Power-Hungry Hubs
Do your PC's USB ports supply enough electricity to power all the devices you have attached to them? Plugging too much gear into a bus-powered USB hub (one with no external power adapter) can overwhelm a USB port by demanding more than the 500 mA it can supply. Check the power demands on any USB port in Windows XP by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Properties, Hardware, Device Manager. Double-click Universal Serial Bus controllers, double-click the USB Root Hub entry, choose the Power tab, and add up the amounts in the 'Power Required' column.
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