reprappro mendel help please

Newbie here with first reprap printer. Its a Reprappro Mendel with Melzi hardware and I seem to have messed something up. I had pronterface running and connecting to the printer and was able to move all the axes except the extruder. I removed power and checked extruder motor connections and have not been able to get my PC to see the printer since. It comes up as an unknown device now and doesnt load any drivers. I have tried re-installing the FTDI device drivers which claim to have installed properly, but no soap. Do I need to burn the firmware onto the Melzi anew?

My device manager says that Windows has stopped the device because it reported problems (code 43).

Any help? I would really appreciate it. I felt like I was so close to printing too!

-Ben

Some firmware won't run the extruder if the hotend is cold to prevent damage.

As for why it won't connect now? Could be many things. Have you restarted your computer? Tried a different USB port? Mine reinstalls drivers and creates a different com port if plugged into a different USB port.

I have tried re-starting the computer (shutdown and then restarted) and have also tried other USB ports. There are a couple more on the back of my PC that I have not tried yet.

The PC is not even acknowledging that I have plugged/unplugged a USB device (no audible ba-dunk tone)

I wish I new what I did to it.

weird...it just started working again. Must be something loose somewhere. I did shutdown and restart again only disconnected all of my USB devices first and reconnected then after it was booted (including keyboard and mouse).

Thanks for the reply though!

-ben

Hello,
Unless you turn off the power supply to your pc the usb port remains initiated.If you turn the power off then the pc can free and realocate the usb ports.
trustytrev.

"Unless you turn off the power supply to your pc the usb port remains initiated.If you turn the power off then the pc can free and realocate the usb ports. "

This ^^^ should be in the wiki, if it isn't already. Too many people don't realize...