How to solve problem with USB devices not responding on resumption from standby in Bootcamp.

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So … I’m running Windows XP on a 17″ Macbook Pro with Bootcamp …
Every now and then, when I put the laptop on Standby and try to resume work from where I left off, the USB devices stop responding all together.
This is a big problem for me, since

  • I put my laptop in and out of standby several times a day
  • work off an external 250GB Hard drive.
  • am pretty hopeless without a wireless mouse

I poked around online, but didn’t really find anything on Google or at the Apple bootcamp forum.
So I decided to try fixing it on my own.

What I found curious about the problem, was that everytime the usb devices stopped working, I’d get this message in the Event Viewer.

Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the AppleOSSMgr service.

So I simply restarted the “Apple OS Switch Manager” service and after allowing it to complete … it would fail, but my usb devices would be operational again.
Here’s how to accomplish it, and I hope this helps someone out.

From the command line

  • Hit the Apple btn + R  … the run prompt should come up
  • type in “cmd“
  • type in [net stop "Apple OS Switch manager"] (note the quotes)
  • wait for that to complete
  • then type in [net stop "Apple OS Switch manager"]

Visually

  • Hit the Apple btn + R  … the run prompt should come up
  • type in “services.msc“
  • scroll down until you find “Apple OS Switch Manager” (sort the columns by name to help you find it a bit more easily)
  • Right Click on it and select “Restart“
  • wait a while … it will take a bit of time to complete and it should actually fail, but after its done you should be able to use your usb device again.