iGesture and mouse major troubles

[RoHe]

Maybe you should contact the mouse pad manufacturer for suggestions..?

Sounds like something that loads at Startup may be confliicting on the USB bus.  What happens if you boot in safe mode?  Or if you disconnect all other USB devices except keyboard before booting?

Ron

[SpotCheckBilly]

Hi Ron,

Unfortunately, the manufacturer is no longer in business (FingerWorks).  They sold their technology to Apple and if you have one of their iPhones you are using it.

There is no difference between Normal Mode and Safe Mode.  Currently there are no other USB devices connected to the machine and the keyboard is not USB.  I have not run System File Checker so I'm going to do that to make sure I don't have a corrupt file hiding out somewhere.  Maybe that will turn up something.

Device Manager reports "this device is working properly" for all Plug-And-Play as well as all USB Device Controllers.  Maybe my thinking is too linear but it doesn't make sense that a device could work for several years, then suddenly develop a conflict with another device, but still work perfectly when plugged in after the system boots up.  Especially when the device has no moving parts.  Incidentally, when working, the Multitouch Utilities (diagnostic software provided with touchpad) reports that all sensor arrays are working properly.

Makes you crazy doesn't it?  Maybe not, but it makes me crazy.  LOL  I'm truly grateful to everyone who has offered suggestions for helping me fix this problem.  I know I'll get there eventually, so feel free to keep them coming.  I try each and everyone.  :D   SCB

[RoHe]

You won't (easily) be able to run a Windows system file check if your XP CD is SP2 but the hard drive has been updated to SP3.  You'll have to create a slip-streamed CD with SP2 from your disk plus SP3 downloaded, free, from Microsoft.  Here's a good tutorial:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/xpsp3_slipstream.asp

It may not be so surprising that it suddenly stopped working. I presume you do all your Windows and antiviral updates on a regular basis and any one of them might be causing this problem. 

I'm suddenly having problems getting my system to recognize any of my three USB memory sticks that have worked perfectly 'til now.  When connected after booting to desktop, I get a "unrecognized device" message. If I reboot with any one of them connected, it's recognized.  Opposite of your problem, but no less ANNOYING!!

Ron

[SpotCheckBilly]

Hi Ron,

Fortunately my XP CD is just XP, no service packs.  SFC ran just fine and appeared to pick a few files off of the disc.  I haven't rebooted yet so......

As of late, I've been adding a few expletives before I get to "annoying".  I always thought updates were designed to make things work better.  Apparently with software it means, "well we hope it makes things better, but it might make some things stop working altogether".  Go figure.  :D  SCB

[RoHe]

Is your hard drive only XP also? 

Typically, if the CD has a version of XP that's earlier than the service pack on the hard drive, SFC is supposed to give you a warning that the hard drive has a more recent versionof XP and then SFC is supposed to stop and not run.

But lets hope that did the tricik....

Naw, updates just make things more "interesting", for lack of a better word that the smut censor won't trap.   ;)

Ron 

[RoHe]

SCB,

So were you able to solve the problem or have you just given up? 

Ron

[SpotCheckBilly]

Hi Ron,

Well I haven't given up yet, but I haven't solved the problem either.  After running SFC (which seemed to pick some files off of the CD) everything worked fine for two days.  I thought maybe the problem was fixed.  I'm the third day, it went right back to the same thing.  The only software related option that I haven't tried is a reformat/reinstall of the OS.  Since I haven't done a file backup for a while, perhaps I will tackle this over the weekend.

If the R/R doesn't fix the problem, I have to believe its hardware related.  My son and I were talking the other night (he just graduated with a degree in physics and a minor in computer science) and he seemed to think -- and I agree with him -- that perhaps my hard drive is beginning to fail.  My computer is almost 8 years old and for the first five years it was used by three people, probably 16 to 18 hours a day.  I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he HD was beginning to fail.  That thing has made a lot of revolutions and written a lot of files in those eight years.

I'll certainly keep you posted and if you have any other ideas, feel free to keep 'em coming. :D  SCB

[SpotCheckBilly]

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the extended absence.  I'm still experiencing difficulty with my iGesture pad.  However, as long as I plug it in after boot up, it works just fine.  I'm thinking I may have a few bad sectors on my hard drive as I have been experiencing random file loss after defragmenting.  Fortunately everything is backed up so if the drive fails, I have all of my data.

Then, the week before Christmas my dad had a heart attack and was in coronary ICU through New Year's day.  He's doing better now and is currently in a convalescent home for some physical therapy to strengthen him up before going home.  He should be home within two weeks if things go well.

Since both Dad and computer appear to be pretty stable at the moment it seems a good time to get back to the business at hand.  Barring any unforeseen circumstance  ***knocks on desk, knocks on head, knocks on anything made of wood***  I hope to be a lot more active here and at the other sites that I haunt......er....I mean....... frequent.  :D

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. 

[Mister2]

Sorry to hear about your dad, but very good news he is on the road to recovery. :)

I suggest running the manufacturer's diagnostics on that drive.  If you find the make and model (from Device Manager) the appropriate diagnostics can be downloaded from the manufacturer's site.  They can usually be found in the Support section but if you have problems finding them then we can sort that out.  (BTW if the drive is a Maxtor then you need to look on the Seagate site).

Burn the diagnostics to a CD as a ISO image, boot up from the CD and run the extended tests.  No harm will be done but we will find out what state that drive is in a go from there.