Question: USB external drive causes Windows XP Home to freeze? I have a 200GB Western Digital HD with a USB-to-IDE external enclosure. Everytime when I plug the USB cable into to my Toshiba L25-S119 notebook computer, the Windows XP Home hang/freeze. The following are some information about my computer hardware, OS, and HD:\n\nComputer maker and model: Toshiba Satellite L25-S119\nHardware information (general):\nCPU: Intel Celeron M 370 (1.5GHz) 1MB L2, 400MHz FSB\nRAM: 768MB (256 + 512) PC4200 DDR2 533MHz SDRAM 1.8V SODIMM\nChipset: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Chipset\nSouthbridge: ATI SB400\nInternal HD: 60GB FUJITSU MHV2060AH, 5400RPM, EIDE (ATA-6)\nOptical drive: MATS.H.I.TA DVD/CDRW UJDA770\n\nOS and BIOS information:\nOS: Windows XP Home with SP2\nBIOS: Toshiba v1.80 (12/14/05)\n\nExternal USB HD: Western Digital 200GB HD (IDE)in NTFS with 2 partitions. (approximately 150 + 50 GB)\n\nExternal Enclosure: Metal Gear Box with AC-to-DC power supply.\n\n\nOther information:\n\nThe external USB HD works fine with my another two desktop PCs: Windows XP Pro SP2 and Windows 98 SE (with NTFS for Win98 and USB driver). And, it also works perfectly with my friends' Sony and HP notebook computers (Win xp Home).\n\nMy first thought was a driver problem. However, I checked the drivers it installed in this notebook were same as my other PCs. \n\nI tried Windows XP Pro SP2 clean installation on this computer, but the problem still occured. Therefore, it is not some problems with the Home edition of Windows XP.\n\nThe external enclosure has a DC power supply, so power won't be the problem.\n\nI have tried all my three USB ports. All the three USB ports works fine with my SanDisk 1GB Flash drive.\n\nI did a CHKDSK using my desktop PC, and the disk was fine.\n\nI also uninstalled and reinstalled all the USB and disk drivers, but it still the same.(set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 devmgmt.msc)\n\nThe only situation that it works with this computer is when I boot the computer from Knoppix Linux CD. So, I guess this is not a hardware problem. How do you guys think? Thanks in advance.

Answer: I discovered a configuration mismatch\nCPU: Intel Celeron M 370 (1.5GHz) 1MB L2, 400MHz FSB\nRAM: 768MB (256 + 512) PC4200 DDR2 533MHz \n\nThe clock frequency of the RAM may not be higher than the clock frequency of the FSB. Every manufacturer of a mainboard with FSB 400MHz would recommend RAM of the types PC2100 or PC2700.\nThis might not be the reason for your hangs/freezes, but the timing of PC4200 DDR RAMs on a 400MHz FSB is critical anyway.
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