[katecollinson]

Gateway Maxtor external HD incompatibility?

I am using a Gateway desktop, Pentium 4, 2.60 Ghz, 240 RAM and am running Windows XP Professional version 2002, Service Pack 2. I recently purchased a Maxtor 80GB external hard drive (PS3100). When I plug it into any of my USB ports, I get the message USB Device Not Recognized (One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance, click...)

The "assistance" gets me nowhere. I have called Maxtor and they suggested trying it with another computer and the HD worked fine. I called Gateway and they said they can't guarantee compatibility with a Maxtor drive. (Is that reasonable?)

Using Device Manager (when the HD is plugged in), I get the following info about the Driver: Microsoft, 7/1/2001, 5.1.2600.0, signer: Microsoft Windows Publisher. When I clicked on Detail, it showed "Device instance ID" and then 0000&PID_0000\5&338DAB2D&0&7.

Does this mean anything to anyone? I am clueless how to proceed. If it's really a Gateway-Maxtor issue, I would consider purchasing another HD, but I'm concerned that the problem is with the Gateway computer. I have tried to download a new driver from the Maxtor site, but there isn't one available (With XP, it's not supposed to be needed, they say.) Can you help?? Thanks!
(Also posted on Windows XP)