How can I stop the dreaded Delayed Write Error?

January 11, 2006 6:22 AM

Ever since I installed my new cable modem via a USB port on Windows XP (SP2) my computer has been experiencing "Delayed Write Error" messages nearly every time I use a web browser (IE, Firefox, and Opera) that quickly brings the computer to a locked-up halt. How do I stop this from happening?

This error pops up in a warning bubble that says whatever file the computer was working on has been lost (usually a Firefox cookie file or some other temp web file). Typically there's several of these errors in a row and then the whole computer freezes and has to be turned off by the power button. If I try and restart right away Windows XP will not start and instead hangs with a "disk error" (no other details given about that). I have to keep the machine off for a few minutes before restarting in order to get back into Windows. Multiple spyware and virus scans have come back clean, too.

How do I stop these errors from happening? Google searching reveals that a lot of people have delayed write error problems with hard drives and Firewire ports, but I can't find anything regarding cable modems. The symptoms are all the same though. Any advice for me? I can't stand dealing with these errors and lock-ups any longer!

posted by Servo5678 to computers & internet (11 comments total)

why connectl a cable modem via USB? Don't you have an ethernet card? I've heard of using USB wireless cards, but never a USB cable modem.
posted by cosmicbandito at 6:27 AM on January 11, 2006

That sounds like a failing hard drive; the USB cable modem may be just a coincidence, not a causative factor.

BACK UP YOUR DATA RIGHT NOW.

Then continue troubleshooting.
posted by Malor at 6:29 AM on January 11, 2006

I think the USB is the bottleneck here. Try connecting it to your ethernet card, it should resolve the problem. I once connected my cable modem to my usb port, it really bogged down the machine.
posted by xospecialk at 6:44 AM on January 11, 2006

Does your PC support USB 2.0? It could be the modem is designed for USB 2.0 and is choking on slow speed of a USB 1.0 bus.
posted by cosmicbandito at 7:00 AM on January 11, 2006

I have the delayed write error problem because firefox/thunderbird are looking for configuration files on a network drive. Sometimes the computer hosting those files is tremendously bogged down, sometimes it has been turned off or un plugged. Once it starts happening I have to restart the offending application to get it to go away, very irritating!

USB 1.1 is, at least in theory, plenty fast enough for your network connection. That doesn't mean the USB 2 suggestions are wrong, but...

Modems with USB connections are very common. Although I might tend to trust the ethernet connection more, they should both work just fine.
posted by Chuckles at 7:18 AM on January 11, 2006

Assuming you don't have any other storage devices connected via USB, I too would think that maybe it's a USB 1 vs 2 issue. Have you tried connecting it via network to see if that alleviates the issue?
posted by antifuse at 7:41 AM on January 11, 2006

You might check all the items listed in this article about Delayed Write Error under XP to see if they might match your setup. I'm assuming you've updated to the latest Windows patches besides SP2, since there are hotfixes related to the message, specifically ones for WinInet and Internet access.
posted by mdevore at 7:45 AM on January 11, 2006

Do you have a USB hard drive in addition to your USB cable modem, by chance?

Do you have USB1.1, or USB2?

If you have a USB attached hard drive, it's likely that the bandwidth being hogged by your modem is causing issues for the USB hard drive.

If you have no hard drive, but only have USB1.1, this could be a problem too, as USB bandwidth is shared with all other devices you have (printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard, webcam, digital camera, ipod, etc)...

I'd suggest buying an ethernet card if you don't have one already, and hooking your cable modem up that way... USB is an inefficient way to go anyhow.
posted by twiggy at 8:29 AM on January 11, 2006

I had a similar problem on my PC at work with an emulator board that was connected via USB. The debugger software polled the board so often that the PC didn't have time for much else, and I got delayed write errors (only while running the debugger). I tried another hard drive first, and had the same problem. Once I switched to the ethernet interface the errors disappeared. I think that the USB implementations on some computers are more interrupt-intensive than others. My computer is an hp-Compaq nc6230 laptop, which is pretty new and has USB 2.0. It was only when I had switched to ethernet that I could see by the activity lights just how often the board was being accessed.
posted by rfs at 9:35 AM on January 11, 2006

I will chime in on the "switch to ethernet" chord. I had my cable modem running through a USB jack and had endless headaches (including getting a "software caused disconnection" message that would follow getting knocked off my IRC chan). I tried using the USB fix from the modem manufacturer but to no avail. After I started running my modem off the ethernet cable I never had another problem.
posted by SawBeck at 4:58 PM on January 11, 2006

Two hours ago I switched from a USB cable to an ethernet cable and have yet to get any more of those dreaded errors. Thanks for your advice, gang. Here's hoping that's the last time I'll have to deal with this problem.
posted by Servo5678 at 3:01 PM on January 12, 2006