usb device not recognized
I bought a 512MB SanDisk Titanium Cruzer and whenever I tried copying a directory of about 300 files (about 140MB) it would give the following error (click on it for a larger version).
I tried it on another machine running Linux and it worked fine, but nearly every time I tried copying that directory on the first Windows XP machine it would get about halfway through and then produce the error. The contents of the error message in the little message balloon says, “One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message.”
I tried clicking the message but the troubleshooting assistance was of no help (come to think of it, I can’t remember a time when it’s ever been helpful).
I tried it on several Windows 2000 machines and two other Windows XP machines and it worked on all of them, so I concluded that it had something to do with computer rather than my hopes that it was just a faulty flash drive that I could exchange to solve the problem.
I did some research online and learned that sometimes the USB ports located on the front of the case don’t have enough power for some USB devices. Sure enough, when I tried copying the exact same directory with the flash drive plugged into one of the USB ports in the back, it worked several times in a row.
In case it’s useful to anyone, the machine that had the problem is a 2.0 GHz Celeron with 512MB of RAM. The motherboard is an Intel D845GVFN with an i845G chipset.
During the process of researching this issue, I learned of several other things to look for, so if you’re looking for more help on a similar issue, try these links.
Error message usb device not recognized
USB 2.0 Flashdisk Device not recognized.
San Disk USB Mini-Drive not Recognized by XP
Unknown USB Device
When you install Windows XP Service Pack 2, the USB 2.0 drivers do not appear to update
New drive or mapped network drive not available in Windows Explorer
Google Groups search for comp.* USB XP “unknown device”
P4P800 problem with USB 2.0 ?
Incredible. I have been trying ot get my 128 mb mini-drive to work on the fron usp portsof my computer of over a year. I just decided to try to find a solution one more time and started searching the web. Your suggestionabout using one of the usp ports on the rear of the computer worked!! I even had a technicial come out last year with no luck. Thanks.
Craig: Glad I could help.
I’ve got the same problem, the Curzer Titanium works on most othermachines but not in mu HP nw8000 laptop. The blue light blinks once and that’s it. Am i havng the same issue or is it something else? I’ve tried an external hub too and that doesn’t seem to make any difference.
Gavin: That sounds like a different problem. For me, the Cruzer would always be recognized at first, but after copying files for a minute or two it would suddenly become unrecognized.
Thanks, I just hooked up a new gps unit through the front usb ports—–no go, hooked it up in back as u recomend–works fine now,almost tossed the gps unit it the trash.
Same problem here with an Intel D850EMV2 mother board and a SanDisk Cruzer mini 256mb. Works fine in the back ports, but is not recognized in the front (front ports work with non usb memory devices). I’m going to try upgrading the cable and see if I can’t get a little more voltage to the front ports. If it works I’ll post again. Thanks for doing all the research.
Bob: Thanks for the info. I’m curious to hear what you find.
We are having related problems. Windows Explorer screen shows the Sandisc Cruzer mini as a Removable Disk in the G drive instead of the F drive. On the taskbar icons it states: “No card inserted in G: hp photosmart 7350 series”. This printer is attached, but turned off. The Sandisk was inserted, the light was on. It works fine on another computer, also using Windows XP. Next will check out USB ports. Please advise.
Incredible! Like many of you, my comp was not recognizing an usb sony camera; I tried in the rear usb & it automatically detected it & accessed it inmediatelly!
Strange thing about the front usb. I don’t know if it is a problem of power (because if not it wouldn’t even recognize an unknown device i guess). Maybe it’s a config matter; maybe in the bios or somewhere we have to set it up…
But anyway i’m really glad of getting it working!
Thanks!!!
Thanks so much, very helpful, fixed it right up. I had my sandisk plugged into my 1905FP’s usb ports and I knew it worked on the tower, but was curious why it wouldn’t work, you got it covered. Thanks again
I too am having similar problems with my front ports, but what I have read here is really not a solution at all. The point of the front ports is to avoid having to continually access the rear usb ports. So far all I’ve read is that the front USB ports are mostly for decoration. I’m thinking that perhaps it is a fault of XP, or perhaps corrupt drivers. My only problem is that I don’t have access to the MS CD to reinstall the drivers for these ports – does anyone know where I might be able to get them off the ‘net? I have been told that the drivers necessary are found in the C:\Windows\driver cache\I386 folder.
Thanks, Fresh X
Maxtor 3100 would not work with Windows XP on a front USB port. Plugged in back, came right on.
Thanks for the help. Tim
Explorer was not recognizing any USB mass storage device including ipod and sandisk although they appeared in device manager. After tearing out what little remaining hair I have left, tracked the problem to the existance of three driver files in windows\system32\drivers :
secdrv.sys
sptd.sys
sptd409.sys
All dated around when the probelm surfaced.
One is related to anti-piracy software that probably came with a computer game, the others were installed as part of a failed attempt to install damon tools 4.0. In any event, I deleted those 3 files and rebooted. The system then “saw” the devices and asked me to reboot again afterwhich everything behaved properly. All is well although I am tired and bald.
Bingo! I am new to this thread but i thought i should throw this one in as it worked for me after 3 days of painstaking greif i was having trying to backup up my files from a near death of my hard drive.
I purchased a 200gig USB drive, Maxtor 3100, and for 3 days i could not get it to work on 3 tested computers, all had USB 2.0. So i reverted one of them to USB 1.1 via disabling the usb 2.0 controller in the BIOS and worked ok but still was not happy as this is just to slow, especially when i have about 90 odd gig of data to back up.
I tried everything from support pages and the like from a myriad of sites with not one bit of luck.
Well to cut things short all i did was replace the USB cable for a shorter one and “Voila!” i was beside myself to find it appear as it was recognised immediately even after several reconnections.
I hope this sorts out some issues that some of you are having as i did ;)
Mark
Sydney, Australia
I’ve had the same problem trying to use any USB 2.0 device on a Adaptec USB2Connect PCI card (model A4A-4000B) newly installed in my PC. http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1061226&page=4 recommended the hotfix described in Microsoft’s knowledgebase article 892050 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892050/EN-US/ It looks promising and I’ve requested the hotfix. I hope it helps.
Dear Champions,
Simply do this….
Step 1: Remove Hidden Devices
1. Click Start. Click Run. Type cmd and press OK.
2. Type “set DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS=1” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Type “set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1” (without quotation marks) and Press Enter.
