Hi, I've been having some god awful probs with my computer and my internet lately. My internet is connected through a USB port. However, since I reformatted my computer recently, it's been having some harsh difficulties. My internet seems to disconnect frequently, usually when something on my computer is loading. Be it starting up my computer, loading a game, even opening a browser or AIM. It usually disconnects my internet, and it is driving me completely insane. I also noticed that when things are loading as said above, mymouse also starts to stutter a bit (My mouse is also hooked up to a USB port). Now I'm a techie newb when it comes to computers, so I never know how to fix these kinda things, but I've had a nose around as ya do and there are a few things I've noticed. When I right click My Computer, go to properties and then Device Manager, PCI Card has a big ? next to it. Also, when I go to Universal Serial Bus Controllers, it has a list containing:

-USB Root Hub (x2)
-VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller (x2)

Now Obviously, my internet goes through my USB, which is apparently controlled by my PCI card (To be honest I still don't know what one of these is lol), and my PCI Card has a big ? next to it. I've searched for drivers and whatnot, but nothing seems to solve this problem, so I thought I'd try asking for help. If anyone can solve this for me, I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks in advance!

Sort of hard to see and sort out what you really have there, but with a little information maybe we can help you raise the FOG level a bit.

When you formatted your computer you may have lost some of the hardware drivers that had been install on it. And you are now back to default drivers that come with Windows ME (five years old now). Windows ME has reasonably good USB drivers for VIA chip set system boards (thats what you have showing under USB controllers).

The VIA reference to "PCI to USB" has nothing to do with a PCI card, but refers to the PCI bus on the system board. Most older VIA chip set system boards came with their chip that supported two Root Hubs with two controllers. Each of these support two physical USB connectors. The standard boards have two of these connectors on the back near the keyboard and mouse plugs. The other set come off of a connector block on the system board and are often used to provide one or two USB connectors on the front of the system, for a total of four. This part look OK, (did not say GOOD!).

So if you only have USB cables plugged into the two plugs near the keyboard, mouse, printer plug, or the front of the machine then there should not be any problem with them.

However, you indicate that there is another PCI card (a card that plugs in to one of the PCI bus sockets on the system board and has its own connector(s) on the back of the machine) with a problem. This could be an Ethernet card (normally used to connect to a network or a DSL/Cable Modem), a WinModem card, a video card, or even a newer USB v2.0 card. Most likely the Device Manager has it flagged because there is a problem with it, such as the Device Drivers for it are not loaded onto the system.

You need to find out what this card is. In Device Manager, expand the block beside it and see what the description of the card is. It should tell you what the card is or give you some sort of name that can be looked up and find device drivers for. But by clicking the description to select it and then "Properties" button, you should be able to find out something about what Windows thinks is wrong with it.

I suspect it is your old modem card, and depending on which one it is, it might be hard to find the correct/best drivers for it. They might be on a CD that came with the system or the modem card.

If it is a USB 2.0 adapter, there are a number of them out there that give this error because Windows ME sees the "third" Hub on the card that it does not support. This is not a problem as the cards external plugs all work OK.

If it is some other card with an error on it, then this can cause problem with the system and make if run very slowly. In that case you either have to find the correct drivers for it or unplug the PCI card from the system bus.

Remove (not disable) - apply - ok the USB entry from device manager where you see a ?. Reboot the PC and Windows will find & re-install the drivers. If a driver was corrupt, this will fix it. Post back after you have tried this.

My exprience with the ? mark in device manager is that some ,however not all of needed drivers are installed ,if its a yellow exclamation mark then that usally however, not only would be pointing to a corrupted drvier problem ,or worst a hardware failure due to worn out and time to to replace hareware ? Now I have Norton Utilities which includes Norton Diagnostic utility ,that allows me to test most hadware . Ask around ,perhaps you are not even aware of a friend or neighbor who is a PC hobbiest and can help you ? Iam lucky that one of my neighbors is a engineer and a programmer, he has done things so fast to fix a prob ,I could not even keep up with how he did it !
Good Luck Nick

Response 1: I do have my USB cables plugged into the ports by the Keyboard and mouse plugs, but it doesn't make any difference.
As for the PCI Card ? bit, your post remindedme of the driver CD that came with my comp (god how stupid am Ifor forgetting that?!). I found it after some hard searching and it did have drivers for it, and it was a dialup modem I think. So thats solved. However, the problem with my mouse and internet acting up when something loads is still happening. As for unplugging it, I can't do that because for a start, I can't open up the damned casing, and I wouldn't have a clue about what part is what. >_<

Response 2: I tried that, however it had no affect I'm afraid. :(

Response 3: It could be a hardware problem, but as I said before I cant get the case opened, and I wouldn't know what is what anyway. And unfortunately, I am not close friends with any techies which could solve this for me. :(