I live with a computer nerd, but he is too busy to help me with a problem I'm having.

Here it is guys, and I hope you can help me.

I have 2 brainstick plugs on my brainbox. the top one hasn't worked in ages and I don't know how to make it so.

The bottom one worked just fine until I destroyed that iphone. Now it won't read anything plugged into it except the phone. It doesn't read brain sticks, it doesn't read the camera, it doesn't read the card brainstick transfer thing.

Is there something I can do to make that brainbox read those brainstick plugs? I'm getting so tired of using my notebook to transfer, then loading to the phone, then loading to the brainbox. It's such a waste of time.

Help please!

For those of you who are wondering about brainbox and brainstick. Let me quote this post:Roxanne,

A while ago, my brother had the same problem and in his case it looked like the motherboard was partially fried. The only solution we found, other than replacing the motherboard, was to buy a new PCI adapter to add 4 USB ports to his computer. It cost next to nothing and he was very happy.

Skarabajo.

Thanks. It looks like I'll need the computer nerds help after all. He'd kill me if I opened the brainbox by myself. Although it might be fun.........

You could try using the Device Manager to remove the brainstick hub. Unless it's a special motherboard, the brainbox should recognize the brainstick hub is gone and attempt to reinstall the drivers. I'd highly recommend setting a System Restore point before attempting any changes. If you feel any discomfort at all, you can enable Remote Desktop on the My Computer properties and then PM the details.

You know, I don't even know what OS rox uses.

This definitely isn't the hardest problem to solve, though. The top one not working may be a really easy fix or a broken port, but the bottom one clearly works (reads iphone).

What OS do you use?

OS? That's the windows 7 thing right?

I turned off the computer yesterday and restarted it. The brain box recognized the card reader thing and the phone. Still refuses to recognize the camera or my portable brain box or the brain sticks.

I think the poor old girl is just trying to tell me it's time to give her a well deserved rest. She's only been working full tilt for me for 16 years now. (with a few minor tweaks and updates through the years) Blessed old doll still has her 5 inch floppy installed. But sentimental old fool that I am, I hate the thought of trading her in for a newer model. She's been with me through thick and thin over the years. Loosing her would be like loosing my left arm.

When I get home I'll write something up for finding what's wrong with the USB ports.

For a 16 year old computer, it could be that it's just too old for Windows 7 to recognize all the components correctly. If there is a manufacturer site for the brainbox, you could check it to see if there are updates.

Quick question: how is it even possible for a computer 16 years old to come even close to meeting the specs for Windows 7? How many times has it been upgraded? Is the hardware itself 16 years old or just the case? If the motherboard itself is truly 16 years old, then Windows 95 was brand new then. Windows didn't even have USB support until Windows 98.

It sounds to me like you've got some issues with mixing old and new hardware/software together in the same machine. One travesty of Vista/Windows 7 is there is virtually zero driver support for almost any peripheral manufactured before 2005 or so.

Funny you mention you still have a 5 inch floppy drive. I installed a 3.5" floppy drive on my quad core Vista 64 system just so I could boot it into DOS if I wanted

Um, I don't know! Why do you think I asked for help?

Seriously, I do know that Matt has opened up the brain box and replaced things on occasion. He is using a brainstick inside as a "Ram Disk" (I only know that because i'm not allowed to use it to save things to and sometimes it says it is full so I have to move everything from that to the c: drive.)

I've discovered that if the computer doesn't read something all i need to do is reboot it. But I can't cold boot it, i have to do the shut down thing then let it sit for a few minutes before restarting. (now how's that for knowing computer speak! )