Safely Remove Hardware and USB sticks

!!IMPORTANT!! SAFELY REMOVE HARDWARE

If you have a USB stick (some people call them a "thumbdrive"), you need to know something very important about this device. USB ports are powered all the time with 5 volts. Therefore, you need to power the port down before you remove the usb stick.

Here's how to do it: down by the clock there is little icon that looks like it has a green arrow on it. Right click on that and you'll see "safely remove hardware". Then, if there are several in a list and you aren't sure which one is yours, keep in mind that they are listed in order of the time they were plugged in. If yours was the last usb device to be plugged in to the computer, yours is the bottom of the list. So you choose your device, right click, and click on Remove Device. You should see a message saying, "you can now safely remove hardware" and you'll know that NOW it's okay to take your thumbdrive back and put it into your pocket again.

If you do not do the "Safely Remove Device" part, you may find your usb stick will not work the next time you go to use it. Either you'll see a message saying, "This drive is not formated, would you like to format it now?", OR you may see that it just seems dead and the computer doesn't respond to it. Either way, your stuff is gone.

If you get the first message, you may at least be able to use this stick again. The second one means you may as well chuck it in the garbage because it's dead.

Check the USB ports

If one day you go to turn on your computer from a "cold" state, and it won't power up, check the USB ports. Sometimes fans and some lights will come on but the machine just won't go further and power up. It can be frustrating, I know.

Check the USB ports. If you have something powered plugged into a USB port (ie, an external harddrive), some machines seem to believe they are already on because they are getting power through the USB port.

If you have nothing plugged into any USB ports, check the ports themselves visually. Sometimes a bent pin or wire can be shorting something. Sometimes people don't allow a USB plug to go in properly and jam it in the wrong way. That can mess things up.

So if after having checked all the USB ports on your desktop or laptop and nothing is damaged or plugged into them, check how much dust is in your power supply or exhaust fan. If there's a lot of dust, you might want to start thinking about purchasing a new machine, and then get this one cleaned out. You will probably need a new power supply.

If you're still not sure, have a professional have a look to troubleshoot your issue.