Other USB overheat message on startup

The message on trying to boot is "USB device over current
status detected. Device will shut down in 15seconds" which it duly does
but another press
of the start button and up it runs with
no message. Happens every time I start it up. XP on an
old what I think is Emachine. All USB ports disconnected
other that the onboard which are not damaged. The PSU tests out
OK using a decent tester (Amtec).
Question really is where does the message originate from.

 

Ive had this before and it was a short where one of the USB ports was knackered. Have a good look in them all and make sure nothing is bent or the plastic tongue bit is still intact and hasn't fallen off.
What I found on mine was exactly this on the front panel. As it has moved it was touching the metal on the port and caused a short.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, One of the front ports was suspect which is why I disconnected them. The on board ports appear fine, what puzzles me is that on the second go at starting up no message and up it runs. If there was a fault on the on board ports then surely it would do it all the time, weird like it has had a fault in the past and remembered it.

 

That is possible, you could try removing the CMOS battery and doing a reset. Worth a try.

 

You could try disabling the ports individually one by one in the device manager, Worked for me in the past.

 

I have removed and replaced the CMOS battery and now it won't boot up at all. It is as if there is no signal from it.

 

OK, sorted that issue (not booting) I want to use this for cctv recording mainly so after the initial nuisance shutdown when first starting once it is running should be 24/7 so given up with the original issue. I can get it to boot from XP or Win7 on separate HDDs but if I connect both it will not start up saying no O/S found. I really need it to dual boot from either and also have another disk just for recording. Any suggestions please.

 

How did you install them? If you install XP then 7 with both disks in in the first place then you should get a menu allowing you to switch between them. If you installed them with only their disk then the boot information for each OS will be on that disk and you will have to select which disk you want to boot from from the bios.

There may even be a button you can press to select the boot device from outside the bios, like F11.

There is also the option to rebuild the boot sector, you should be able to find a guide online.

 

On booting up and only having the XP disk connected I am given the chioce of W7 or XP. I can't choose W7 as the drive is unplugged. If I connect both of them then it will not boot at all, says it can't find O/S. Both of them work OK but only if connected without the other. I am puzzled on this one.

 

When they are both plugged in, what disk is your bios telling your computer to boot first?

 

The problem is that when they are both plugged in I cannot access the BIOS. It does not get that far, it says it can't find O/S.

 

If it can't find the OS than it's got past the bios, the bios doesn't had it over until it's finished.

 

Thanks, only the W7 drive shows in bios but it won't start from it with the other XP drive connected. It will boot from either if the only drive.

 

Is there a page for boot order?

 

That was quick. Yes but only shows 1 HDD.

 

These are IDE drives and I have taken them out to look at the jumper settings. W7 on the end of the cable is "cable select" the other the XP is "Master with slave present" does that seem OK.

 

Aha! best put them both on Cable select.

 

Thanks Deders, I have done that and it now works fine. My fault, I took the drives from another PC where they were working OK and put them in this one without considering the jumpers.