USB device troubleshooting challenge

Question

I have a Livescan fingerprint device that, when other usb devices are plugged in simultaneously, only works under 1 specific user profile. The device will work fine with any number of other devices plugged in to the machine under my user profile, but when we try another profile it only works with a few (up to 2 or 3 max) devices plugged in. The other profiles can be administrators or power users, but they still cannot use the livescan device with multiple other usb devices plugged into the machine.

UPDATE: The device works under all accounts on another machine, however, the two machines are nearly identical.

I'm not sure if this helps, but my profile is an administrator and linked to the domain. No other profiles work on the one machine, regardless of whether they are domain accounts or local machine accounts.

We checked into IRQ conflicts and found no issues.

But, interestingly enough, if you force the screen to redraw, ie move it quickly with the mouse or move another window over it while trying to capture fingerprints it will work, but fail immediately when you stop moving the window with the mouse.

Another thing about this device, every time I plug it in I get the add new hardware find driver wizard - not just the little balloon in the bottom corner, but the full-blown wizard.

I am now testing the device on a computer that it previously worked flawlessly under only one user profile, but after reinstalling windows xp, it does not work anytime more than one usb device is plugged in with it.

Does anyone have any idea why we can get it to work when we move the window rapidly with the mouse or even move another window over top of the fingerprint capture window? I think this is forcing a paint call, why would this allow it to communicate effectively with the device?

Interestingly enough, we do not run into any issues on the problem laptops when running windows 7.

UPDATE: At this point, we are getting past the issue by running a simple operation of capturing screen shots at intervals as low as every 10 ms to keep the device in communication with the software. We do not know why this works, but it does. Any ideas now?

Answer 1

You might also be looking at a poorly written installer that used regsvr32 incorrectly thereby creating a permissions issue.

Have you tried running the installer as a different user without uninstalling the software (or uninstalling then reinstalling the software as a different user)?

Answer 2

Could it be that you had to check "All users" in the setup wizard of the driver software where it asks you if it has to be installed only for you or for all users?

Answer 3

The profile that the device does not work in might be corrupt. Try rebuilding that profile. Make sure you backup any important data first.

Answer 4

Could it be that the other users are experiencing IRQ conflicts with other devices?

Answer 5

If I understand the situation correctly, there is one computer that the device works flawlessly on, and one that has issues. The issues started as works-with-one-profile-only, and after a system reinstall have progressed to works-with-one-as-long-as-there's-graphics-activity and doesn't-work-with-multiple-other-USB-devices. Oh, and they're laptops. That about sum it up?

Does anyone have any idea why we can get it to work when we move the window rapidly with the mouse or even move another window over top of the fingerprint capture window? I think this is forcing a paint call, why would this allow it to communicate effectively with the device?

Actually, it may not be the redraw. Mouse movements and keypresses still generate load -- not much on the CPU, but maybe enough electrical load to make a difference.

That and the doesn't-work-with-multiple-other-USB-devices bit make this sound like a hardware problem. It could be a driver issue, but my first suspicion is power: if your device gets power on the USB bus, too many devices on an underpowered bus can cause a powerhog to malfunction. That could be a power supply going bad, capacitors going bad, a loose connector somewhere, or the USB controller chip going bad.

Things to try:

• Check power connectors, test with & w/out battery, swap in a known-good AC power supply.
• Check USB power usage on both machines when the device is connected with & w/out other devices (Device Manager > View > Devices by Connection > expand ACPI > expand ACPI > expand PCI > expand USB Controller(s) > get USB Root Hub properties > Power tab).
• Delete all USB devices from Device Manager (especially Controller devices -- just select the device, press the Delete key, and tell Windows you're sure), reboot, let Windows reinstall them (should be automatically detected & installed).
• If both machines are the same make & model, compare BIOS settings. If any differences, change the bad machine's settings to match the good machine's.
• If both machines are the same make & model, put bad machine's hard drive into good machine, boot, test that. (May need to reinstall drivers, or repeat the delete-devices-and-reboot procedure.) If it works it's not a software problem, it's a hardware problem. Backup your data and have the laptop serviced.

If these were desktop systems, you could go much further in swapping components and testing those, but unless you build your own laptops (and/or they're out of warranty) the HD swap is as far as I'd go.

---

Ack, I missed this:

Interestingly enough, we do not run into any issues on the problem laptops when running windows 7.

So probably not a hardware issue. Deleting your USB devices from Device Manager might still help, though.

Answer 6

I ran into a similar issue getting a Motorola cell phone working on a pc at work. It turned out that Wdf01000.sys in the c:\windows\system32\drivers folder was causing the issue, simply remove the file and reboot to let windows repopulate the file correcting the issue.

Hope this helps

Answer 7

I've seen a similar problem in the past on windows, where increasing system load made problems like that go away. The cause in that case was over aggressive power management settings. Things would work fine if you tried to stress the machine, but would start failing as soon as the box became idle.

Since this is a usb device my guess is something related to usb power. I'd check anything in the BIOS and windows related to power and the settings for the usb device in windows.

That can explain everything but the "Another thing about this device, every time I plug it in I get the add new hardware find driver wizard - not just the little balloon in the bottom corner, but the full-blown wizard." part, I have no idea what would cause that, but it is probably a weird windows thing.