4. Type “start devmgmt.msc” (without quotation marks) and click press Enter.
5. Click View. Click Show hidden devices.
6. Click “+” to expand Imaging devices, Unknown devices and USB devices.
7. Are there any USB devices and unknown devices (including grayed out devices)? If so, please right click it and click Uninstall.
Step 2: Remove all oem*.inf files
=========================
1. Click start and click run then under the run line type in the command “cmd” (without the quotation marks)
2. In the command line, type in the following (without the quotes) and press enter after each command:
“cd \windows\inf”
“ren infcache.1 *.old”
“ren oem*.inf *.old”
“del C:\windows\setupapi.log”
“exit”
Step 3: Removing all entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Enum/USB that start with VID
===============================================
Removing the VID entries from the registry will cause them to be redetected at restart.
CAUTION: If you have a USB keyboard or mouse, do not remove the VID entry for these devices, otherwise, Windows may not restart correctly.
1. Click Start and click Run. Type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB.
3. Highlight and delete all the VID_…. entries.
Permissions may be set allowing the deletion of the VID_ entries by following the steps below:
a)Right-click the key to be deleted, and then click Permissions. The VID_… Permissions window will open.
b)With Everyone highlighted in the Group or User name section, select Full Control in the Permissions section.
c)Click Apply, and then click OK.
4. Turn off the computer.
Step 4: Reconnect the USB device to the computer system:
=============================
1. With the computer system turned off, reconnect the USB hub to the the USB port.
2.Restart the computer.
3.A New Hardware Detected window should open and reload the drivers.
Hello. I am getting the same “USB Device Not Recognized Error” although I have never used any USB devices. This error message pops up sporatically for no apparent reason. Again, I have nothing connected to any of the USB ports, nor have I recently unattached, reinstalled, undeleted, unplugged, or disconnected any USB related devices within the distant past. This message, again, started popping up one day for no apparent reason and will not stop. Thanks in advance.
Richard
Badhusha: Champions?
Richard: Sorry, I don’t know what the problem is.
I got that problem after disconnecting and reconnecting my printer without safely disconnecting before. I tried all the suggestions I could find on the net – I also reinstalled Windows for nothing. The only thing that fixed my problem was buying a new card with 4 USB ports. Now its working fine but the old USB ports are still giving me the same problems.
Hope this helps,
JG – MALTA
I’ve been trying to read the card in a new Canon PowerShot A610, on my PC. This baloon popped up from the tray: usb device not recognized
one of the usb devices attached to this computer has
malfunctioned, and windows does not recognize it.
After much fiddling around, I searched online for the error message
and found the previous posts. Wow. It turned out just as for the others here, plugging the USB cord into the rear port caused the camera to be recognized. Thanks!
Hey folks, Since i have been having my problem with my sandisk cruzer i have been on the web and i did everything that was posted all over the web. But nothing work. The problem as some people may have noticed, is for some reason the flash drive that was working for so long all of the sudden doesn’t work. Even with a reformat and reinstallation of windows XP, including the updates and blah blah. The same problem would arise. The problem being, unknown devise, or the famous message that usb device has malfunctioned.
I was pulling hair out, and as i said before, trying everything on the net. Well folks i somehow got my sandisk cruzer 256M drive to work. I went over here http://usbman.com/Guides/SiS%20USB%20Tips%20and%20Tricks.htm, and it talked specifically about my computer chip set SIS7100. It also showed me how to disable error reporting of the usb device. So i tried it and bingo. My flash drive was working. However it will not be recognized in my computer. I went to the device manager and under disk drives i double click on generic storage device usb device. Under volumes i clicked on populate. Once this was done my computer showed my cruzer.
thats it!
I hope thie helps. Good Luck!!!!!
I’ve had heaps of problems plugging stuff into the USB ports in the front of the computer. always gives me the error saying that the thing is malfunctioned or some such
so, following your advice, I plugged my stuff into the back usb ports, and it WORKED!!!!!
I had the same problems, did everything that people have listed here, in the end all it took was a reset of the iPod.
Toggle the hold switch on and off.
Hold the menu button and the middle button down for 6 seconds until the apple logo appears.
Let the menu load and then plug the ipod into the computer.
System and iPod specs:
iPod Video 30g
HP Laptop
ummm…ive been having some problems with my cruzer mini 128 mb…i got it from a friend who found it so i dont have the original software or anything….anyway i had a .rmvb file of about 78 mb’s on it and i deleted it…and now i can only use about 30 mb’s…i tried defragging it and it says that its now in a file called \recycled however i cannot find that file..(i checked the hidden files as well) i donot want to reformat as i still want to be able to use it but i dont have the original software to reinstall it…
Similar problem, but turned out to be the USB cable that came with the drive. The flat (common) end was working only intermittently. New cable means it wsorks every time.
I was having the same problem as everyone else. Turned out that plugging the USB drive into the top port on the back fixed the problem. NO other USB port on the laptop (Dell 610m) would work.
I have a ECS Socket A mobo with the SiS7100 usb chipset and for some reason a few days ago it decided to stop working. I had bought a dlink usb2 powered hub and it was working fine. Had just my mouse pluged into it. While I was browsing in firefox the mouse stops working and the lights on the hub go off. I rma’d the hub thinking that was the problem but I jumped the gun. Something is wrong with the usb controller. No usb HD’s work, neither my 20g ipod nor my 40gig usb2 powered external HD. I’ve tried everything on this website and links provied, I deleted drivers, reinstalled drivers, deleted the infs, delted the VIDs, tried safe mode, tried the usb2 sis fix. I’m not sure what else to try so I’m going to assume the usb controller fried somehow. The weird part is my printer, APC, and flash card reader, mouse all work fine. Anything with a HD (or my hypthesis, anything that requires a high power draw) will not work. I’m about to order a seperate pci usb card since I see no other solution. The only positive that came out of this ordeal is I plan to never order another mobo that uses SiS chips.
There are 2 Richard’s posting.
Further to my message (number 15 above), the Microsoft hotfix did not help.
Stir, you probably will find that the devices that work are USB 1.1 devices. If you are desparate to get the divices working at any speed then in Device Manager disable the USB Host Controller with “Enhanced” in its name and my experience is the USB ports will work with all your devices at USB 1.1 speed.
Thanks for the info Richard, I also discovered that only the 1.1 devices were working. I gave up hope trying to make the usb2 stuff work and just ordered a pci usb2/firewire card, which is working beautifully now.
