About a month or 2 ago, some of you guys helped me partially diagnose my PC problem.
I was able to boot up as a result of the help I received here, but now the problem is lingering and I need some advice.

I have a Dell XPS
4 USB ports on the back, and 2 on the front.

So in the 6 available ports, I had
- digital camera & dock
- Logitech G15 keyboard (in the keyboard the mouse was plugged in)
- Epson Printer
- an extension USB so I could plug in whatever I needed at the time (in case I was updating the GPS or plugging in the Sirius module or whatever)

One day when trying to reboot, it wouldnt work.
The screen just went black, with the curser thingy just blinking at the top left hand of a black screen.

I unplugged everything from the USB ports, and the computer would reboot normally.

I slowly added things back to the USB, and have managed to fire up the system with only 2 things connected.
- the aircard thingy is plugged into the rear, and keyboard is plugged in the front. As soon as I try to plug in anything else, the PC will not reboot.

Is there like a diagnostic software that works well?
I did a search but am afraid to install one in case its loaded with a bunch of imbedded bs.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks
Habibi

 

Turn off the Epson and reboot. My mother in law has an older Stylus 825 I think and when she has to reboot it takes forever with the printer on but it is normal with the printer off. My Epson RX 500 does not do it though.

 

You are most likely drawing in too many watts for the computer to handle. Thus, as a protection method, instead of over heating or frying a part of its electronics, it just reboots, or turns off completely. My laptop does this. When it gets too hot, after you shut it off, it wont reboot untill it's cooled back down. Try getting a self powered USB hub.

http://www.amazon.com/4PORT-480MBPS-.../dp/B000085BAU

Something like that. The hub powers itself, thus not drawing any energy away from the components of your PC.

 

mine won't reboot when i have certain usb's plugged in (like a SD card inserted, portable harddrive, etc)

 

Does the printer have memory card slots in it? If so, the pc might be seeing them as bootable devices. If that is the case, we will walk you through changing the BIOS setting that would fix it.

 

Yes it does.
It has slots for 2 or 3 different types of cards or whatever it is that goes in there.
It's an Epson R340.

If you don't mind listing what to do to change the bios, I'll give that a try.

Also thanks for the other suggestions from everyone else, I'll pick up a powered USB hub, it can't hurt right?

I tried the reboot, but no dice.

Thanks
Habibi

 

Before we go into the BIOS, can you replicate the problem without the printer and its cable attached? Attach as many usb devices as you can, except for the printer, and boot up. If the problem still happens, then we're barking up the wrong tree.

If it only happens with the printer attached and turned on, then we do need to check the BIOS.

PM me if that is the case so we can work faster.