Hi, Tom.
Congratulations! ;<)
And thanks for posting the eventual resolution. We all can learn from that.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3555.0308) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1
"SC Tom" wrote in message
Let me go back a few years. . .
A long time ago, I bought an Xbox360 controller for my PC (running XP at the
time). Every time I plugged it in, my sound would mess up; it would sound
like someone had slashed the speaker, like a Jimi Hendrix fuzzbox. At first,
I thought it might have been a driver conflict, but I figured out that the
controller was drawing almost 500mA of current from my USB bus, and that was
dragging the whole system down; hence the problem with my USB sound card
(device?). To solve that problem, I bought a powered hub to use for the
controller and any other USB devices, leaving the sound plugged directly
into the back of the MB. Worked like a champ throughout my XP years and
right into installing Win7 a couple of months ago on this machine.
About the same time that I installed Win7, my old UPS gave up the ghost
(battery died, and so did the charging circuit- I now have a spare battery
in the closet), so I bought a new one. It uses a USB port for the interface
with the computer for notifications, shutdown on power loss, etc. I plugged
it into the hub, and it would work fine for a while, then display "Lost
connection with UPS." I didn't have any spare ports on the MB, so I
unplugged my Sidewinder X4 keyboard from the MB, plugged the UPS USB cable
into there, and plugged the KB into the hub. Worked great, no problems, no
more error messages from the UPS.
Then this started with the MS games. After all the other things I had
already tried, I decided to uninstall both IntelliType and IntelliPoint and
see if either of them might be the culprit (after reading Paul's post).
Didn't make any difference (I had already tried rebooting without the KB
plugged in). Then I figured I'd plug in my PS/2 keyboard and mouse,
unplugging my USB KB and mouse dongle. Hallelujah, it worked! As I was
swapping all this around, I remembered the problem that I had with the UPS
program, and thought "Duh!" So I shut it down, plugged the mouse and KB into
MB ports (disabled the UPS notification program for now), booted up, and
everything worked as it should. I still hadn't re-installed the Intelli-
programs, so I installed them one at a time, rebooting and testing between
installations. It all is still working, except the UPS software since I
don't have a MB port for it. No biggie, though- I rarely leave my PC on when
I'm gone from the house, and I've got enough sense to turn it off if there's
no power.
I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and ideas, especially Ed from
talking me out of reimaging my drive, since I would have had the same
problem again eventually. I still don't know why the problem didn't manifest
itself immediately; maybe it was triggered by a new update or something (I
haven't installed any new hardware or software since the UPS program). But
at this point, don't know, don't care. I'm just happy that everything's as
it should be. It's not that being without Solitaire would be an
earth-sending event, but I'm sure some of you other OC geeks know where I'm
coming from
Thanks again to all!