I have issues making ANY mass storage devices work on my PC. Device Manager says my USB host is Enhanced, which would imply that it can take USB 2.0 devices. I’ve tried flash drives, iPods, portable HDDs, and they all come up with “USB Device Not Recognised”. For some stupid reason, after a few seconds Windows attempts to try to install drivers for the device, then says the device is ready for use, but it LIES. Checking out the Hardware Devices adds a new “Unknown Device” under the USB section. I’ve tried uninstalling this unknown device and retrying and it doesn’t fix it. I’ve reinstalled the operating system several times, both with XP Home and XP Pro, installed all updates, etc. and it doesn’t do anything. Wish it was as simple as the front/back ports, but my box doesn’t come with front ports at all anyways, so I HAVE to use the back ones. All other USB devices work fine; USB ADSL modem, printer, wireless mouse and keyboard, webcams, etc. it’s just mass storage devices that come up with this problem. Any ideas?
hi,
I am a serious problem, i have kingston 512 MB flash memory stick. I was using it for a year now. Yesterday i plugged in my memory stick in a dell PC, and from there onwards it is not opening. It gives a message Unknown format, or disk is not formatted. Though my PC or any other PC recognises and installs the device as Kingston USB storage device and it lists in my computer with a device letter, it still does not open and shows my important files.
Can somebody help.. pls mail me on ghdreamz@hotmail.com, ghdreamz-AT-hotmail.com
Thanks in advance
You are a gem, thank you for posting your message! i bought an ipod nano, downloaded itunes and uploaded all my songs and as soon as I tried to copy them to my ipod i got the same message about the USB cable not being recognised and that it had malfunctioned. Having taken the lead out of the back of my computer where the printer is connected i found that it works in that port – but not in any of the other 5 USB ports on the modem – thank you!!!
Lindsey: You’re welcome.
HEllo! everyone. I’m having problem with USB device not recognize. It happens only when I try to connect my flash drive to my computer it works but when I try to print my file, the printer uses a usb port it does not print when I try to connect the usb connector of the printer to the usb port it gives the message USB device not recognize. What shall I do? Pls.help me!
For all that have that error with USB devices not getting to be recognize by XP, try to switch off the computer and unplug the power cord for a few minutes (around 30 although for some people less works fine too) and then boot up and should work just fine with everything. For laptop users, remove the battery too.
Just found you because I have an iPod that won’t be recognized on my big-a** Dell at work but will be by my wee Dell laptop at home – using a port on the back of the computer solved the problem! Wow! I need to share this on the iPodGarage forums where people have been crying for help on this subject for a long time. Thanks for this simple fix!
Caroline: By all means let them know. The reason I posted this was to help anyone else out who might have had the same problem.
I’m finding that putting a short USB extension on one of my rear USB 2.0 ports is working for my PNY 512 flash drive. My camera and phone work fine on the front port, but none of my flash drives. I wonder if it is a power problem? This would mean that the +5 volt buss feeding the front connector must current controled somehow. Maybe I’ll try moving the +5 to a direct power supply connection.
Wow. I came across this blog post through Google after my iPod wouldn’t install into my front USB port. I tried switching to one of the rear USB ports and it works! Great information!
Been having problems similar to what you described… wouldn’t be recognized on work computer but would be recognized on home comp and other co-workers. Discovered your advice, decided to try another USB port and it worked. I also had a drive mapping conflict. Thank you
Thanks for the advise re: the back ports and that’s what the problem was. I have an external usb2 drive that works fine on another xp box I have, using any ports, front or rear. When I tried to use the drive on this xp box (with the problem), windows said it could not itdentify the usb mass storage device. The bios recognized the drive, but not windows. So, following the rear port clue, wherein the cabling between the motherboard and the computer box maker’s front ports is the likely cause, I will now have to troubleshoot the connections or just use the rear ports. Thanks again.
Great page, & plugging my mp3 player into a rear usb port solved my problem.
Considered the idea of disabling the ‘enhanced’ hub, also the detailed process set out at item 16. Decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
Many thanks Dan, & to all other contributors!
I used the above steps to enable USB on my machine ..
now i am unable to login into the machine as it say “network is not available”.
when i undid the file renaming part ( by aceesing on to the machine using remote connection) and restarted the system … it is still giving the same problem..please HELP …
XP will not recognize USB mass storage devices (some devices were ok)
Had a problem off and on for ages where my IDE to USB2 externl HDD would not always work when plugged it (but was detected) as a mass storage device (just could not mount the drive).
I had 3 problems
1) my system windows (XP sp2) somehow had all drive lettering turned off after my primary drives. Fixed in Power tools (tweakui
2) Item 16 above showed many fialed attempts at loadig my mass storage device causing some problems
3) nothing worked found ms item kbid=908673 phoned MS and got a hotfix
you must have SP2 already, this is a SP# fix (not relased to the public yet)…All problems solved.
i also hav a similar problem in tht my camera and MP3 player are no longer being recognised as a removable disc but drive F; drive F isnt even showing and so i can edit any files on my Mp3 or camera via the computer. could u tell me where i can find the rear USB port?
kk: Just look on the back of your computer for a port that looks the same as the USB port on the front of your computer.
my usb device does not recognised.
Hi i am 12 years old and my computer is not reconizing my Usb 2.0 . I hav a dell XP 4400 dimension computer
I have a mouse that is not functioning in my usb. I recently(the same day the mouse stopped working) upgraded to a new case with more fans and some cathode lights, I’m using a 500w power supply and I’m sure its enough for the system. I thought it was a power issue at first so I unplugged a bunch of things and then tested my usb again. Still I get power but the device is not recognized, I have tried upgrading the drivers blah blah blah. It worked before I put everything in the new case and I just cant figure out whats wrong.
Thanks for any help in advance!
Its a Razor Diamondback USB optical mouse. Not a power issue.
Just want to thank Richard (post 28)….I have been going nuts trying to get my Olympus sp-320 camera to transfer images to the computer. After spending a good three hours on phone calls with both Olympus and Dell, I came across your suggestion of disabling the Enhanced usb port. Now it is working just fine. Good thing…I was about to throw the computer right out the window! Thanks!
I wound up following the directions at the San Disk site: open the Administrative Tools control panel, and change the storage device drive letter.
i’ve the same problem and i knw wat can i do 4 necssary..plz
reply me @ marco_adel@hotmail.com
Well my problem is also similar to many of the mentioned above. But it all started after plugging in the Sandisk Cruzer Mini in one of the older PCs which require Driver to be installed. Since Driver was not installed, USB device was not recognized (I hope that is the reason). But, after that, Cruzer Mini stopped working for my XP Laptop also. Does this mean, Cruzer Mini got corrupted? Can I format that? How?
