USB Devices not recognized

[BewareOfButtlice]

All of a sudden today when i got home from school, went to go get some of my bank information off my USB flash drive and external hard drive and windows says they arent recognized or malfunctioning. Ive tried using my USB Hub, front ports, and back ports. Neither of them work. I went and used the same Flash Drive on several of my other computers and it works just fine.

Searched the internet for a while now and found nothing but junk about how ppl fixed it, for example, by using the ports in the back instead of the front.

[The Saviour]

What version of Windows?

Have you gone to Windows Update for the latest "high priority" updates?

[BewareOfButtlice]

Windows XP Pro SP2 5.1.2600 (all recent updates)

[The Saviour]

Have you made any recent hardware or software changes to this computer that may be responsible for this?

If they were working yesterday...have you tried doing a System Restore to a previous date?

[BewareOfButtlice]

nothing new added to the computer. just out of the blue today stopped working or recognizing any USB stuff. Disabled system restore for security reasons.

[The Saviour]

Running out of ideas here...

Has the computer been on all day?  If so...have you tried a reboot?

I know these may sound like silly questions...but shoould, at least, be tried...

[The Saviour]

You may also want to take a look at this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817900

[CBMatt]

Have you taken a look at the Device Manager to see if there are any yellow exclaimation points or question marks?

Right-click on My Computer and go to Properties.  Click on the Hardware tab and then Device Manager.  Let us know if you see anything.

And although you haven't added anything, have you made any changes?  Messed around with any files or settings?

[BewareOfButtlice]

ive tried nearly everything :X

I did go check on device manager, the only yellow exclamation marks are for my TV tuner. Restarted my computer twice, and did a shut down and waited for 5 min then started back up again. Well actually the things that do work on USB is the keyboard and mouse. They are receiving power, getting LED light up on my USB Hub. Usually able to fix these sort of things but this one has baffled me.

Ill take a look at that support link after school today, thx Savior, ill update if if works out.

[patio]

You can try this as well...
In Device Manager right click every instance of USB including roots and hubs and select remove....you will recieve a warning...ignore it.
On re-boot Windows will automatically install the USB drivers.
See if this works.

[BewareOfButtlice]

Just tried all of that stuff with still no luck. I checked on this other website to check registry for the right DevicePath and that is right. Also said to delete INFCACHE.1 in c:\windows\inf and reinstall the device. Got RegistryBooster2 and ran the error scan on registry with tons of errors but none related to USB (still fixed them all). Neither of those worked.

[patio]

Right click My Computer and select Manage...then Disk Management,
Find the thumb drive and right click it and select properties...
How is it being reported ?
Does it say Raw ?

[BewareOfButtlice]

no flash drive being detected, only my hard drive with 3 partitions, 2 cdroms, and one virtual cdrom

[patio]

Do the same in a machine that's recognising it and report back...

[BewareOfButtlice]

Reported as

Disk1
Removable
 -- Healthy (Active) w/ FAT partition.

In Removable Storage under libraries its as Sony Storage Media USB Device

[patio]

Then it's not the flash drive...
Physically remove the TV Tuner card and uninstall the software for it in Add/Remove.
Reboot and try the flash drive again.

p.s. This is a wild guess...

[BewareOfButtlice]

just finished with that and no luck Good hunch though.

[donk]

 
  You know, sometimes you have to go in and reset some of the connections. I have had that happen to me in the past, and wound up going into the box and cleaning all connections and using a soft brush to clean any and all contacts. It is important to make sure to look the connections over real good. I don't know why, but it has worked for me in the past. As a matter of fact I got a little ticked off yesterday using a jumper from one computer to another and my USB port would not recognize my hardware, so as I had stated, I took the machine apart and removed ALL, my connections to USB stations and all was good to go. This procedure has worked for me. I don't know of anyone else ever saying that they to have done this, and it worked for them, it's just something to try if all else fails.
PS, Make sure Power is off, and has been Off for several Minutes. Ground yourself before entering box. Using surgical  cloves works great to, if you happen to have some lying around. Just a thought.
                                                                  Donk

[BewareOfButtlice]

good advice! Although, i dust my computer out at a minimum of once a month because its usually on 24/7 for business related stuff. However, i did give the connections a check and dusted out around those but still no luck

So far the only two things it doesnt recognize are my Seagate external hard drive and my Sony thumb drive. I plugged my phone up into my computer and that worked fine, which is odd because its somewhat of a mass storage device also. Recognized through a program called BitPim though.

