DELL Latitude D830 Win XP SP2 crashes if USB HDD gets attached

I have recently purchased a Dell Latitude laptop that came with Windows XP service pack 2 preinstalled. On this delivered laptop, everything was working fine except if I try to plug an external hard drive then Windows will crash. When I connect any device like Memory stick, iPod, mouse, etc then everything will be working like a charm. Anyone of the 2.5" drive without power adapter or 3.5" with power adapter external hdd wont work. The hard drive seems to be detected in Windows since I can hear a sound when I connect the usb device. In the quick launch area also Windows tells me the device has been detecetd and installed properly and I am able to move the mouse pointer. I am also getting the below error::

Event Typ: Warning
Event Source: PlugPlayManager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 257
Date: 06.03.2008
Time: 10:13:18
User: N/A
Computer: LAPTOP_ST
Description:
While sending a notification of a target device change to the window "WndClass_CWinDrivesNotifyerHelperWindow" a time limit has been exceeded.

Can you go to Start and then click on Control Panel > system icon > open system > device > and then open it and you will see all the device in your computer. After that you have to check the usb universal serial by opening the click +. Check whether you get a signal like this ( ? ), with yellow color, if so then your usb is not installed properly. So click on it again and then start to install your usb hard drive.

Even I was facing this same problem but was not getting the same error message. I had McAfee installed on my computer and it seems to be an issue with this antivirus itself and when you apply the McAfee Patch 16 then this seems to correct the problem immediately. Another solution to this problem would be to restart the computer with the USB hard drive connected and then press F12 and then boot to USB madd storage device and then press ctrl+alt+del to boot into XP. In your My computer the hard drive will show up now and will function properly.