Please help…..
Hi, I’m having a similar problem, but in my case trying to connect to the rear USb ports gives the same problem “Unknown USB Device”
Desperately seeking for a solution.
Hi.. I recently was just browsing on modzilla( don`t know if that matters) when all of a sudden my mouse froze. It doesn`t move now any more nor will any other mouse i try to plug in. In anyy of the ports!? i tried uninstalling/installing driver. Once in a blue moon the mouse will work but 2mns later a window will pop up showing that my hardware has malfunctioned and windows does not recognise it??? I`ve no idea how ti fix it? Could anyone help?? I`d welcome any suggestion. Ty. Email me if you like.
I have a usb mp3 player watch, cool thing , but it stopped connecting to windows, unknown device and all that jazz. i can still charge it with usb port, and i have the same problem with a 2 inch drive usb external, no connecti no more
and suggestions? i’ve tried on many computers and OS
Hello,
I have the sony micro vault 5 gig. massmedia storage device. It worked perfectly for maybe 3 weeks after i had bought it. then I noticed that it would not appear in “My Computer” the way it should normaly. When i plug it in the computer makes the sound and the blue light on the device blinks. the message “highspeed device in non highspeed port” comes on but it would always and the device would still work. I have tried it on my desktop and on a labtop. it would not work on either of them. i have a dell xp. labtop is hp xp . any help would be appreciated. by the way i tried some of the methods like pluggin it in the back but no luck.
i have the same problem exept on my laptop i do not hav usb’s on the back i just have 3 on the side please email me with advice to get my webcam to work thx
Started here with the introduction of the D-Link DPH-50U USB device that connects your phone to Skype. Here are my notes to D-Link:
After some time the DPH-50U reports ‘Device no Present’ and shows the red icon. In XP running devmgmt.msc shows ‘unknown device’ under Universal Serial Bus controllers. The only solution I have found was discovered here:
http://www.ntcompatible.com/Desperately_need_help_—_USB_Devices_Not_Recognized_t32356.html
To re-enable the DPH-50U the following steps are necessary:
1.) Unplug the DPH-50U from the usb port
2.) Add Remove Programs and removing the D-Link DPH-50U
3.) Start Device Manager (Run>>CMD>>devmgmt.msc) remove unknown device under Universal Serial Bus controllers
4.) Powering down and unplugging the computers main power cord for twenty minutes
5.) Boot up, re-install DPH-50U software and follow the prompts to re-plugin the DPH-50U
D-Link must know of this situation as it has been previously reported; I discoverd it by Googling D-Link “Device Not Recognized”. Are there any solutions to this?
Normally the USB ports will not be recognized in the front ports if those ports does not get encough power. You can unplug any other extra USB devices connected and check. Also I had the same problem and had a USB MP3 player. I tried connecting with a fully charged battery and it worked for me.. I am not sure if it works for all..You can try them as a work-around
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME, I JUST BROUGHT A 256MB PEN DRIVE AND FOR SOME REASON IT WON’T BE RECONIZED ON MY COMPUTER AND I HAVE TRIED INSTALLING THE LATEST SERVICE PACK AND I HAVE TRIED THE PEN ON ANOTHER COMPUTER AND STILL IT WORK ON OTHER COMPUTERS.
any thoughts of how i can get my comp to read it?
Hi Michael,
Try connecting to the USB pen driver to the ports behind the computer. Otherwise you can also try the same steps given before by Badusha:
=================================================================
Step 1: Remove Hidden Devices
1. Click Start. Click Run. Type cmd and press OK.
2. Type “set DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS=1″ (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Type “set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1″ (without quotation marks) and Press Enter.
4. Type “start devmgmt.msc†(without quotation marks) and click press Enter.
5. Click View. Click Show hidden devices.
6. Click “+†to expand Imaging devices, Unknown devices and USB devices.
7. Are there any USB devices and unknown devices (including grayed out devices)? If so, please right click it and click Uninstall.
Step 2: Remove all oem*.inf files
=========================
1. Click start and click run then under the run line type in the command “cmd†(without the quotation marks)
2. In the command line, type in the following (without the quotes) and press enter after each command:
“cd \windows\infâ€
“ren infcache.1 *.oldâ€
“ren oem*.inf *.oldâ€
“del C:\windows\setupapi.logâ€
“exitâ€
Step 3: Removing all entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Enum/USB that start with VID
===============================================
Removing the VID entries from the registry will cause them to be redetected at restart.
CAUTION: If you have a USB keyboard or mouse, do not remove the VID entry for these devices, otherwise, Windows may not restart correctly.
1. Click Start and click Run. Type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB.
3. Highlight and delete all the VID_…. entries.
Permissions may be set allowing the deletion of the VID_ entries by following the steps below:
a)Right-click the key to be deleted, and then click Permissions. The VID_… Permissions window will open.
b)With Everyone highlighted in the Group or User name section, select Full Control in the Permissions section.
c)Click Apply, and then click OK.
4. Turn off the computer.
Step 4: Reconnect the USB device to the computer system:
=============================
1. With the computer system turned off, reconnect the USB hub to the the USB port.
2.Restart the computer.
3.A New Hardware Detected window should open and reload the drivers.
=====================================
Hi,
Michael and Badusha – thanks for this information. I diligently followed the steps described above, however, it didn’t work for me. I have a Toshiba Satellite A105-S171. USB ports stopped working this afternoon for my external WD Passport 80GB drive and Lexar Jumpdrive. However, I’m still able to use my USB optical mouse. I tried the remedies you suggested above, as well as others such as removing the battery and power source and waiting 30 mins, etc. No luck. Any other suggestions? I’m really in a fix right now – the USB drive contains years of work (I had all this data in another place as well but that computer’s HDD died a month ago and I hadn’t yet had a chance to back up this USB HDD to yet another external drive…). Thanks in advance for your help!
I forgot to mention that I’ve tried opening the WD External HDD as well as the Lexar drive on another computer (my wife’s iBook) and it worked fine…
I dislike Apples in general, and had to swallow my pride when my wife’s iBook was able to open the drives that my 2 month old PC laptop no longer could….
Since it is working on your wife’s computer, I guess your USB ports are not getting enough power from the Motherboard.
1. Just check if you recently upgraded any new device or installed any new USB drivers for some devices.
2. Check them in the ‘Device Manager’ for any conflicts.
3. Try uninstalling the USB controllers and reboot the computer. Then check it again.
4. While in the desktop, try unplugging all the USb devices inclusing your mouse and check if it detects the USB drive.
5. Check for any new hardware that you have installed. Because recent video cards requires additional power. Check if your motherboard support those devices.
