I built a computer for my dad and whenever he tries to use an external hard drive (more than one, all working on other computers) it causes all sorts of problems such as the dreaded BSOD. He took it to a tech we know (and trust) and he couldn't find the problem, neither could ASUS when he contacted them. He is about to replace the motherboard and various other parts to see if that does away with the problem but I'm not convinced that is the only solution. The build is as follows:

Cooler Master Elite 333 case
Asus P5K series wireless edition MB
Crucial Ballistix RAM (apparently under extreme testing one stick is faulty, is it possible this is causing the problem?)
2.66GHz Core 2 Duo CPU
2 500GB WD Caviar's RAID 1
Cooler Master Extreme Power 600w CPU

Feel free to give me a should if you need more info. It has XP SP2 installed, not overheating. Hard drives slightly hot but not extremely, so will probably install front fan. Unfortunately the computer is not with me so I will not be able to test any complex theories straight away but any suggestions are appreciated none the less.

Thanks in advance!

--Rikki

This post has been edited by rikki_uw: Aug 6 2008, 07:06 PM

There's no harm in testing, if one of the stick of RAM is faulty, try taking that out and just use the good RAM only and then try using the external hard drive.

Thanks for your reply, I'll see if the RAM makes a difference.

A friend also told me to try reinstalling the USB and Chipset drivers, I'll give that a try as well.

Hi,

Does this happen with any USB device, or only an external hard drive?

Cheers

Troy

Nope, just with external HDs. Apparently a new motherboard has been purchased, what do you think are the chances that this will solve the problem? He's also tried a complete reformat with no success.