"Can't connect to driver" How common is the issue?

[Andy S.]

I have a little question about my XT. Along with other pen issues every now and then I get a message from the ntrig applet after booting up:


"Can't connect to driver - Failure to open Device"

When this happens the ntrig application isn't working on the Latitude XT at all. Both units I've had so far had that issue. Even after reinstallation. As a result I cannot use the auto mode and I have to be careful with my palm to avoid verctoring. The XTs are/were running Vista with th LED screen.

In order to fix the issue I have to cold reboot the XT several times.

Anyone else? Any solution to that?

And the new display shows optical disturbances on the edge of the screen. Since I cannot compare with the old one anymore, is that normal? It looks like glue between the parts of the panel. It is 2-3 pixels in width and has a margin to the display edge of 2 pixels.

I think the glue on the old displays was outside the native resolution area, but i'm not sure.

[Steve S]

<<...Anyone else?..>>

Andy: You beat me to the punch; I was just about to post the same issue.

On my first (original) XT, I have seen this infrequently... maybe once every 10 start-ups? Generally, I can Restart and everything will be fine.

However, on my second XT (refurb'ed), I started to get this message almost every other start-up; yesterday, while I was updating drivers, the message suddenly became chronic, that is, every time I restarted. I had just installed the N-trig Utility Update (fix for OneNote), so I thought that perhaps I had broken a link to the applet; so I decided to re-install the bundled N-trig Utility (update of Mar08). The first time I ran the Installer, it asked to uninstall all N-trig components. That seemed to make sense; uninstall and then re-install... so I OK'ed it. After Restarting, I ran the Installer again. It started, then aborted witha message the it "couldn't find the N-trig hardware." It may be important to note that I was Restarting, not Shutting-down, waiting 30 seconds, and then Starting-up through all of this.

Great. Time to call Tech Support.

So this morning, I got Tech Support on the line (as always very fast and the guy engaged Level 2 Support almost immediately). After running through a series of checks, I decided to try the Installer one more time and... it worked! N-trig was back on line! But... I got the "Can't connect to driver - Failure to open Device" message after Shut-down / Start-up, so it didn't apparently fix that problem...

Sorry to go on like this, but this looks like a non-trivial bug. Also, the Tech and I agreed that there's definitely a difference between installing something and restarting versus installing something and Shutting down, waiting and then Starting-up.

Rob, where are you...?

[Rob Bushway]

Are you docked?

take a look at my iTunes / Pens thread. apparently, this also helps with those issues, too.

[Steve S]

<<...Are you docked?..>>

Rob: In my particular case, no. Interestingly, the Dell knew about the iTunes problem; we discussed it and, at least for the moment, discarded it as a factor...

[Andre]

This issue happens to me too with the frequency of Steve's original XT.
I didn't mind because after a restart everything worked fine.

[Rob Bushway]

I found this happening to me on my original XT and it was tied to the USB port, as well as the iTunes upperFilter frames.

[Andy S.]

Ok, I haven't thought about a relation between the iTunes issue and the pen. I deleted the key. About docking: sometimes I was docked, in other occasion I was not docked.

[bpjen]

I have had it occur 2-3 times, mainly yesterday I found it a problem when I was hooked up to a usb hub. Every time I rebooted with the hub plugged in it would happen, when I unplugged the hub it rebooted no problem.

[Steve S]

<<...I found it a problem when I was hooked up to a usb hub...>>

...I also had a USB device (the D-Bay) plugged in the other day... but I'm not sure that was the case for every event!

However, here's the interesting part: The N-trig hardware interfaces with the motherboard by way of an internal USB port. I'm thinking that this is the smoking gun that we're all looking for! Notice that when you click on the "Safe to Disconnect USB Device" icon, the N-trig hardware is always one of the options...!

[bpjen]

I was wondering if anyone else had a usb device plugged in. I agree, Steve, that this might be the culprit. It does not happen all the time, though. Today I tried rebooting with the hub plugged in, and it booted fine, no error message.