USB causing shutdown, big errors

[Jake]

I have an Athlon 2400, just a few months old. Sometimes when I plug in either an external hard drive or flash drive, it forces a reboot, and on reboot my entire desktop is just a white fuzz. Things have been ok recently, but if and when it occurs again I'm wondering just what's going on. The computer or drives have no viruses that I'm aware of.

 

[LA1]

go to control panel and check two items

1. admintools/event viewer/system log

2. system/hardware/device manager

...both of these look for errors


Is this a clean install or upgrade? xp home or prof or vista
oem or retail cd or burnt cd ?

 

[Jake]

Thanks, I'm at the library now but I'll do that shortly.

It's a clean install, xp prof, burnt cd.

 

[krazyq]

i had a similar problem.
but mine doesnt reboot, my monitor goes to sleep and it will never resume unless i shutoff my pc, take out the psu cable and plug it back.

Im thinking its my usb port, cos im avoiding that one and nothing has happened since.