Blue Screen Of Death on iPhone plugin: NOT caused by Logitech or HP

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Blue Screen Of Death on iPhone plugin: NOT caused by Logitech or HP

Hi,

Like many posters who have posted throughout 2009, my Windows XP computer crashes consistently every time I plug in my new iPhone. I am currently totally unable to use iTunes to connect to the iPhone.

I have spent more than 8 hours trying ALL the causes listed on Apple's website. It is NOT those. I do not have a Logitech Camera or an HP Scanner or anything else listed there. Below you can see a complete list of what I have and what I have tried.

It is very clear from other posts that Apple's usbaapl.sys driver still has bugs/conflicts that Apple has not yet identified. Let's get to work figuring out what the problem is!

I would appreciate any suggestions or pointers from other members, but please do review the details below before you post.

I am technical and would be happy to provide further info or try suggested registry changes, drivers, etc.

Details:

Every time I plug in my iPhone 3G, my Windows XP Desktop computer Blue-Screens in the Apple-provided usbaapl.sys driver (which is installed by the iTunes Apple Mobile Device Support installer component) within seconds, whilst Windows Plug and Play is loading the "Apple Mobile Devices" driver. Windows plug-and-play never makes it to the "imaging device" device. It crashes within 0-5 seconds of plugging in the device.

The same iPhone can successfully work with iTunes on my friend's Windows XP system, so the problem is not with my iPhone; it is with the Apple iTunes software.

There is some problem with interaction between iTunes on my Windows XP computer and my iPhone.

I have iTunes 8.2.1.6 with Windows XP sp3.

I have already tried ALL of the suggestions at:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2280
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1502

In particular

- I do not have a Logitech camera, either built-in or plug-in.

- I unplugged AND uninstalled all the drivers for
- my printer (which is a Canon i560)
- my scanner (which is Canon CanoScan LIDE 25)
- my USB hub/card reader (IOGEAR GUH284R)
- my webcam (Creative Webcam Pro)

- I actually unplugged ALL USB devices first, including the mouse and the USB hub, rebooted, and it still blue-screens when plugging in the iPhone directly to the computer's USB port.

- I used to have an HP PrecisionScan Pro, and so I also uninstalled all drivers for all old hardware (not just the HP scanner), and rebooted. Still blue-screens when plugging in the iPhone.

- I have tried all USB ports of the computer, including directly plugging into them without any USB hub. Still blue-screens.

- I completely uninstalled iTunes, QuickTime, and Apple Mobile Device Support, rebooted, verified that usbaaap.sys was gone from system32/drivers, then reinstalled iTunes 8.2.1.6 -- still blue-screens

- When I re-installed iTunes, I had disabled my computer's firewall and anti-virus as an Apple tech had suggested, but this didn't help -- still blue-screens.

- I also tried the hack, suggested on the internet, of installing Apple Mobile Device Support from iTunes 7.7.1 on top of iTunes/QuickTime version 8.2.1.6. I verified that I was in fact getting a different usbaapl.sys but -- still blue screens.

- I verified that if I delete the usbaapl.sys driver, plugging in the iPhone does not blue-screen (though of course I cannot use it either). The blue screen of death that appears also contains the word usbaapl.sys. The crash is definitely in that driver. I understand that Apple and Logitech say the "real problem" is in another driver, but as mentioned above, I have eliminated everything on the list in Apple's support suggestion, and I still blue-screen. I even blue-screen with Apple's version 7.7.1 usbaapl.sys driver.

- I verified that my PC has the latest chipset drivers and USB 2.0 drivers. My PC has a 2.8 GHz P4 processor with an ABIT BD7II-RAID motherboard. It has an Intel 845E chipset with Intel 82801DB (ICH4) I/O USB controller. I have never had any other problems like this with any other USB device on this computer. My problem is unique to iPhone.

- I saw on the internet that in 2007 there was an iTunes blue-screen crash that resulted if the iPhone had any Photos on it. So I deleted all the photos on my iPhone. Still blue-screens.

2.8 GHz P4 w/ABIT BD7II-RAID mb, 512MB, Intel 845E chipset, Windows XP

Posted on Jul 25, 2009 7:00 PM

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Answer 1

PTBoater

Level 4

2,845 points

Jul 25, 2009 7:10 PM in response to lsemprini

It certainly sounds like you've tried everything. There still seems to be something on your computer that is conflicting with the Apple software.

What does the blue screen say is the problem? Is it usbaapl.sys?

I know this is not any comfort, but if I were facing the same problem you are, I would take this opportunity to do a clean install of my PC. I have done it before and it is a big pain in the rear, but the fact is Windows XP collects stuff over the months and sometimes the uninstall procedures are not clean - stuff remains.