[The Saviour]

Well then...

Not to be a smarta**, you may want to invest a few dollars into an external self-powered USB hub...

It'll save you a lot of aggravation and hair-pulling.

[BewareOfButtlice]

you dont at all But i do have one of those already :X i think maybe the next best thing i can do is reformat or reinstall windows to save a lot of aggravation and hairpulling lol

[oops-again]

I'm having the same problem with my Maxtor.

It had to have started when I ran XP install to repair. I vaguely remember seeing something about drives in the set-up - anyway, I turned my external into a mbr disk,  so I had two disks with that partition. (I am so over my head with this stuff!) After that, Windows wouldn't recognize it after a restart. I used device manager to uninstall the Maxtor, then check for changes, reinstall and reboot each time in order to see it. It's also a part of my network, though, so each time I went through the whole drill with device manager, I would have to redo sharing the drive.

I'm pretty sure one of the zillion things I've done in an attempt to fix the problem has erased the data - I hope to be able to recover it. What I would much rather do is connect the external hard drive to my netgear router somehow, as a third workstation in my network, so that I can use it more properly for backing up and archiving important files. Does anyone know how I would go about doing that, if it's even possible?

[The Saviour]

Quoted from Microsoft TechNet:

Safe Removal of Plug and Play Devices

Some buses allow devices to be hot-plugged—added or removed while a system is running. Examples of such buses include USB, IEEE 1394, PC Card, and CardBus. For devices on other buses, such as ISA and PCI, the computer must be turned off before devices are added or removed.

Note While primarily intended for servers, Windows XP also supports the Hot-Plug PCI specification through ACPI. This specification allows users to install and remove PCI devices while the computer is running for compliant PCI devices and controllers. For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/
hotadd/hotplugpci.mspx.

When removing a device from a bus that supports hot plugging, if the Safely Remove Hardware icon appears in the notification area, use the Safely Remove Hardware application as explained later to ensure a safe removal of hardware from the system. The Safely Remove Hardware application informs Windows that the user intends to remove a device. This gives Windows an opportunity to prepare for the removal by taking steps such as halting data transfers to the device and unloading device drivers.

When hardware is removed from a running system without using the Safely Remove Hardware application, it is often referred to as surprise removal because the operating system is not notified in advance of the removal. Surprise removal is particularly a concern for storage devices for which write caching is enabled, because when such devices are surprise removed, data loss or corruption might occur. To reduce the likelihood of data loss or corruption as a result of surprise removal of consumer-oriented storage devices, Windows XP Professional disables write caching by default for these devices (such as cameras that include IEEE 1394 or USB storage, small form factor storage devices such as compact flash, and so on). While write caching policy addresses this particular issue, it is recommended that users continue to use the Safely Remove Hardware application when it appears in the notification area. Also, disabling write caching might slow the performance of consumer-oriented storage devices.

Write caching is enabled by default for high-performance external storage devices such as IEEE 1394 hard drives and SCSI hard drives, in addition to being enabled for storage devices inside the computer that cannot be surprise removed.

Caching policy defaults can be changed in Device Manager for high-performance external storage devices. In Device Manager, on the property sheet for the removable storage device, click the Policies tab to view the default write caching settings for the device. If the Policies tab does not display, this option is not provided for the device. If the write caching settings are enabled, you can change the settings based on your performance and safe removal needs as follows:

• Click Optimize for quick removal to disable write caching on the storage device and in Windows. This allows you to remove the device without using the Safely Remove Hardware application, but it can have an impact on the performance of the device.
 
