STI's USB dead (even with internally connected devices)

[prppedro]

Hi, mates

Yesterday, by the morning, my STI IS 1462 (yeah, excuse me for these words, one of these Brazilian made crap) stopped to recognize any USB devices. Well, I closed the lid and it played the removed device sound. When I sat back to it, the wireless was down, and the ">"/"." key stopped to work, giving me comma instead of dot. I had to restart my system.

My system, Windows Server 2003, used to work well with my hardware for one and a half year, but now, everything changed. As soon as my system completed the tedious startup, my onboard wireless adapter wasn't connected. Very strange. When I entered the Device Manager, there weren't any USB device. No USB key, neither USB keyboard/mouse. There weren't any USB Root Hub, as well. It looked like my notebook never had any USB port.

Internal USB-connected components stopped to work, also. So my notebook now lays without any possible network access (modem, ethernet and wireless stopped) and the only working removable media is the DVD-RAM drive.

I'm willing to buy a ExpressCard USB 3.0 adapter to put it working, but I would need to plug at least two basic devices: Wireless and sound adapter, which, I think, is a somewhat pathetic fashion.

So I got to ask my beloved Tom's Hardware's mates about what's going on with my machine. Some guy from a hardware store specialized in notebooks told me that my model tends to be very prone to motherboard failures and it's most likely that the best solution is to replace my motherboard, but I don't think that replace this old board worth so much...

Well, alea jacta est, my friends.

If someone could help me, thanks from now!

P.S.: I'm sorry for my butchered and bad shaped English, it's not my mother tongue.

P.S. II: Configs:
- Pentium Dual Core T3400 1,9 Ghz
- Chipset Intel Cantiga GL40 (North Bridge)
- " Intel 82801IM ICH9M (South Bridge)
- MB generically called "IS 1462", mocking up the notebook's model ID
- 1x1 GB DDR2-800 SDRAM

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Basically that system is WAY old (not new - i.e. one and a half years as your saying). You shouldn't be running Windows Server as your OS (especially 2003 which is WAY out of date) as it is not set up to run as a general PC use, but specific to a specific task (Email SERVER, File SERVER, Print SERVER, etc.).

It sounds like the Motherboard is dying. Your best solution would be to simply replace the computer, new laptops at Walmart here in the US are $300USD (very cheap compared to a few years ago).

 

[prppedro]

Thanks for the reply, Tom.

I think that you're right about dying motherboard... Unfortunately, I'm Brazilian, and replace hardware is something that cost, for us, over US$ 600. I really think that even 600 isn't too much here. However, US$ 600 = R$ 1200, and, because of the bad income and extremely high life cost, it becomes a very problematic number. But thanks, anyway for the advice.

About the system, I think that we might have some misunderstood here... I said that my system was installed for one and a half year. I could choose between 2003 and 2008, because I'm .Net developer, and used to like the better performance of NT based server systems. The 2003 would run better, because my machine only does have 2 GB of RAM, so it was the choosen one. Also, the Win2k3 does have updates and extended support by Microsoft, so it's not a completely outdated system.

Cheers,
Pedro Pinheiro