While you consider that, let me recommend Acronis True Image. It has saved my bacon many a time. It lets me take a snapshot of my computer and I can restore my PC in minutes. What I do when I get a new PC is I image it right out of the box, then I image it again after I've installed all the patches and updates, and one last time after I've loaded all my apps. If everything works, I move on, but if something goes bump I can reset to any of those three points in minutes. I also do an automatic image of my PC every week (automatically overnight).

I would make an image of your system now, and maybe try some other things, like CCleaner and the registry cleaner option. Maybe that will clean out some old cobwebs that are causing problems. I would remove ALL Apple software, then manually look for any leftover files from that or from the other devices you removed. This can take some time. I personally would invest that time in a clean install. Windows XP runs a lot better after a fresh install.

Good luck!!! 🙂

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Answer 2

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Jul 25, 2009 7:12 PM in response to lsemprini

If it is working fine on your friends computer that is also using iTunes then it would be using the same driver. So I agree it is not a problem with your iPhone but it also is not a problem with iTunes or the driver. It is some other problem on your USB chain.

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Answer 3

lsemprini Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 25, 2009 10:53 PM in response to PTBoater

PTBoater wrote:
It certainly sounds like you've tried everything. There still seems to be something on your computer that is conflicting with the Apple software.

What does the blue screen say is the problem? Is it usbaapl.sys?

Yes, as mentioned in the OP, it says usbaapl.sys on the blue screen, and removing the driver avoids the bluescreen (but of course also prevents the iPhone from working with iTunes). Interestingly, when removing the usbaapl.sys driver, the imaging side of the device actually works with my computer (i.e., I can get the Photos stored, which comes via an alternate driver interface). The problem is REALLY isolated just to the Apple iTunes interlink code in usbaapl.sys.

PTBoater wrote:
I know this is not any comfort, but if I were facing the same problem you are, I would take this opportunity to do a clean install of my PC.

This would be incredibly difficult in my case because I have a lot of licensed software that would require multi-week round trips with the vendor to get things working again.

I did find another way to find leftover crap in driver space...see next post.

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Answer 4

lsemprini Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 25, 2009 11:01 PM in response to deggie

deggie wrote:
If it is working fine on your friends computer that is also using iTunes then it would be using the same driver. So I agree it is not a problem with your iPhone but it also is not a problem with iTunes or the driver. It is some other problem on your USB chain.

Well as I mentioned in the OP, I disconnected ALL USB devices (including the mouse, and my keyboard is PS/2) and removed the drivers for ALL reasonable USB devices (everything but the mouse) and still I get a blue-screen on iPhone insertion.

Having done this 8 hours work (more like 12 hours now), I am feeling pretty confident in saying that the issue might just reside in usbaapl.sys itself rather than depending on other third-party (non-Apple, non-Microsoft) USB device drivers installed on my machine.

Since so many people have posted on this forum that their problem is NOT fixed by the "standard" Apple advice, it seems Apple needs to take another look at this blue screen issue, in an effort to find something common between my machine and those of the others that consistently blue-screen in usbaapl.sys. Clearly there's something more to it than just a handful of camera and scanner vendors' software.

I did find what initially seemed to be an incredibly promising post:

http://mint.litemedia.se/2008/09/06/iphone-crashes-windows-xp/

This post provides a pointer to an incredibly eye-openining, undocumented hack to make the Device Manager REALLY show you the drivers that are installed, including ones not currently in use:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/504/how-to-uninstall-hidden-devices-drivers-and-s ervices/

Alas, when I removed all the hidden cruft that was left over (including an old Brother printer driver, just like the guy who posted) and rebooted, I STILL get the blue-screen on iPhone insertion. Sigh.

But I am posting this in case this method helps someone else in my boat.

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Answer 5

lsemprini Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 25, 2009 11:33 PM in response to lsemprini

lsemprini wrote:

Yes, as mentioned in the OP, it says usbaapl.sys on the blue screen, and removing the driver avoids the bluescreen (but of course also prevents the iPhone from working with iTunes). Interestingly, when removing the usbaapl.sys driver, the imaging side of the device actually works with my computer (i.e., I can get the Photos stored, which comes via an alternate driver interface). The problem is REALLY isolated just to the Apple iTunes interlink code in usbaapl.sys.

I'd like to emphasize and clarify this point a little more as I think it may be the key symptom for separating my problem (and that of other posters, I'd imagine) from the "standard Logitech conflict" problem:

With the bug I am reporting, I plug in the iPhone, and Windows pops up a plug-and-play bubble for "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver," which is usbaapl.sys (you can verify this with 100% certainty by searching for usbaapl in regedit). The blue screen occurs for me during this phase (sometimes an instant after the bubble pops up)!

If I disable usbaapl.sys by removing the driver, Windows gets past "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" (happily failing to report any error even though it has not loaded the driver, sigh) and goes on to an "imaging" device (I think it might have said "iPhone camera" or "Imaging Device;" I can check again if it's important), which succeeds to load, and I can access pictures stored on the iPhone using the standard Windows Scanner and Camera Wizard tool, which I think uses the WIA API.