• Click Optimize for performance to enable write caching in Windows, which can improve the performance of the storage device. However, you must use the Safely Remove Hardware application to disconnect the device from the computer.
 

If these write caching options are not available, your storage device is not removable without turning off the computer and a different option displays in the dialog box. This option allows you to disable write caching for your storage device, which can affect the performance of the device.

Users should also inform the operating system before removing a portable computer from a docking station. For more information about docking and undocking procedures, see Chapter 7, “Supporting Mobile Users.”

Safely Remove Hardware Application
Before you remove a device from a bus that supports hot plugging, check to see whether the Safely Remove Hardware icon appears in the notification area. If it does, it is recommended that you use the Safely Remove Hardware application to notify the operating system that the device is about to be unplugged.

To notify the operating system about removing a Plug and Play device

1. Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area. The icon displays a notification bubble with a list of devices currently attached to the system.
 
2. Click the device you want to remove. The device is stopped and can then be unplugged.

Read the complete article here.

[CBMatt]

It's nice to finally see someone actually citing their sources instead of taking credit.  Kudos, Steve.

[The Saviour]

It's nice to finally see someone actually citing their sources instead of taking credit.  Kudos, Steve.

With that being said...I might as well make it a grand...and say:

Chris, you're welcome...

I try to give credit where credit is due...

[dahlarbear]

BewareOfButtlice...

I have to agree with one of patio's replies.  If you thoroughly cleanup the USB configuration within your system (thru Device Manager) and reboot, then it should re-initialize everything and work. 

I've also heard you should look for and remove PREVIOUS USB devices that no longer appear in Device Manager.  A freeware utility, USBDeview, can help you with this.  It provides a lot of useful information about your current USB devices as well as previous ones and allows you to remove them from system.  Information may be found at:

    http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

Their description of its functionality is:

"USBDeview is a small utility that lists all USB devices that currently connected to your computer, as well as all USB devices that you previously used.
For each USB device, exteneded information is displayed: Device name/description, device type, serial number (for mass storage devices), the date/time that device was added, VendorID, ProductID, and more...
USBDeview also allows you to uninstall USB devices that you previously used, and disconnect USB devices that are currently connected to your computer."

I hope this information proves helpful....  dahlarbear

[dahlarbear]

I've come across alternative solutions to "USB Devices not recognized" on internet.  Can't vouch for any of them however:

1.  "In Device Manager, expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers and right-click the first 'USB Root Hub' and select 'Properties.' On the 'Advanced' tab, unselect 'Allow computer to disable this to save power.' Repeat for all USB hubs." Probably should reboot afterwards.

    http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid1_gci1041784,00.html


or

2.  Shutdown the computer, remove power plug from back of power supply, wait two to thirty minutes, plug power cord back into power supply, and reboot.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-62300.html?forumID=56&threadID=198997&messageID=2073058

http://www.ntcompatible.com/Desperately_need_help_---_USB_Devices_Not_Recognized_t32356.html


or

3.  Use regedt32.exe to resolve "USB Device malfunction"

http://searchwincomputing.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1059071,00.html

[Nounours18200]

Excellent topic, I am in the same mess:

I've also heard you should look for and remove PREVIOUS USB devices that no longer appear in Device Manager.

I have downloaded the USBDeview freeware and I see a lot of previous USB devices that do not appear in the Device Manager.

I have unsintalled them, I have also disconnected the PC from the AC outlet for an entire night, but when I plug my USB Hub in, i get the "unknown USB device" message again....

On some usb plugs, nothing happens at all, and on the other usb plugs, I get this bloody message...

Edit 21h35:

I have also tried:

1.  "In Device Manager, expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers and right-click the first 'USB Root Hub' and select 'Properties.' On the 'Advanced' tab, unselect 'Allow computer to disable this to save power.' Repeat for all USB hubs." Probably should reboot afterwards.

no effect at all: I still get the message when I connect the hub...

This is really the mess !