MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - FRY's Electronics Astak EZ Reader Blow-Out

mtnmedic · 07-11-2009, 12:52 PM

That's odd, Thrasymachus. I'm running Vista 64-bit on my laptop and everything works fine with my EZReader.

I did notice, from the beginning, that it takes Vista a while to initially recognise the reader and set up drivers for it. If you don't see the pop-up dialog on the reader that says "Press 'OK' to connect otherwise any other button to just charge" (I'm paraphrasing), I'm wondering if that's just not hidden or displaying for some reason and the reader is just waiting for a response from you? Neither machine can go forward without your input. So, just click "OK" and see what happens.

I also noticed that it takes Vista several seconds to bring up any kind of dialog window (usually the "Do you want to scan and fix removable drive" and/or the AutoPlay). In my case, about 5-9 seconds, depending upon what else is running.

If that doesn't work, try these things in this order:

1) Try connecting to another USB port.

2) Disconnect any other USB devices and re-start the computer. After Vista loads, try connecting only the reader to each of the USB ports.

3) If that doesn't work, leave the reader plugged in. Go to START>CONTROL PANEL>DEVICE MANAGER. In that, you will see a list of devices. The last entry is usually "Universal Serial Bus controllers". Expand that item by clicking on the little + next to the entry. In that sub-list you should see an entry called "USB mass storage device". That's your reader. If you see that, then go to START>COMPUTER and see if any Removable Disks are listed (Vista assigns a separate drive letter for your reader's internal memory and for the SD memory card-you can work with those). If you don't see "USB mass storage device" listed, go to the top of the device manager and click on "Action" and then select "Scan for hardware changes". The list will refresh itself once or twice. Check back in the USB controllers sub-list to see if "USB mass storage device" is listed. If not....

4) Disconnect the reader. Go back to the USB controllers sub-list in Device Manager, and, for each of the "USB ROOT HUB" (nothing else!) entries, right-click and select "uninstall" (click "ok" on the warning pop-up dialog). The re-start the computer. Do not attach any USB devices. Wait for Vista to fully load (the hard drive light will slow to a bit of a flicker), during which it will automatically re-install the USB root hubs. You can check to see if they are ready by going back to the USB controllers sub-list in Device Manager to see if they're all back in that list. You can leave this list up. Then try to connect your reader (see if the "press OK to connect to the computer" dialog comes up on the reader). Vista will re-install drivers for the reader. You can also watch the Device Manager refresh itself a few times as it recognises and loads mass storage device drivers for the reader. Be patient and give Vista about 10-15 seconds.

5) If that doesn't work, then there DEFINITELY is a problem with Vista. I say this because you know the reader works fine with XP on top of what we've tried above. Make sure you have ALL of the latest and greatest updates AND Windows Vista SERVICE PACK 2 installed. To determine whether you have Service Pack 1 or 2 installed, go to START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM. When that comes up, look just under "View basic information about your computer/Windows Edition". Visit Windows Update to get squared away. Service Pack 2 corrected a lot of the driver issues and bugs that gave Vista a bad name (Vista is a good OS...it's just that M$ rushed to get it on the shelves before fully testing it for those problems).

Let me know how it works for you.

07-11-2009, 12:52 PM	#93
mtnmedic Enthusiast Posts: 48 Karma: 86 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Nevada City, CA Device: iPad 64GB WiFi + 3G, Astak EZ Reader	Hmmm... That's odd, Thrasymachus. I'm running Vista 64-bit on my laptop and everything works fine with my EZReader. I did notice, from the beginning, that it takes Vista a while to initially recognise the reader and set up drivers for it. If you don't see the pop-up dialog on the reader that says "Press 'OK' to connect otherwise any other button to just charge" (I'm paraphrasing), I'm wondering if that's just not hidden or displaying for some reason and the reader is just waiting for a response from you? Neither machine can go forward without your input. So, just click "OK" and see what happens. I also noticed that it takes Vista several seconds to bring up any kind of dialog window (usually the "Do you want to scan and fix removable drive" and/or the AutoPlay). In my case, about 5-9 seconds, depending upon what else is running. If that doesn't work, try these things in this order: 1) Try connecting to another USB port. 2) Disconnect any other USB devices and re-start the computer. After Vista loads, try connecting only the reader to each of the USB ports. 3) If that doesn't work, leave the reader plugged in. Go to START>CONTROL PANEL>DEVICE MANAGER. In that, you will see a list of devices. The last entry is usually "Universal Serial Bus controllers". Expand that item by clicking on the little + next to the entry. In that sub-list you should see an entry called "USB mass storage device". That's your reader. If you see that, then go to START>COMPUTER and see if any Removable Disks are listed (Vista assigns a separate drive letter for your reader's internal memory and for the SD memory card-you can work with those). If you don't see "USB mass storage device" listed, go to the top of the device manager and click on "Action" and then select "Scan for hardware changes". The list will refresh itself once or twice. Check back in the USB controllers sub-list to see if "USB mass storage device" is listed. If not.... 4) Disconnect the reader. Go back to the USB controllers sub-list in Device Manager, and, for each of the "USB ROOT HUB" (nothing else!) entries, right-click and select "uninstall" (click "ok" on the warning pop-up dialog). The re-start the computer. Do not attach any USB devices. Wait for Vista to fully load (the hard drive light will slow to a bit of a flicker), during which it will automatically re-install the USB root hubs. You can check to see if they are ready by going back to the USB controllers sub-list in Device Manager to see if they're all back in that list. You can leave this list up. Then try to connect your reader (see if the "press OK to connect to the computer" dialog comes up on the reader). Vista will re-install drivers for the reader. You can also watch the Device Manager refresh itself a few times as it recognises and loads mass storage device drivers for the reader. Be patient and give Vista about 10-15 seconds. 5) If that doesn't work, then there DEFINITELY is a problem with Vista. I say this because you know the reader works fine with XP on top of what we've tried above. Make sure you have ALL of the latest and greatest updates AND Windows Vista SERVICE PACK 2 installed. To determine whether you have Service Pack 1 or 2 installed, go to START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM. When that comes up, look just under "View basic information about your computer/Windows Edition". Visit Windows Update to get squared away. Service Pack 2 corrected a lot of the driver issues and bugs that gave Vista a bad name (Vista is a good OS...it's just that M$ rushed to get it on the shelves before fully testing it for those problems). Let me know how it works for you.