6. Also check your power supply.
These things atleat get us a picture of what is happening….
Regards,
Professor
I found the information on this post useful. I have some additional information that may be helpful to someone.
I have been working with 3 external USB hard drives, and 2 of them consistantly would give a “USB device not recognized” error. The procedure posted by Badhusha did not work for me. I obtained the MS hotfix from their article 892050, which did also not work for me. The following steps, however, did fix my problem:
1. Boot into safe mode.
2. Uninstall all USB devices in device manager.
3. Remove all VID entries at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB as described above by Badhusha.
4. Rename the files usb*.* to usb*.old in the following directories: \windows\system32, windows\inf, windows\system32\drivers.
5. Reboot and Windows will install the USB drivers (I found it interesting that Windows did not replace all of the files that I renamed).
6. Deselect “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” on all USB root hubs in device manger.
7. Plugin in your USB device, and it should work.
Best,
Paul
Paul: Thanks for the info.
I have plugged in my brand new ipod to my computer. It is recognized in device manager as an ipod however it has a yellow question mark next to it.
My Computer however, shows nothing in regards to an ipod.
I have reinstalled drivers and rebooted the comp several times.
I have contacted Dell and apple, and all I have is speculation.
If anybody has any possible help. Please email me at BfloSabres09@msn.com
I will pay a $10 reward if someone can figure it out
thanks
I agree that the back panel USB locations worked. My SOny Viao would not use a San Disk Cruzer 1.0 GB from the front panel – it would barely light up the drive (which happens when it is engaged in a USB). From the back of the machine – it worked fine.
More testing for me confirmed this rear USB solution worked and that a powered front USB hub can allow the front USB to be used with SanDisk flash drives that need more power. I just posted above that my Sony VIAO desktop USB worked from the back, not the front locations. As I read about so many people having issues and resorting to complex deleting of files and hardware unplugging and plugging which will surely get some people into deep trouble I decided to test the power issue of the front USB locations. For my computer – not enough power to the front USB locations was the problem because when I used a ‘powered’ USB (4) port Hub – then my front USB locations worked. The extra power from the DC powersupply worked. The SanDisk Cruzer must need alot of power – the LED light from the flash drive was on steady as soon as the powered hub was installed as a ‘generic host’ but without the powered hub, using only the front hub – the flash drive would only blink once and nothing would happen.
For usb problems with toshiba a105, solution at asklaptopfreak.
Tried and 100% worked.
I think I know what is wrong with your laptop. Last Friday I fixed Toshiba Satellite A105-S1013 laptop with exactly the same problem. The laptop didn’t recognize my USB flash drive. Apparently the device was detected by Windows because as soon as I plugged it in, a balloon pooped up and it said “USB Device Not Recognizedâ€. I tried to plug in three different devices and always got the same error. I found that this laptop is running BIOS v1.20 not even listed on Toshiba website for this model. I downloaded and installed the latest BIOS v1.90 and fortunately it fixed the problem. You can download the latest BIOS from Toshiba support website and install it right from the Windows environment.
regards
Was prepared to try all of the solutions posted, including the one for the SiS chipset (7100), but gave the unplugging the pc out of the mains for half an hour, just to be on the safe side, and it worked!
Good luck to everyone who still have this irritating problem.
Two of my USB devices suddenly disappeared from MY Computer and Explorer. Also not reconized by any programs although the both showed in System/Devices
Comment 73 was incomplete. I hit the wrong button.:(
Two of my USB devices suddenly disappeared from My Computer and Explorer. Also were not recognized by any programs although the both showed in Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager. Following the posting Dec. 3,’05 from Sam Adams, I started removing the files from Windows/System32/Drivers, as suggested, one by one. Removing sptd.sys and rebooting a couple of times both devices re-appeared and were readily accessible. Thanks Sam
With the method proposed above by Mark from Sydney (on December 20, 2005) to replace the supplied USB cable with a shorter one, I solved this problem with my external USB hard-disk Maxtor Personal Storage 3100. I advice this solution to the (many) people having such problems with this type of external hard-disk. Thank you, Mark!
I also have that problem with my USB storage devices after I go to the sea and it got some water. so I’m not sure that I can use it or no more. But it happen to all computer I try.
I took out my USB key without safely removing it (I tried but for some reason one part of it couldn’t be removed) so I took it out anyways, not really caring about the Key itself, but now my USB plugs on my computer itself don’t work. Can this be fixed or do I need to buy a new lap top?
Since upgrading to XP from Win98 SE I cannot transfer pictures from my Olympus D-540 camera or transfer anything on my SanDisk Cruzer Micro to my computer. Both USB ports are in the rear of the computer. Scanner and joystick works in the USB ports. Everything worked fine until the upgrade. I tried uninstalling anything to do with the two devices in “Add Remove Programs” and in the “Registry Editor”, with no success. Any ideas?
Al
Al: What happens when you plug in your USB device?
usb-device-not-recognized
How to solve this problem? Any driver can upadte it?
Choong: I invite you to glance upwards at the 79 other comments, in addition to the original post about that very issue.
Hi I have a highspeed printer and it won’t print. There is a message that says that I have a highspeed printer plugged into a non high speed hub. I have read the posts here. I tried using the front hub, that did’nt work. I bought a better usb cable and that did’nt work. What can I do. Someone please help. Thanks
nadine: If the message is correct, it sounds like you’re stuck. There is USB 1.1 and USB 2.0. I thought they were backwards compatible, but your printer is saying it can only use a USB 2.0 port.
Hi guys, i have a problem, I have USB Sandisk and for some reason it does appear in My Computer and everything but… if I double click it on my computer it WONT open… I have to go through Windows Explorer to open it…
Whyyyy …? Whyyyyy..?
Hello to you all !
Problem : i cannot use my camera ! when i plug it in my USB port, there is some action there, in the direction that it appears something on my toolbar ( i am being said that i should clik there to safely remove the device) But the camera is not “seen” by the computer. I mean i open “my computer” but there is no icon there to indicate i can use it. So , sorry if i was evasive, but i am not that good at these technical stuff. Please, help !
i have recently reformatted my hd. I have an intel d845gvfn. Anyways i have four ports, two in the rear, and two in the front. I’ve tried to add my printer, however my comp doesn’t recognize my ports. i’ve checked my bios settings, and under usb config. there’s nothing there. under device manager (show all hidden) the pci (simple controller)is yellow! and there are no usb listings in the device manager at all. i’m wondering if there’s a way to get my system to read the hardware. I’m not very intermediate with this sort of thing. A little guidance would be very appreciated. Thank you.