So my bug differs from the "standard Logitech conflict" in that it has NO relation to whether or not I have Photos on the iPhone, and if I disable the buggy usbaapl.sys driver, I AM able to access photos on the PC.

In most of the bug reports I saw for the "standard Logitech conflict" problem, users only experienced crashes when the camera had one or more Photos on it, and it appears (though other bug reports are not clear) that the system crashes just after Windows attempts to load the "imaging" driver for the iPhone. My guess is that those users got through "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" with no problem and crashed on the "imaging" driver.

Can someone at apple please post an engineering bug on this issue?

That way we can get a list of technical questions from the engineers that need answering so that we can really stomp this bug for good. I can also volunteer to try out debugging versions of the drivers and collect log files, if needed. I am a systems software engr with Windoze experience so I can probably help expedite the debugging process.

I want to get this fixed and I'm sure many posters do also!

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Answer 6

Jul 26, 2009 1:29 AM in response to lsemprini

to solve your blue screen issue you should not be posting here, here is the route you should take to identify the problem.

first, make the bluescreen happen when it does write down all the numbers, generally it starts with a 09x or something, followed by commas, spaces and more numbers.

also you should have one line by itself that says something like

BAD SPOOLROUTER or something, it could say almost anything. write all this information down by hand (what? write something?) make it happen as many times as needed untill you have all the information.... then... wait for it....

google it. it will most likely bring up tech sights with people having your exact same problem, maybe even an official Microsoft fix. google the number first each one by itself, then google the all caps words exactly as you copied them. by itself also. let me know if this finds you an actual fix.

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Answer 7

lsemprini Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2009 3:42 AM in response to kyleplusitunes

kyleplusitunes wrote:
to solve your blue screen issue you should not be posting here, here is the route you should take to identify the problem.

first, make the bluescreen happen when it does write down all the numbers, generally it starts with a 09x or something, followed by commas, spaces and more numbers.

also you should have one line by itself that says something like

BAD SPOOLROUTER or something, it could say almost anything. write all this information down by hand (what? write something?) make it happen as many times as needed untill you have all the information.... then... wait for it....

google it. it will most likely bring up tech sights with people having your exact same problem, maybe even an official Microsoft fix. google the number first each one by itself, then google the all caps words exactly as you copied them. by itself also. let me know if this finds you an actual fix.

Hi,

Good idea, but unfortunately in this case the error is IRQL NOT_LESS_OREQUAL, which is pretty much a generic crash for badly written driver code, and the code location of crash, printed on the blue screen, is usbaapl.sys, which is the "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver." So, alas, the numbers printed refer to a piece of Apple code, and one does not find any references to them on Google other than the handful of Apple blue-screen reports that I've already referenced above.

The technique of writing down the blue-screen registers and stack can be useful for tracking blue-screens in general, but in this specific case, the evidence printed in the blue screen points specifically and directly at Apple's code. It can still be the result of interaction with Apple code and other code, but a) the numbers are unfortunately not helpful here because they do not point to the other code, and b) as I mentioned, I already disabled and uninstalled ALL other USB devices so the theory that it's tied to another piece of USB hardware is becoming increasingly far-fetched.

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Answer 8

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Jul 26, 2009 6:31 AM in response to lsemprini

I understood all that you did. But the fact is if you have used your iPhone on another computer that is using the same version of iTunes and the same Apple driver and it works then what issue is Apple supposed to resolve. Are they supposed to rewrite the driver, the same one on your computer and your friends, to make it work on yours? But then what if it no longer works on your friends.? And it wouldn't work on my friend Sam's computer either.

Trying it on another computer is always a good diagnostic step and since you did that and it worked on the other one you actually have eliminated a number of things.

I know you talked about other USB drivers, but have you actually replaced/updated the root USB driver on your computer? It has already been suggested that you remove and reload your OS, this would accomplish this step and if it doesn't work would rule out one more possibility. And, are you certain you do not have a hardware problem with the USB chain?

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Answer 9

lsemprini Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2009 9:08 AM in response to deggie

deggie wrote:
I understood all that you did. But the fact is if you have used your iPhone on another computer that is using the same version of iTunes and the same Apple driver and it works then what issue is Apple supposed to resolve.

If it was really just my machine, I wouldn't even think of posting. However, if you do a search for 'blue-screen' on this forum and on google, and check out how many people still have lingering, reproducible blue-screens on their PC when plugging in their iPhone, despite having ruled out Logitech, HP Scanners, and all the "standard" solutions, it's very clear that there's still something more to this bug---something that is not caused by third party USB drivers. There is sufficient evidence to suspect a problem in Apple's driver itself, since many of those posters had already tried to unplug and remove drivers for other devices. Enough evidence to warrant an Apple engineer collecting data from the many blue-screen cases such as mine and seeing if there is indeed a real bug to fix. As for the 'root' USB drivers (which come with Windoze), I had already tried to update them, no luck -- still blue-screens.

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