Me and my friend were poking around with a motor just using the 5v and ground wires, but when he made a specific connection on the motor, the tx and rx lights would light up. now if I try and plug the arduino duemilanove into a computer or power supply, the tx and rx lights stay on and i cannot connect through usb, the drivers say that they could not be installed for a unknown device. any help would be great!
near:
Me and my friend were poking around with a motor just using the 5v and ground wires, but when he made a specific connection on the motor, the tx and rx lights would light up. now if I try and plug the arduino duemilanove into a computer or power supply, the tx and rx lights stay on and i cannot connect through usb, the drivers say that they could not be installed for a unknown device. any help would be great!
You didn't state the board model, but it sounds like your friend smoked the on board USB serial converter chip which drives those two leds, either a FTDI or 8u2 depending on your model board. Be prepared to buy a new board as that is not normally a chip the average user can replace due to it's SMD package style.
Lefty