Erin: What do you mean there’s nothing in your BIOS config under USB config? If you just reformatted your hard drive, then the BIOS hasn’t changed, so if you had USB support before, it must be something in your operating system configuration. You can try using this troubleshooting page from Microsoft to get it working.
I have read the above comments and tried rebooting and trying the back usb ports. Please note that I’m not a computer expert, but I do understand the basic things like your average 5yr computer user.
The problem with my iPod is a bit unusual, because this is the second one in 3 days. The first one broke so I had to return it, but before it did, EVERYTHING in terms of connecting it to the computer was fine. I enjoyed the iPod for a good 24 hours until it broke.
Today though I thought my 2nd replacement ipod was broken so I returned it to the shop yet again. They pointed out it isn’t actually broken, just low in battery. Needs to be charged on the computer via USB. They even showed me that it isn’t my iPod that is the problem by charging it on their computer for a few minutes. It worked.
So when I got home I attempted to connect, but got the exact same message as the one in the image, Dan. “Device not recognised.” I did what your typical user would do and reinstalled itunes, *attempted* system restore but ‘nothing was changed.’
I saw an article somewhere to do with devices having the same serial numbers, and that affects how your computer recognises them?
Please help.
Hi! I have a SanDisk Cruzer Micro 1GB with U3. Its quite new and worked fine on my PC Win XP sp2 until I connected it to another PC whose USB port was not working. The USB drive got heated up a bit and when I connected it to my own PC again, it was not detected. Not even detected as an unknown device. The LED of the drive also doesnt light up. Its as if I havnt connected the device at all.
I tried connecting it to the back ports but it still doesnt work. I tested other USB drives on my PC and they all worked fine….
Please help…
hi all,
i have a nintendo ds USB wi-fi connector. When i plug it in it says
“USB DEVICE NOT RECOGNIZED” The USB Device Attached To This Computer Has Malfunctioned and windows cannot recognized it. Can i have some help. Thanks
p.s Please dont post obvious answers like restarting the computer or reinstalling the software as i have had this problem for ages and i have tried this thousands of times. Thanks.
hi,
i also have a problem when using my ipod nano and wd passport usb hdd. i already disabled the power saving function of the usb ports (device manager), but it is not working. The usb hdd is always connected to my computer but when i connect my ipod, i can only see the root directorie son the drive and no files any more. the ipod is functioning well. the problem is: all my music is on that external drive becaus my internal hdd has not enough space. :(
specs:
– i have 4 usb ports total
static connections: printer, aureon audio device and the wd passport.
4th port is mainly used for memorystic, digital camera, mobile phone and ipod. Only when usig the ipod, the wd passport hdd does not work properly.
any ideas?
michael (post 61),
Al (post 78),
Choong (post 80),
Jonie (post 88),
megastarjosh (post 90),
I suggest you try the instructions in post 28.
val wrote in post 50 that it worked.
I have an HP Photosmart C3180 All–in-one printer, copier, scanner – but when i try to scan i get the error message: Scanner device being used by another program.
Thing is – it’s not!! Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mitch
Hello,
I bought a WD Passport 160gb, and after allowing my girlfriend to use it to back up info on her macbook, it was inaccessible in my Dell laptop but could be found in Device Manager. After searching online for a couple hours, I came to the Western Digital site and downloaded the external USB/Firewire FAT32 Formatting Utility. I ran this and it formatted the hard drive, and within a few seconds the drive showed in My Computer. Anyone with a WD Passport problems should try this.
http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=33&swid=34
So I have a Maxtor 3100 mass storage device and it works fine. My computer recognizes it fine and I store ALL of my music on it. HOWEVER, while I have the Maxtor 3100 plugged in, I can’t plug anythinge lse in like my camera or my iPod. So more ro less, I have a place to store all my music, but beucase I can’t plug in both at the same time, I can’t use my iPod. My computer recognizes the iPod and the camera individually, and together, but not while the Maxtor 3100 is plugged in. What’s wrong?
hi guys i have a problem which is when i plug my USB mass storage device i cannot open it by double click ,, the only way to open it is by clicking right click and then choose open from the menu so could you please help me?
thank you in advance
I had the same problem as the others – USB Device Not Recognized – when plugging in Ipod and Camera. Problem started soon after having power supply replaced. I followed Post # 28 and everything now works, although now I’m running USB 1.1. thanks for the info Richard!
I had ALL usb ports on my computer stop working (eMachines H5036) and tried every solution on the internet and nothing worked. As a last ditch effort I decided to try and re-flash the motherboard BIOS and holy crap it worked! Suddenly all my USB problems went away! I didn’t even upgrade the BIOS, just flashed the same version and did a “Load Defaults”. I had already tried the “Load Defaults” thinking something might have got changed somehow but that alone didn’t work. However, the re-flash and “Load Defaults” solved all my USB problems. Hope that helps someone else.
I ran into this problem with a new Seagate mobile drive and my Thinkpad T40. It seems to work fine on other people’s T40s here at work. We isolated the problem to something on the motherboard since we relocated my internal disk to another T41 and the external Segate worked just fine with the T41. Rest of my USB devices seem to work ok with my T40. This is the first time I have ran into this problem – first with a Lacie mobile drive and now a Seagate.
So I tried (28) and it worked! May be speed is a compromise for now. Till I can convince my manager to get me new machine!
thanks
Wanted to add some findings to my earlier #99 comment.
May be somebody can throw some light on it.
Yesterday I put together my own portable drive setup with a $8 USB 2.0 case and a 2.5 inch 80GB Seagate drive for $65. I re-enabled USB 2.0 controller in my Device manager. I hook up this assembled drive and to my amazement the drive works just fine. It actually works as a 2.0 device. I verified that by choosing “View by connection” in Device Manager and looking under “ACPI->PCI->USB 2.0 Enhanced Controller” node.
So can somebody tell me what would lead to this kind of behavior. The USB 2.0 120GB Seagate portable drive kit is not recognized by the 2.0 Controller. But this “Moving Star” brand 2.0 external case with a 80GB 2.5 inch Seagate drive is recognized fine ?
I also wanted to remind that the Seagate Portable drive works fine on my colleague’s T40 here. From our last internal drive swapping experiment here we seem to have isolated the problem to some HW in my laptop. But then why would it work with the other assembled drive?
