Could have something to do with the new CD Control command. It 'listens' to the insertion and/or removal of media from removable drives - and even though it (should) only do this for CD-ROM drives, the fact is that a thumb drive is removable media.

Let me look a little further into this.

Something else I need you to do to help me troubleshoot, please:

Reset NextSTART to factory defaults. Confirm that the issue with the thumb drives is NOT happening.

Now Restore the backup. Confirm that the issue with the thumb drives is NOT happening.

Now, this is where you do something different: instead of rebooting, just exit NextSTART and run it again. Is the issue back?

Under what environment do you want me to do this? Right now I'm running perfectly fine with version 15.9, so anything I do will work perfectly fine. Do you need me to restore back to an image that has the latest version with the issue?

I assumed you wanted me to do these tasks under the troubled environment. So I upgraded to the latest version of Winstep extreme, and sure enough the issue was back. So I reset Nexstart to factory defaults, and the problem was gone. Restored the backup, and the problem was gone. I then exited Nexstart (instead of rebooting), and then started it again from all programs and the issue returned. Hope this helps.

Hmmm, well, yeah, the idea is to figure out whatever is causing this on your system and fix it, so yes, you would need to 'go back' to v16.3. Unless you want to be stuck with v15.9.



Ok, so whatever is causing this happens at NextSTART initialization with your current settings.

Two more things for you to try, please:

1. With the issue happening, restore the backup WITHOUT first resetting NextSTART settings to default. Is the issue still happening then?

I'm wondering if the Restore operation itself has any effect.

2. This is a long-shot, but once you've tried the above, open the main NextSTART menu and then the Disk sub-menu. In this Disk sub-menu you will find two 'CD Control E:' items. Right click on them and delete them from the menu.

Is the issue still happening after removing those two items from the Disk Menu? And, if so, what after a restart of NextSTART?

It's an endless loop if I don't restore Nexstart back to factory settings. With the latest version of Winstep extreme, I plug in my thumb drive and Nexstart freezes. I have to CTRL/ALT/DEL and then log off, and then back on again just so I can safely remove my thumb drive. In doing so, Nexstart freezes again, and I have to log back off and on again. Then everything is fine until I plug my thumb drive in again. So it's impossible to restore the backup while the issue is happening because Nexstart is frozen. I can restore the backup after I have finally been able to safely remove my thumb drive, but the issue will just repeat itself.

I'm confused on what you're asking here.

Ok, if you click on the Start button in the NextSTART taskbar, you get the NextSTART menu, right? Look at the items in this menu, one of them should be 'Disk'. Clicking it opens another menu.

In this other menu, you should find two entries/menu items that say 'CD Control E:'.

What you need to do is right click on the first entry and select 'Remove from menu' from the context menu that pops up. Do the same for the other entry.

This is what I was asking, sorry for confusing you.

The idea was for events to go like this:

1. You restore the backup.
2. Insert a thumb drive.
3. Does NextSTART freeze?

This would allow me to know if the Restore operation itself was somehow 'clearing' the issue you have been experiencing. Remember, you told me that restoring your backup AFTER resetting NextSTART to default did NOT make the issue happen until the next reboot.

Okay, done. It makes no difference. Problem is still there.

Rats. Event after restarting NextSTART with those two items gone from the Disk menu?

And sorry, I know this must be a pain to you. Ah, the joys of 'blind debugging'!

Restoring the backup after resetting everything to defaults works fine. If I reboot though after restoring the backup, the problem returns. If I just restore my backup and then insert my thumb drive, the problem is still there. Restore backup, insert thumb drive= problem. crt/alt/del to log off and back on to unfreeze Nexstart. Click on tray icon to safely remove thumb drive. Remove thumb drive, then Nexstart freezes again. Crt/alt/del to log off and back on and all is good again until I plug my thumb drive back in..

Some more testing done this morning. I upgraded to the latest version of Winstep Extreme. Of course the USB thumb drive issue followed. So once again I reset everything to default on Nextstart. I rebooted and the problem of course is now gone. So, I decided to just start adding my personal settings to Nextstart one at a time rebooting after each setting. First I got all my custom tray icons set up and increased their size to my liking. Rebooted and my thumb drive works perfectly. Next, because I don't like quick launch icons showing in my task bar, I unchecked that in the quick launch settings in Nextstart. Then I rebooted, and the USB thumb drive issue returned. Hmmmmm, so I put a check mark back in to show quick launch icons, rebooted, and once again my thumb drive works fine. I can repeat this over and over. What that has to do with the issue is beyond me.

I'm going to restore my original backup, then put the check mark back in to show quick launch icons, reboot, and see if the issue is gone. Be right back.

My hunch was correct. I restored my backup from when I was running version 15.9, with the latest version of Winstep. Of course the USB thumb drive issue was there afterward. All I did was put the check mark back to show quick launch icons, rebooted, and my thumb drive works perfectly fine. Weird.

I was fixated on the new CD Control internal command being the culprit (although fortunately I was aware of that), but you seem to have figured out the true trigger.

So, if the Quick Launch icons are NOT being shown on the NextSTART taskbar you get the issue with the thumb drive and NextSTART freezing? If that is so, I think you just pointed me in the right direction to fix this issue.

I'll have to run some tests here too.