help: Radarbox stopped working laptop

[southernsteve]

Hi all

Wonder if anybody can help? My Radarbox was working fine yesterday on my laptop, however when I connected it up today the hardware would not work. I keep getting a message saying that the hardware is malfunctioning and Windows does not recognize it. I have tried changing the USB port with no luck. I have also reinstalled the software and drivers but still getting the same problem. The power light, lights up ok but the USB light does not come on. It did work briefly but went off again. I have tried the box on my desktop and it worked fine. I am using Windows XP. If anybody can help I would appreciated it.

[eggplant]

If it works okay on the desktop then the box must be okay. The fact it worked briefly on your laptop is worrying - possibly the start of hard disk failure. I had a similar problem myself with a USB device (not the RB). Try uninstalling the RB s/w, run error checking, preferably when booting from a Windows CD. Then reboot from the hard drive and re-install the RB s/w.  Is the laptop old ? Has it displayed any other unusual behaviour ? 

[southernsteve]

the laptop is about 3 years old but but I have no other problems with it. I have used other USB devices and again no problems.. At one point I had the box plugged in but the drivers removed, and the USB light lit up, but was still showing hardware disconnected on the software...regards Steve.

[AirNav Support]

Do you have power settings on your laptop?

It sounds like the laptop is not giving enough power to the RadarBox which means it drops off.

[southernsteve]

i do have power settings, but they look ok. the laptop does tend to go from ac to batt from time to time but i put this down to a dodgy connection though it has been a lot better of late and stays on ac

[DougV]

I don;t know if this may be useful or not but I will pass on the info anyway.

I have just been doing battle with a Medion laptop belonging to my niece.
It would not boot into windows and came up with the Blue Screen of Death every time.
I could boot into Linux from the DVD drive but windows was a no go.

I tested the ram, the hard disk and checked for any loose connections.
Still no joy.

Today I decided to put it back together and try to get it running again.

Popped the ram in and the hard disk and plugged the PSU in and pressed to on button.

I could not believe it when it started up and booted into windows!
After a bit of puzzling as to what I had done differently it hit me.
I had left the battery off.
As soon as I put the battery back in the machine crashed and would not boot up again.

I suspect it has gone short circuit and was dragging the power supply down to a level that windows did not like.

If your laptop is old and the battery is getting a bit iffy perhaps something similar is happening and robbing some power from the usb ports.

May be worth trying.

Another thing to check is have a look at the hardware device manager to make sure the usb ports are showing OK.
Windows does sometimes mess things up especially after a windows update.

Doug

[southernsteve]

tried the battery which made no difference. I have checked the device manager and it is showing as unknown device, though it was showing it as working properly. It's not working at all. I have tried to update the drivers, uninstalled the program and reinstalled it, even done a system restore to 2 weeks ago but with no luck. Now running out of ideas. The device was showing correctly even after it went down, but now only will show as above. Windows keeps saying that it's not recognized or not working properly, yet showing ok in manager

[southernsteve]

Hi all
Tried again this morning this time powering the laptop from the battery only. As soon a s I plugged the radarbox in Windows recognized it and reloaded the drivers. The box then worked perfectly. Then I plugged the computer back into the mains. Radarbox stopped working again. Once unplugged from the mains again and the box USB removed and replaced the application worked again. I then replaced the power lead and hey presto the thing is working fine.
Thanks for all your help and I hope that if anybody has the same problem in the future this little episode will help.

[DougV]

Glad you got it sorted.

Laptop's can do strange things at times...

;o)

[southernsteve]

Well this afternoon the power plug in the laptop disintergrated so I think I have found the main problem....laptop off to menders tomorrow..lol