Odd Smartboard/Dell problem

[teejay]

We have D520's and D510's here and they don't have problems. We did have a batch of dodgy PSU's which would cause problems with interference.
If you've got a D510 or D520 with a different model of the power supply try that. The revisions we had problems with are the PA-12 Rev A00 and A01, the newer A03 revisons has no such problems. It might be worth persuading Dell to send you one out to try.
Few other things:
Is it only the newer versions of the Smartboards, ie the 600 series rather than the 500?
You say there is another Dell with problems, is it the same model?
I know this is bleeding obvious but do the usb ports work with other devices?
Are you using Smartboard v10 software and if so is the seperate driver package installed?

[witch]

Smartboard works with all other laptops - old Dells, Tosh, etc Yes, the drivers etc are in and working
The problem only lies with the new Smartboard 600 usb boards
USB ports on laptop work with other devices
Both of my 520s have identical PSUs unfortunately
Contacted Dell again, they had no solution at all
Someone must have come across this before
HELP!!

[witch]

I have had a long chat with a very helpful Dell guy who could only suggest that I disable anything that takes power like the bluetooth and the wireless by actually disconnecting them - I must admit the thought of taking a new Dell apart gives me the screaming abdabs.
If anyone has any advice on how to go about this I would be grateful
I will give it a go though if I ever have time - but I can't see it

Can ANYONE give me some help on this? It just seems so odd that it is just one board and one laptop

[Andie]

OK. Two very very long shots, and you may be unable to try the first anyway, but here goes:

Remember I had a problem getting a SMARTboard to install to a laptop?(SMARTboard driver install failure headache)
There, it was the Windows drivers that weren't working. Have you had a look in Device Manager to see if there are any issues with drivers (yellow question marks against devices)? In my case it was a problem with a Human Interface Device. The problem laptop was a new one. I had installed software onto it, and then connected it to the board and it didn't install drivers properly. Never found out why, as an identical new laptop didn't have the same problem. But it was solved by the laptop supplier sending me out a replacement hard drive with original image on it as supplied, then I connected the board to the laptop without installing any other software first. In your case, this may mean a windows reinstall?

Suggestion 2: a problem I encountered on my home machine in Vista, but worth a try if you haven't already (and similar but not as drastic to the suggestion from Dell). Have you tried disconnecting all other USB devices (memory sticks,etc.) from the laptop? At home, and this machine has a lot connected to it, we have to remove the web cam or a memory stick crashes the computer!

[witch]

Thanks Andie, but there are no problems in Device Manager and no other USB devices attached to the machine. I did think it might be the USB Human Interface device but it is not registering any problems. I have upgraded the software to the latest version, even installing the drivers separately, but NOTHING works
I am at my wits end as this is the third problem this week with apparently no solution

[witch]

Just in case anyone wants to know
I fixed it
Having tried several USB cables from other boards around the school - which all worked fine with their own boards - I finally tried a new cable (different make) and, weirdly, it worked!!
Don't know why
Don't care!
Hope it lasts - Teacher is really chuffed so I got a lot of brownie points!

[pooley]

Only just noticed this thread, we had similar issues with USB leads, but it was the length of them that was the issue not the make, they had to be less than 2 meters in length from board to laptop. 5 mins with knife and soldering iron did the job here.

[witch]

Ours were already that short and the new one is the same length as the old one!