Riddle Me This... USB/AC power issue

Overheal

I have a graphics tablet that Ive been trying to figure out for a few days. It was jumping around the screen like a horned up bunny.

Tried running it when the laptop was on the battery: works perfectly

And my speakers are getting a lot of static - so I have to blame Dirty Power.

However how could dirty power be geting all the way to my USB device and How can I address the problem?

There were some BIOS updates in the last week or so: might these be the cause of my errors?

edit: well I narrowed down the culprit: the thing ****ing up my entire set up is my laptop's AC transformer. ****.

Capt'n Midnight

try a powered usb hub so the device gets it's power from the hub not the pc ?

try different USB ports, some are 500mA some only 100mA , on the same laptop


for older laptops if the device takes two usb connections then get a ps/2 to usb adaptor and put the power only usb in to it on a keyboard port ,rob the one from a 3G card if you want an external driver to work ( keyboard can handle up to 1000mA but if you you drain too much it will probably blow a fuse on the motherboard instead of just powering down lke a usb one would, just to be aware that you can't run a lot of things from it.)

Overheal

Sadly this turned out to be an issue with the charger.

The long story condensed: the original charger shorted*. Your original charger is not covered under HPs warranty - so I said fine where can i buy a new one off you they offered NOTHING! UK and IE sites just support compaq (not pavillion) and you cant ship anything outside the US from the .com site. Very disappointing.

So I went and bought an equivalent compaq charger but it appears the output is off the original by half a volt and .2 amps - over the course of a month that has done a bit of damage to the charger; it hums now and that feeds back along my power outlets - not only does it mess up the USB it messes with everything: even my desk speakers - which have become unusable because of the amount of feedback they are getting through both the AC and the laptop itself.

It started wreaking untold havoc on my hard drive (serious freeze-ups) and even seemed to affect the touchpad so I switched to pure battery use; shutting down the laptop completely to recharge.

But just now I've suddenly gotten fed up of that all this week - so I've decided to plug it back in :eek: its going fine but ive only been at it 15 minutes so it may yet **** up all over again. My rationale is I will just have it shipped to HP if it becomes completely banjaxed: ultimately I blame them for the charger snafu, so if any damage happens ill let them deal with it under warranty - which I hear from a nice compustore guy that just opened up shop in carlow - is a lot easier to do here in ireland than try and buy a spare charger.

If anyone thinks I'm crazy, tell me now <-- that smile is manic btw

*plugged the AC cable fell loose of the charger component which caused the shortage.

edit: coming up on an hour now... no glitches in the matrix yet.