I just bought a SanDisk 256 MB USB key. I am using Mandrake 10.0 Official. When I put the key into a USB port KDE recognizes it and puts a Harddisk Icon on the desktop. When I click and open the icon I can copy to and from the USB key in normal fashion.

The problem comes when the computer tries to read from the USB key. It reads in an abnormally slow manner. For example, when there is a small pdf file on the USB key and I click on it to read it in xpdf, the first page comes up slowly and the scrolling is slow. I must wait for each new page to appear (this is for a 5 page pdf document). I can copy a 4mb mp3 file to the USB key very quickly but when I click on it to play it in the Totem player, it freezes when the Visualizations that accompany the song start. If I choose to play the song in a "plain" player that has no visualizations, the the music plays but it is choppy. When the computer is reading the USB key the light flashes intermittently, rather than being a steady glow.

I dual boot Windows XP and the USB key works flawlessly when in windows. The pdf file opens with no waiting for pages and the mp3 plays flawlessly, complete with visualizations. When the mp3 file is playing, the light on the USB key is a steady glow.

I removed all software off the USB key (thinking there was windows software that was filtering the files), including hidden files, except for the mp3 file. But the results are the same. That is the mp3 plays flawlessly in Windows XP, complete with visualizations but won't play at all with visualizations in Mandrake and only in a choopy fashion otherwise.

I have no idea what is causing this. Is it a read permissions issue? I would very much like to use this USB key in Mandrake Linux but don't know what to try. I Googled the problem using various search phrases without much luck.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Bill Dika

What are you pc specs?

Just a thought ... although it might not apply to your distro ... have you tried running 'top' while accessing the USB key? I have often found that various distros run 'hardware sniffers' that check for changes in your hardware, i.e. when you add a peripheral. Although I am currently running under VMware this 'sniffing' or 'monitoring' has had disasterous effects such as jerky mice and cursors, choppy sounds and even interminable lock-ups. Some of these 'monitor' programs are automatically loaded and are seldom well documented. If you turn them off you may find your problems disappear.

HTH

imdeemvp

I have a 2.6 ghz pentium 4 with 1 gig of memory, 40 gig hard drive (20 gig mandrake, 20 gig Windows XP). I think the USB ports are 1.1.


minrich

How do I run 'top' while accessing the USB key?

Regards,
Bill Dika

You don't "run" it on the USB key. Open up a console and type "top" and hit enter. It displays CPU and memory usage for whatever you have running.

I have a SanDisk 256 MB Mini Cruzer, and it works perfectly. just curious, have you tried playing mp3s on it, or opening an openoffice .sxw document on it?

edit

oh, your running 10.0. maybe an update to 10.1 official might help.