Sounds like a lot of issues with USB – but my problem is that since I reformatted windows xp on my computer, it will not allow me to install the drivers for my jvc camcorder. My USB ports are fine for picture transfers and all, but the drivers that came with my video camera WILL NOT INSTALL from the CD! Therefore I cannot capture anymore video from my camera. (It worked fine before I reformatted) Does anyone have any ideas on this one?
Hi there, thanks for the information, I noticed this problem and I already did this. But according to my experience, I have a suggestion.
When I hook up a IOgear 2.5″ external hdd to the rear USB port with short usb cable, it works find. But with a longer one, it doesn’t. So, if your device is not working, just try to use a short cable. Or, for the bigger capacity hdd, more power is needed.
good luck.
This is gonna be my fix, I hope. I’ve been receiving “USB Device Not Recognized”. Why? My problem started because of a static electricity surge when plugging in my USB based printer. By the way if someone knows how to fix this please let me know. I’ve purchased a PCMCIA card with USB ports on it. I’m hoping this card will get me my USB ports back. I’ll let you know if this works.
Got that error msg too… am sure usb ports and devices are not broken because: Webcam and mouse works on all 6 ports, only my usb stick and external harddisk quit working last week. Tried the stick and harddisk downstairs, worked fine! so not devices and ports broken. Whats the problem then? anyone can help me pls… been struggling with it for like a week. I even formatted my computer, still getting same error… Drivers are fine
Hello. I’ve been using a Lacie Ext H.D. It’s been working fine for ages. But all of a sudden I cant access it, saying ‘Device not ready’ At the same time the computer slows right down. Precious files are a waiting. How can I get my files back. Running windows xp. Thanks.
I tried regedit only to get 16 bit MS Dos message. thus not allowing me in.
Hi everyone, I’ve read through all of the above stuff before posting but none (though very useful)adressed my problem directly.When i plug in my usb memory key i can see it in device manager, says its working, but i cannot see it anywhere on MY COMPUTER, just as if it was not there. Although xp tells me device is ready to be used…..Yeh now i just have to find it right!!! please help, thanks for the help.
I’m still hangin dude..
hello guys
i have a same problem of unrecognized device error message some days ago i bought 6 data cables og reliance 2030 mobile for internet access
but when i connect the data cable to the computer it says unrecognized device error message. i am very up set i try a lot but all in vaon
please tell me what i can do to go off this error message please tell me the solution my mail address is punjabishera84@gmail.com
thanks
I forgot to stop by 2GB SanDisk Cruzer first and I didn’t think much about it as I’ve done this before with other USB drives I have in Linux/Windows XP & Vista. When I put it back in it was not recognized, “Oh great” I thought hours of work and 2GB of data lost.
I found some ideas here but none worked.
I thought I’d pass on this tip to help others who are in my situation.
I called SanDisk today and no help, they were going to RMA it since it was new, but I still lost my files!
So I tried a trick on WindowsXP (I think it’d also work on Vista), it requires two USB Drives one good (backup the data first) and one bad. Here are the steps:
– In my case the two USB Drives were NOT the same brand, one was a SanDisk Cruzer and the other a generic USB 1GB drive.
– Plug in the bad Drive then go into the Device Manager and uninstall the “Unknown Device” from the USB section.
– Plug in the Good USB drive and let the system auto-detect it. This process mounted BOTH drives. The Bad drive has worked like a charm since I’ve done this with all my computers. I didn’t even RMA the drive.
I think what happened to the Bad drive was the “boot record” (in Hard Disk terms) became corrupted and by using a good drive I was able to write a new record onto the device.
Dan, My USB Flash Drive is getting detected on both my laptop and desktop (both with Windows XP 2) on the front usb ports but when I try opening the Drive (G:) in this case, I get the error message “Please insert a disk into drive G:’. When I open the properties, the Removable disk G: properties opens properly and i also notice that the drive is displayed in blue colour and the FILE SYSTEM reads UNKNOWN. When i try formatting the disk, I get a msg saying “There is no disk in Drive G: Insert a disk, and then try again” Can you please advice since I need the flash drive very badly for transporting data?
I’m having a similar problem with “usb device has malfunctioned” after using an ipod shuffle with one of my front usb ports. Unfortunately when this error occured, ALL of my usb ports stopped working, and this included my mouse and keyboard (stupid dell doesn’t have any other types of ports for keyboard/mouse on thier newer computers) So I don’t have any way of fixing the problem that I can see. Any ideas?
Thanks SO MUCH! I couldn’t find a solution anywhere but googled to no end then found your page!
Plugged my Sony DSC-T100 into the rear port and it worked fine.
Again, thanks! :D
One of my old computers has a usb port installed according to thew device manager but it doesn’t show up on my computer.
For me the problem was hardware and is now solved. I had installed an Adaptec USB2Connect PCI card model A4A-4000B and all USB 2.0 devices were not recognized. I tried many software fixes and used the workaround in post #28 for a long time. Finally I RMAed the card and got a AUA-4000V in return. It has more recent revision dates on the circuit board.
It works fine now.
I am having trouble with my Toshiba portable Satellite P30 USB ports, there are three on the side. The Shuffle I-pod and scan disc memory stick was working great, but windows says now device not recognized. Under the USB directory it shows unknown device and My Computer it does not show up. I can plug in my Matrix external drive it works as well as my Microsoft wireless mouse. I’ve tried to reload drivers for each device no luck. Reloaded Bio’s from Toshiba also. This just recently started, both of the device worked great before. Hopefully somebody out there might have a fix.
I’ve had my Canon Powershot S1 IS for a couple years now. About a week ago the program I’ve been using to retrieve pictures from it (Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2) suddenly failed to recognize my camera. As far as I can remember, I had changed nothing on my computer. The camera still showed up in Device Manager, and when I plugged it into a different USB port (front or back) I received the popups saying “new hardware found” and then “new hardware installed properly.” Again, I checked Device Manager and the camera was there, but I could access it any other way.
I don’t remember doing anything, but later that day my camera was working fine again. Then, yesterday, the same thing happened and I haven’t been able to get it fixed. I’ve tried numerous solutions offered on this page but none have worked. I’ve gone through the steps in #16 and #28, but to no avail. I cannot find my Powershot CD-ROM anywhere, so using that to help me out is out of the question.
Any and all advice is appreciated
-Day
Hi
I have a Legend 2GB usb stick, i can see the device in safe mode but not when Win XP is fully booted.
Any suggestions????
