USB memory stick freezes system. - PC-BSD Forums

khentiamentiu · #1 07-04-2008, 06:23 AM

I just installed PCBSD 1.5 on a Compaq E500 Armada, and most everything works well, except for the USB port. I have run xubuntu on the same machine, no problem, so I don't think the problem is the port. What happens is that I plug a memory stick into the lone USB port in the back, and wait for a window to open. Within a minute or so, the cursor freezes, as does apparently everything else in the interface -- keyboard, touchpad, buttons -- and nothing returns until I unplug the USB memory stick. It's a 2GB memory stick, a USB 1.1 port and the system has 512 MB of memory with a 900 Mhz PIII. Any ideas what's going on here, or where to start looking? Thanks.

davidgurvich · #2 07-04-2008, 01:12 PM

My first guess is that you are having a resource conflict between the usb driver and some other driver. The most likely choices are video and sound. Does the problem occur if you disable acpi? Your system sounds like it is old enough to have problems with acpi and might do better using apm. Sometimes changing irqs in the bios is also enough.

TerryP · #3 07-04-2008, 05:10 PM

I had this once with a system with 'interesting' ACPI support in FreeBSD 6, could be another paper weight.

I agree with davidgurvich, try booting with acpi disabled.

rodonn · #4 07-04-2008, 07:30 PM

Is the 2 Gb stick a normal one or does it have something that 'adds features' on it?
By that I've had problems with U3 usb drives hanging the machine... if it's U3, I know sandisk have a removal tool (and my drive now works on my BSD system)

I also had one that had a switch to make the drive 'look' like a usb floppy and that killed the OS too.. :roll:

khentiamentiu · #5 07-05-2008, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by rodonn

Is the 2 Gb stick a normal one or does it have something that 'adds features' on it?
By that I've had problems with U3 usb drives hanging the machine... if it's U3, I know sandisk have a removal tool (and my drive now works on my BSD system)

I also had one that had a switch to make the drive 'look' like a usb floppy and that killed the OS too.. :roll:

That did it! I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't try another USB stick first: I should have, even though this one works in every other system I've tried. You hit the nail on the head! This wasn't a U3, just one of several "generics" I've purchased from MEI Microcenter. (All the others worked.)

FYI, I also tried disabling ACPI, but that didn't allow this stick to work in my system.

Thanks to all of you for your help!

rodonn · #6 07-05-2008, 07:18 AM

I'm not sure I follow what the problems was... sorry

Protagonist · #7 07-05-2008, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by rodonn

Is the 2 Gb stick a normal one or does it have something that 'adds features' on it?
By that I've had problems with U3 usb drives hanging the machine... if it's U3, I know sandisk have a removal tool (and my drive now works on my BSD system)

I also had one that had a switch to make the drive 'look' like a usb floppy and that killed the OS too.. :roll:

The only problem with the removal tool is you need Windows to run the removal tool. :-)

rodonn · #8 07-05-2008, 04:45 PM

Hey, I can only flag the problem... most people have access to at least one Windows machine (that we keep around as a reminder of the terrible old days)

khentiamentiu · #9 07-05-2008, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by rodonn

I'm not sure I follow what the problems was... sorry

Actually, neither do I, exactly, but using a different USB stick is an adequate workaround. I'm content to not understand exactly why the 2GB stick freezes my interface/system. As I said, I should have tried a different stick first. It just didn't occur to me that a stick that worked on the half-dozen other computers I used would not work, and be the only one that would not work, on this system.

Protagonist · #10 07-06-2008, 03:19 AM

Originally Posted by khentiamentiu

Originally Posted by rodonn

I'm not sure I follow what the problems was... sorry

Actually, neither do I, exactly, but using a different USB stick is an adequate workaround. I'm content to not understand exactly why the 2GB stick freezes my interface/system. As I said, I should have tried a different stick first. It just didn't occur to me that a stick that worked on the half-dozen other computers I used would not work, and be the only one that would not work, on this system.

The funny thing is I have a SanDisk with U3 on it and it works just fine in PC-BSD. I use it all the time. It just gives me two icons on the desktop.