X50v and Two Blown USB Controllers :(

I am not a happy camper right now, partly because I see the hassles on the horizon that I will have to deal with. Here's the problem:

In the past two days, the usb controllers on two motherboards have ceased to work and usb peripherals are no longer recognized by my system. Both of these problems started immediately after plugging my X50v into the cradle that is attached to the first USB port on the back of my computer. Upon plugging it in, an-ear splitting squeal came from my computer speakers and the computer froze. Upon rebooting, no usb ports work.

This has now happened two days in a row!

Yesterday a.m. I got up and took my morning coffee down to check my email and upon plugging my Axim in almost wet myself from the screeching coming from my computer. Dead USB ports part I. I figured that it must have been some anomoly with the board (an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe that I have owned for 3 months with no problem) and proceeded to email an RMA request to Asus. It blew most of my day yesterday going out and finding a replacement board (another P4C800-e deluxe) and reinstalling everything but I figured it comes with the territory of being a geek.

In the past day, I have synchronized a few times uneventfully which reinforced my belief that I just had a bad board last time. Hmm.... I guess not.

Before I vent my spleed on Dell support, does anyone have any suggestions how to a) fix the problem or b) deal with Dell most effectively, getting them to reimburse me the cost of 2 motherboards and replace the X50v (which is functioning fine - it must be the cradle or the combo of the cradle and the battery left charging in it)? Here is what I have done so far:

1) Reset the cmos on the motherboard - no good
2) Reflashed the bios - no good
3) Disconnected everything and powered off for 30 minutes in hope that God might intervene - no good - I should have gone to church this a.m.

As I said, neither the bios (which always recognizes usb mice, keyboard, usb card readers) nor windows detects anything attached to the usb ports. Strangely enough, the USB controllers and Root Hubs are still listed in device manager with no yellow !'s beside them, but they might as well be nonfunctional because nothing gets recognized through them.

Thanks ahead of time for your advice - at this point I would be pulling my hair out if I weren't bald already.

[emulamer]

Wow, I guess I'm not the only one... I toasted 2 brand new HP desktops at work with the X50v's cradle... not just the USB ports, the whole MB. It seems like if you put it on just a little crooked, it must connect a couple of the pins the wrong way. So I guess it is a design flaw, and I wonder what Dell will do about it?

[tallredwookie]

Wow. I haven't burned out a USB port with anything but a printer, are the ports USB 2.0 or 1.1? I have found that some 2.0 ports can throw a fit. I have found that using a hub tends to make things run smoother. It might be the usb cradle, my palm cradle stopped working through a regular usb port, switched it to the hub and it recognized it. Never know.

Glad to hear I am not the only one. Have you contacted Dell? Please let me know and if you have an incident #, pass it on to me. Thanks!

[akaramali]

wow..that's a bit scary. Are you having these issues when you connect the cradle only, or when you put the X50 in the cradle. I am going to get my hands on my X50v this weekend. am going to have to be a bit more careful about this.

Wow. I haven't burned out a USB port with anything but a printer, are the ports USB 2.0 or 1.1? I have found that some 2.0 ports can throw a fit. I have found that using a hub tends to make things run smoother. It might be the usb cradle, my palm cradle stopped working through a regular usb port, switched it to the hub and it recognized it. Never know.

I have a large number of USB peripherals: 3 printers; keyboard and mouse; pocket pc; sandisk cd/sd/mmc drive; etc... None of them are detected - zilch - so it isn't a matter of the Axim not being detected. Next time I put the damned thing on a hub so that hopefully the hub would protect the mobo from the shock.

Anybody have any suggestions for how to approach Dell on this? I have 2 mobos with blasted usb ports as evidence and one cradle that I will never use again. Thanks!

wow..that's a bit scary. Are you having these issues when you connect the cradle only, or when you put the X50 in the cradle. I am going to get my hands on my X50v this weekend. am going to have to be a bit more careful about this.

I connect to my laptop with a cable or ir - nothing happened there yet and I think I will be using IR exclusively until this is fixed. This has been 2 consecutive boards with the cradle connected directly to the first usb port on the back of the mobo.

[flybri]

ouuuch I feel for u!

Seeing as how ure a fellow Canadian, I actually have the extension numbers of some of the higher-ups at the Dell office in Ontario. I had a problem a couple months back with my X5, and Customer Care told me to talk to Tech Support, while TS referred me back to CC. Many phone calls and 2 refurbs later, my problem still wasn't fixed, so I was given the number of the operator at the Dell head office. She was kind enough to give me a few useful extensions ;) and I ended up with an X50 mid for free.

PM me if you'd like more info and I'd be glad to pass it on.

[zupp242]

I would say calm with a solid position that they will reimburse you for costs. If your cradle is truly defective and has damage your hardware then they would be responsible for your loss. If not find a pro bono law student to see it through just for the principle and see who a judge would agree with. Just maintain your position but before all that read the fine print in the manual to make sure they do not have a clause where their "crap" is aloud to ruin your stuff.
One thing, did your computer give off a smell, mine did when I drove a staple through a printer cable, but I only lost 2 usb ports, the other 2 and the front still worked.
Now I have 2 cradles, 1 at work and 1 at home, I usually plug it in while my laptop is on and yank it out when I'm done and nothing has happened.

Thanks zupp242 - no smell - just a terrible screeching noise as though the ghost of Michael Dell's grandmother was being violated by a gang of Teamsters...

So I will just take a firm approach right off the bat and hope that they play along. If not, I guess I calmly get legalistic on them and escalate the issue.

I wish some of the usb ports still worked - none of them are responsive. On the other hand, everything else seems to be working (not like the first board which kept freezing after getting zapped). I am so pissed off right now....

[zupp242]

So what about drivers, I have already guessed your not a "whats a driver" kind of person, that's what wives, girlfriend's and kids are for. But will it let you reinstall or delete the drivers? Then when you reboot windows should refind the USB. I would mabey copy your profile just in case you might want to try something else.

[tallredwookie]

I have the x50v hooked up and it works fine through the hub.

So what about drivers, I have already guessed your not a "whats a driver" kind of person, that's what wives, girlfriend's and kids are for. But will it let you reinstall or delete the drivers? Then when you reboot windows should refind the USB. I would mabey copy your profile just in case you might want to try something else.

It is not dependent on the drivers - the bios doesn't even recognize the existence of peripheral attached (mouse, keyboard, usb storage devices). Just in case, however, I have deleted the various USB controllers in device manager and they redetected just fine - but nothing that is attached to them is detected printers, hubs, etc...). The first thing I did yesterday was restore XP back to a functional state from the day earlier.

In the words of Bones McCoy: "He's dead, Jim".

Check your pm, btw. :approve:

[zupp242]

I sent an email to my local computer monkey, I let you know if he has any ideas

Thanks - and if you'd fire that number at Dell Canada that you called to me i'd appreciate it.