Page 1 of 1

external hd not recognized

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:38 am
by s.dot
I have a Fantom Drive II 160 GB external hard drive. It actually hasn't worked for some time now, but about a week ago I was playing around with it trying to get it to work.. still can't get it.

It powers up, but the led light always turns red (never green - ok, or blue - activity) and stays red. The device is not automatically detected by windows xp or vista, and using the add hardware wizard, windows fails to even recognize that it's plugged into the USB port.

Yes, I've tried powering down everything and then powering up, i've isolated the USB port with the drive, then tried another USB device on only that port (which worked). Still the same results.

An attempt to contact support via email for micronet (the device manufacturer) went unanswered thus far, and I absolutely dred phone support.

Have any of you had any similar experiences? Maybe know what I can do to get the drive to work? Or, is it shot?

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:42 am
by ReverendDexter
Have you tried the drive on another computer? Also, have you tried a different USB cable, or a different device on the cable you're using?

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:27 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Does the USB port you've plugged it into have enough power? This happens with my external drive if I plug it into the little USB ports on my keyboard or monitor.

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:54 pm
by Kieran Huggins
try the drive without the enclosure and see if it works then

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:40 pm
by Benjamin
What does the red light indicate?

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:14 pm
by ReverendDexter
d11wtq wrote:Does the USB port you've plugged it into have enough power? This happens with my external drive if I plug it into the little USB ports on my keyboard or monitor.
Ooh, good point - if this paticular external hd does NOT have a seperate power supply, this could definitely be an issue.

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 6:13 pm
by s.dot
I've tried the drive on my sisters computer with the same result. I've tried all 6 different USB ports on my computer. I can't try a different USB cord because it's the only one I have like that (large square opening on one end, usb slot type open on the other).

It seems like it's not getting enough power. But it has it's own power supply plugged into the outlet (which is a power strip only hooked up to one 110 outlet -- perhaps this could be the cause of the problem? although it worked long ago like that).

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:47 am
by Benjamin
astions wrote:What does the red light indicate?
?

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:16 am
by Kieran Huggins
I still think either the drive, enclosure or connection between the two is the problem. Have you removed the drive and tried connecting it directly to an IDE cable?