to Driver Devices and then got lost.
Steve Heller@verizon.net
A. A common fix that gets suggested when computers stop seeing a peripheral is to remove the driver software that runs the device in question, thereby forcing Windows to repeat the original installation steps and thus restore things as they had been.
That’s what the “help” screens in Windows try to explain.
It seems that the highly touted “Plug and Play” feature in Windows has this nasty habit of failing to recognize peripherals once a problem starts. This is why buyers of new equipment like printers, MP3 music players, scanners and such get those bold-type warnings to make certain they install the included software before plugging the device into their PC for the first time.
Plug and Play gives you just one shot to get things right and then fails to see new peripherals from then on because it is seeing the earlier drivers instead. You then need to remove everything to force the computer to start the process over from scratch.
So click on My Computer and pick Properties to find the tab for Device Manager. Now scroll down to the Universal Serial Bus item and click the little plus sign on the right. This brings up a list of all the USB drivers that have been loaded onto the computer. If you see one for your equipment, click on it and then select the Remove button at the bottom. If all you see is a heading “USB Hub,” remove that.
Now reload the software that came with your MP3 player to install the drivers. Afterward, plug it in, and the computer will see it and walk you through the installation. Repeat for the digital camera.
Since you have Windows XP, you also might try using the System Restore feature to return the machine to an earlier state when the printer was working. This assumes that the System Restore feature has been activated on your machine, which it probably has been.
Click on Start and Accessories and then System Tools to find the System Restore command. Give it a click and you’ll get a calendar showing “restore” dates in the past. If so, pick one back before the trouble started, and see if that fixes things.
Q. All of my computer-savvy friends and relatives are stumped by this one. For some reason, when I try to boot up my computer, a message pops up that says my keyboard is locked. This just happened out of the blue.
Switching keyboards doesn’t help, and since the keyboard isn’t functional I can’t try starting in Safe Mode to diagnose the problem. Hope you can help.
Frank Yuen, Winfield
A. You’ve got a real “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” problem, Mr. Y. However, chances are good that you’re looking at some kind of mechanical problem rather than a software glitch. Luckily you probably can just bypass the problem.
Most computers capable of running Windows 98 and above have connections that permit keyboards to be installed either in PS/2 sockets or USB ports. I hope your computer will let you plug a keyboard into the one not being used by your current keyboard connection.
You can find adapters that either will convert a circular PS/2 plug into a rectangular USB or a USB into as PS/2. Or you can buy a new keyboard. They’re not very expensive these days.
Either way, chances are strong that the different interface will work.
If you happen to be among the minority of folks who have created a floppy Windows boot disk, you might try to insert it and let your machine boot up using the generic keyboard drivers built into the old DOS operating system.
If your keyboard worked after booting with a floppy, you would be able to rule out any hardware problems and order the machine to start in Safe Mode by typing Win in the DOS command line.
That could fix your problem as well, but I’m betting instead that your hardware is defective.
Q. You recently told a reader complaining about pop-up ads to get a pop-up killer. Although these work fine (I used to use one myself), I am surprised you didn’t recommend using Mozilla as a browser. I switched to it as my primary browser several months ago and haven’t had a single unrequested pop-up since.
There are no lists to edit as in most pop-up killers. The only disadvantage I have found so far is that there are a few sites out there that seem to insist that you use the Microsoft Internet Explorer. For the most part, I find I don’t need to visit these sites (Web page developers take note–if you’re Microsoft IE exclusive, I probably will not visit your site).
If I absolutely have to visit a site that requires IE, I will invoke it manually at the highest security setting.
I hope you check out Mozilla. As far as I’m concerned, it has it hands down over IE. By the way, the latest version of Netscape is based on the same engine, so it has many of the same features.
Steve Jacovich @yahoo.com.
A. Readers can learn about this Mozilla browser at www.mozilla.org, and I’m glad to point the way on your request, Mr. J. I don’t suggest Mozilla as a solution to pop-up ads because it’s difficult for an ordinary user to download, install and figure out.
Even more important, I fear that you have understated the amount of worthwhile Web content so infused with Microsoft code that the adamantly anti-Microsoft Mozilla browser can’t handle it.
Still, Mozilla is dear to the hearts of that robust minority of folks with intermediate and above computer skills who dislike Microsoft or who just love to mess with this kind of stuff.
Mozilla amounts to a continuation of the selfsame public domain Web browser code developed by the famous team at the National Center for Super Computing Applications at the University of Illinois back in 1993. It was the underpinnings for the Netscape browser that once reigned as the dominant Internet software but ultimately was devoured by the Microsoft behemoth.
This is a story too complex for this space, but I agree with you that a lot of folks will be interested in taking a look at the Mozilla open-source software that runs on Windows, Macintosh and Linux machines. It certainly stops pop-ups and offers similar features, including stopping pictures from being displayed automatically and filtering e-mail spam.
To avoid possible confusion, keep in mind that the actual Netscape browser, a commercial product now in its version 7.0, does a fine job with all of that Microsoft content that makes Mozilla and a few other alternative systems stumble.
Netscape, now owned by AOL Time Warner, can be downloaded at www.netscape.com. Also, the software that I mentioned is AdSubtract and can be found at www.adsubtract.com. A competing product is Pop-up Stopper at www.panicware.com.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at jcoates@tribune.com or via snail mail at the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune .com/askjim.
