"USB Mass Storage Device" won't start

[Peegee]

The actual device in question is an IDE to usb device (like to attach an ide hdd or cd rom to usb port). I have one that works fine, but when I plug two in, I get problems. Ultimately I want 3 of these devices (two extra hard drives and a dvd rom drive) to work, but for the time being I'm working one at a time.

Computer management doesn't show extra drives, so I checked device manager. There's a yellow "!" on the usb mass storage device icon and I can't repair it. The error code is 10 (This device cannot start).

Any advice?

edit: in other words, I'm trying to have 3 IDE hard drives at the same time. One is attached to the motherboard/power supply, and two are attached via USB port. One is failing to start).

[starseeker]

Your computer might not be able to cope with 3 USB connections simultaneously. Also your computer migh be too old to use the extra devices that are added on. What OS do you use?

These are just suggestions though.

[Mirage]

Are you sure your USB controller can supply enough power to 3 such units at once?

[Peegee]

winXP, 3 different connections, 3 different ac adaptors. And in fact the reason for 3 devices is so I don't overload the PSU

currently I am trying to reinstall windows from scratch to see if it's a configuration issue. A bit of a snag -- the cd will not load up the windoze install section. Repartitioning hdd.

[Yamaneko]

How does master and slave work under these conditions? I'm assuming one of the HDDs still has to be set as master or cable select and the other as slave.