BSOD in Win7, possibly USB related

Note: I first posted this to superuser.com, but this seems like a better forum for it.

Win7 Ultimate x64, full install.

My new HP Pavilion Elite HPE-450t has been plagued by BSDO crashes since I got it about 6 weeks ago. The crashes are somewhat rare, sometimes not occurring for 3 or 4 days. I have spent a lot of time trying to isolate the device that could be at fault, but I have seen crashes with only the keyboard and mouse plugged in (as USB devices), and I tried two sets of keyboard/mouse, so I'm running out of ideas.

Hopefully, some expert can figure something out from the attached minidumps and logs!

BSOD caused by the default USB driver
I suggest uninstalling the driver then download the new chipset drivers from HP's website
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...t=4343021#N167

Code:

BugCheck FE, {5, fffffa8008f571a0, 80863b34, fffffa80092f2510}

Probably caused by : usbehci.sys ( usbehci!EHCI_sMode_PollEndpointSlot+67 )

Thanks for your reply! Could you give me a little more details about exactly what I need to uninstall? I see 8 different entries in Device Manager under USB controllers.

Also, if I uninstall a core USB driver, won't I lose control of my mouse/keyboard? If so, how do I then install the newer driver?

Bear with me, as I'm new to this

davidebbo said:

Thanks for your reply! Could you give me a little more details about exactly what I need to uninstall? I see 8 different entries in Device Manager under USB controllers.

Also, if I uninstall a core USB driver, won't I lose control of my mouse/keyboard? If so, how do I then install the newer driver?

Bear with me, as I'm new to this

I suggest to boot into safe mode with networking, download and install the chipset drivers listed above, the installer will automatically update the driver.
If this fails then you should disable/Uninstall the USB port

Ok, I just updated the chipset drivers from HP, and nothing bad happened. Now I just need to see if the BSOD go away. Since it only happens every couple days, it may take a little while to verify that it helped. I will follow up here. Thanks again for you help!

I haven't got an actual blue screen since that, but things are still pretty messed up at the USB level. The typical thing is that when I come back to the computer after a while, the USB keyboard and mouse are dead. i.e. they're acting as if they're disconnected. Unplugging and replugging them rarely helps. I also saw the same behavior with a USB card reader. I have tried a different keyboard.mouse with same results, so I know it's not the physical devices that are to blame.

So basically, it seems that some USB ports get turned off after a while. Rebooting the machine always fixes it.

Is it possible that it's some kind of hardware issue on the motherboard, or whatever piece controls the USB port? Or maybe still a bad driver?

If needed, I can contact HP to try to get a replacement, but I'd rather find a software fix if at all possible!

Any brilliant ideas? :)

Might be a power issue. How many UN-powered USB devices do you have?

They all require power from the PSU and too many make the voltage drop below 5 volts.

Max should be 2-3


Ken J

Interesting idea, Ken. My UN-powered devices are the mouse, keyboard, webcam and a card reader. But I've seen issues with the webcam unplugged. Those devices shouldn't be drawing all that much. Also, note that this is a desktop, not a notebook, so presumably it can provide plenty enough juice for those devices.

I'll try to unplug the webcam and card ready for a few days to see how it goes.

Just got another blue screen. Strangely, no minudump was created, only memory.dmp. Here is what whocrashed says, which is mostly the same as before...

Code:

On Fri 12/24/2010 7:26:18 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: usbport.sys (USBPORT!USBPORT_RegisterUSBPortDriver+0x4EDE) 
Bugcheck code: 0xFE (0x5, 0xFFFFFA8008F591A0, 0x80863B34, 0xFFFFFA800C4EFC50)
Error: BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\usbport.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that an error has occurred in a Universal Serial Bus (USB) driver.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.