Why do some processes block when my Android phone is connected? I've been trying to reboot (WinXP) all evening, and Emacs (Win32, v23.something, not important) isn't starting... sometimes... it's locked on mount.exe (loads up some CygWin things during launch), I finally notice. Can't kill mount.exe via ProcessExplorer, either. Killing Emacs kills emacs, and leaves the child process still hanging around, unable to be task-killed.

Running mount.exe manually in a shell gives the same behavior -- the app is just locked up, no CPU activity, but can't kill it.

After several reboots, I realize that my Android Incredible is plugged in for charging (default connection type is "Charge Only"), [the connection is ALSO set to USB debugging].

I unplug the phone... and every instance mount.exe suddenly exits (completes what it was doing, I presume).

UPDATE: noticed blocking occurring for a few other apps, as well: TortoiseSVN and GoogleTalk, Firefox launch/close; Calibre; FogBugz Screenshot Save-As.



The behavior can be replicated by having the phone connected and USB debugging enabled OR disabled, and launching mount.exe in a standard shell. It goes through a couple of drives, then "hangs"

When USB debugging is toggled, mount.exe will finish (I'm presuming it's a standard exit, as no error messages are thrown).

Using ProcessExplorer I don't see any other apps that are running that appear/disappear with the toggling.

To change the status of USB Debugging: 
Home &gt;&gt; Menu &gt;&gt; Setting &gt;&gt; Applications &gt;&gt; Development &gt;&gt; [(un)check "USB Debugging"]



mount.exe can be replaced above with any of the number of blocking processes.

USB debugging may be on or off initially -- it's not one state that blocks; it is EITHER state, and switching to the other state unblocks.

Any pointers, people? Since this is Android related, I put it in here... but it's also PC related ... so... I can see this question getting bounced from every StackExchange forum on some technicality.... Cross-posted at StackOverflow.
Did you set the phone to charge only after plugging it in? If not go into settings and there should be an option like "Connet to PC". Click that and change the default setting to charge only. See if that helps. If not power off the phone and computer and disconnect cable. Then power both back up and wait for both to fully boot. Then plug in phone. See if that helps.