[cyotee]

Whenever I have run into this issue it usually ends up being a connectivity issue. Weather its the cradle going bad or usb port on a laptop docking station and the laptop is not properly seated in the docking station. I'm not sure if you have tried to connect with just the usb cable only and not use the cradle. If you haven't try it. If that works with just a cable, its a bad cradle. Also, if you use a laptop and a docking station, with the usb cable stuck into a usb port on the docking station, try re-seating the laptop into the docking station, sometime a weak connection in the docking station screws it all up.

However, it might be something to do with your activestink software. Have you tried uninstalling the software, remembering to delete the leftover subdirectory in Program files directory? I don't know if deleting the directory contributes anything to making it work better, It worked once so I do that all the time now. It never hurts to be superstitious. Then reinstall activestink, and see what happens.