Stupid Error Message of the Day

[Gene E. Bloch]

I find it odd that Zaphod speaks so highly of retractable ones because
I've had trouble with several over the years.

There are three different types I've used;
1. Removable plastic cap
2. Swivel into retaining half
3. Retractable.

The first two have a similar open USB plug; and both work well for me.
It's the last type that I'm now avoiding at all costs, but unfortunately
they're becoming more the norm (probably cheaper to produce in these
straightened times of ours!).

The USB plug part on the Cruzer Edge has to be seen to be believed. It's
just so fragile (only three sides to it) that bad contact seems inevitable.

Looking at the Edge I'm not sure I'd trust it either. The standard
Cruzer is much more robust. Really, it is a standard USB drive plug
with a slightly larger outer shell that slides around a slightly
smaller inner plastic shell.[/QUOTE]

Which is why I wanted to ask why anyone thinks a retractable plug is
dangerous. As you said, it's really a thumb drive with a sliding
cover...

I have a 16GB thumb drive which I use as a backup for a few items. It
lives on my keyring in my pocket and has worked for a long time. Maybe 3
years. No, I just looked - only 2 years 11 months, sorry.

It's a flat piece of plastic about 3x13x28 mm sliding in a plastic
channel just big enough to hold it. The connector is four leads on about
12 mm of the end that slides out.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

What you may have encountered is a drive with too much plastic housing at
the connector end of the shell; from the picture in the ad you linked above
it looks like the plastic shell on the bottom (as shown) extends a good
distance closer to the end of the connector than does the top.

To me it looks more like the shell is *wider* at the bottom, not longer,
as though its axial cross section was a trapezoid rather than a
rectangle.

I've had drives (including a Cruzer) that on certain machines would not seat
in the USB connector because the drive had extra shell plastic exactly where
the computer case had extra shell plastic, and the two together prevented
the drive from seating. After moving the drive to a connector without the
extra plastic everything worked.

Joe

I've even had that problem with an external DVD burner which connected
via a mini-USB B connector. I had to use a cable that had less plastic
at the DVD drive end. I happened to have one handy, so I didn't have to
do a bris on the other cable.

 

[Joe Morris]

I've even had that problem with an external DVD burner which connected
via a mini-USB B connector. I had to use a cable that had less plastic
at the DVD drive end. I happened to have one handy, so I didn't have to
do a bris on the other cable.

* R * O * F * L * - especially since I had to trim a eSATA cable due
problems I though might be caused by a recessed connector - turned out to be
a bad cable.

Thanks; I needed a good laugh after fighting Windows 8 at the office for
much of the day. Project for tomorrow is to figure out what part of the
autounattend.xml file is causing the trouble.

So far, Windows 8 is winning and I'm whining.

Joe

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

So far, Windows 8 is winning and I'm whining.

I'm still kind of scared that in the not too distant future we might not
have much choice...

I might be forced to adapt, perish the thought.