Why does "New hardware found" keep appearing for a GPIB-USB-B when I redock my laptop?

[dafemec]

I have a Dell Latitude laptop; at my desk I use it with a Dell docking station. The GPIB-USB-B is plugged into a USB port on the docking station, driver software has been installed for it, and I can use it to communicate with GPIB instruments. Most times -- but not every time -- I redock the laptop and start it up, I get the Windows "New hardware found" series of dialog boxes regarding the GPIB-USB-B. It appears that a system restore point is also being generated each time "New hardware found" works through realizing the driver is already on my laptop. What can I do to prevent this constant reinstallation?

[JLS]

Hello,

You mentioned that you see this intermittently; have you been able to correlate when it happens with anything else? If you could find a way to consistently cause this behavior, it may yield some clues. I will take a look at this to see if I can reproduce the behavior you're describing. Repost with any additional information!

JLS

[dafemec]

No correlation yet -- it happens more often than not -- and I have considered things like which USB ports I plug things into.

[JLS]

Interesting! Do you have any other USB devices? It would be interesting to see if this happens with other devices as well, or if it is behavior specific to the GPIB-USB device.

If you've tried or do try please repost!

Thanks,

JLS

[JLS]

Also, what OS do you have on your laptop? Have you tried this on any other computers to see if the issue follows the GPIB-USB-B?

Thanks,

JLS

[dafemec]

This behavior is unique to the GPIB-USB-B device. My USB mouse doesn't do this, nor my USB memory stick, and both of these I sometimes have connected and sometimes don't, just as I do with the GPIB-USB-B device.

[dafemec]

I am running Windows XP, Service Pack 2. I observed this behavior before upgrading to Service Pack 2, and still see it after the upgrade. I don't have another PC available to me to try this on.

[JLS]

Hello,

I am looking to try this on a docking laptop, although I am not sure when I'll have access to one. In addition, I imagine this is not terribly unusual behavior. More specifically, when you dock your laptop you gain access to other hardware assets on the docking station, which means that your laptop is likely replenishing its list of resources. I now strongly suspect that this is purely a windows/docking station issue, where the operating system is dynamically getting new resources and simply polls all resources and installs (and assigns drivers to) them accordingly.

I realize it is an inconvenience, but I no longer think this is related to the driver itself.

Thank you,

JLS

[dafemec]

For what it is worth, though, this doesn't happen for my USB mouse nor my USB memory stick, both of which are typically plugged into the docking station as well. I'm not convinced it isn't still a driver issue, but there may be nothing more you can do about it. I appreciate your looking into it.

[dafemec]

P.S. Because the reinstallation creates a system restore point each time it runs, this issue is a little bigger than an inconvenience. Prior, substantive system restore points will eventually be lost, owing to disk space constraints on how many system restore points are retained.