For those who are getting the “USB not recognized” & “device has malfunctioned” errors, I found a solution for mine after trying everything under the sun for a week! I tried everything I could find on the net and nothing worked. DO NOT REINSTALL YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM as so many techies advise to do..it is not necessary. The problem I discovered is one of two things; Windows xp does not see the device because some services are not running, the device may have worked before but was unplugged without using the “SAFELY REMOVE HARDWARE” icon in the bottom of the screen near the clock, OR, the battery is in the unit and the USB is trying to charge up the battery, leaving no power to discover the device in Windows.
(I’m not sure exactly which one of these did the trick, so I’ll post in order what I did to resolve this problem) These instructions are for those running Windows Xp Home Edition Service Pack 2 with 2.0 USB ports in the BACK.
SOLUTION:
1. Go to Device Manager and uninstall anything under USB…including controllers.
2. Go to Administrative Tools/ Services. Clcik on any service that has anything to do with Mass Storage devices, Smart Cards, USB or Hard Drives, and set it to AUTOMATIC. START ALL THOSE SERVICES. If you are not sure then just start all the services in the list, EXCEPT the FIREWALL. (It is my opinion, and I have read elsewhere that the firewall can stop USB from detecting also)
3. Restart your system
4. USB controllers and devices will be detected and installed again as Windows loads up.
5. Take out the battery on your USB device. (I think that my computer may be trying to charge the battery instead of concentrating on installing the device which is why I took the battery out)
6. Plug in your USB device. (mine is an MP4/MP3 player).
7. In my case the computer did not show that it detected my device this time, so I went to Device Manager and there it was as a USB Mass Storage. Click on the device you see, and go to Update driver. INSTALL THE DRIVERS FROM THE LIST or the CD that came with your device, don’t get windows xp to search. (or it will install a generic driver).
Go back to Windows explorer and you should now see your MP3 player or Usb device in the list!
When you are finished using your usb device, make sure you click on the little icon near the clock (Remove hardware safely). Select your device when the list comes up and when windows tells you its safe to unplug it, then you can unplug it.
Hope this has helped someone!
i bought a cruzer micro 1.0gb. the u3 is not working anymore., it is not launching automatically. what should i do with this one?
I have a printer, external harddrive, and mouse connected via USB. My printer and HD were no longer recognized by USB ports but I plugged my mouse and other small USB devices into the same ports and these devices worked. The HD and printer just would not work so I tried almost everything mentioned in the above posts. Nothing fixed the problem until I shutdown and unplugged computer for about 30 minutes (Post 35). I made sure all USB cables were connected, turned the computer back on and magically everything was recognized. Sometimes I guess simple is the trick.
I had a problem with my Sandisk 512 cruzer micro not being recognized by Explore – it was recognized by device manager but no drive letter was being assigned. This happened after I repartitioned my HD (I used F: as the drive letter for the new partition which was usually used by the cruzer). Also, this happened after I had installed a Kaiser external drive with several partitions (probably coincidence?)
Anyway, I followed Badhusha’s Step 1. Remove Hidden Devices instructions (#16 above). When I got to step 6. I expanded Storage Volumes and there was a generic device with a red X through it. I right clicked on it, selected Properties and followed the instructions for re-enabling it. Seems to work fine – thanks Bhadusha!
hey i need fast repost ok my mom wants me to fix her ipod she says i did something to it but i didnt so im grounded till i fix her ipod but my computer wont reconize the ipod its a shuffle the old one also it blinks a yellow light when plugged it i need a fast reply or my mom will beat me
i have the same problem as comment #90, megastarjosh’s same problem
UPDATE YOUR LAPTOP TO THE LATEST BIOS VERSION if it’s Toshiba!!!! EVERY USB device I tried in any of the ports didn’t work. SOMETIMES it would see various flash/jump drives, but wouldn’t allow you to see the contents. My USB camera wasn’t even recognized.
Updating to the lates BIOS worked. It was also quick and simple.
I’m using a Toshiba Satellite A105
BC
Hey Friends, I have the same problem, my FlashDrive, As well as Memory Card is not detected. I tried disabling the Enhanced but in this case, my flash drive is detected under unknown device. I am confused, But the same flash drive works with other computer, so i think its my board problem.
But its amazing to see that A friend of mine has a 512MB (Prolink) pendrive that is the only working piece in my computer. And I borrowed with him my pen drive, unless I find a real solution.
I already formatted my computer, but it doesn’t work for me.
My pendrive information :
Transcend Flash Drive (1 GB)
http://www.transcendusa.com
I searched their site for driver download but there was no driver for Windows XP.
This worked for me. Easy fix.
I read here.
to unplug the pc from the wall for half an hour to let some residual current escape, plug back in and you are right to go. it worked for me straight up.
i hope it helps you.
I bought recently an TRANSCEND USB 2.0 TS1GJF120 flashdisk called Memorizer 1GB. I have A pentium 4 PC with Windows XP Pro Service Pack2, and whenever I connect the flashdisk to either usb ports, Windows foesn’t recognize it and says:”USB device not recognized”. All my other usb devices work fine… Please help me and tell me what to do to make windows recognize it… I have the latest USB drivers and it’s not working. I also cannot find a driver for it for XP anywhere…
I think that the problem is related to Service Pack 2 of Windows XP cos it works on a PC with XP Pro. Is there a patch for it?
Please advise. Thankyou kindly.
Here is something that can be tried.. It worked for me
Device manager only lists USB devices that are currently connected. (You can’t see the devices that are not connected, so you can’t remove the old device drivers) Each USB port gets it’s own device driver configuration, so moving USB devices arround sometimes fixes your problem.
Here is a really neat freeware program that lists all installed usb devices. You can even uninstall the old hardware that you no longer own. (Old devices like… Printers, cameras…)
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
In regards to the “Mass Storage Issues”. Check for a usbstor.inf file in your inf directory under windows (it’s a hidden directory). If it’s missing you should download a new one.
Good luck
Hi.. im having a problem with my USB (of course lol) and everytime i connect my device it says “Found new hardware” blah blah blah..after it installs (my cell phone which is nokia) i go to pc suit and it detects my phone and my phone says its connected but one when try to look for it in my computer its not listed and i cant transfer anything..i tried other usb devices such as my mp3 it says connected and i open the file try transfering something and says “Make sure you specify the correct path and name” of the file i was transfering and it was on desktop so..could i please pleeeease get some help this is driving me insane i cant use any of me devices and this ..sucks lol…darktears_8@hotmail.com …thank you
I did all the things as decribed no 16
but now my sony mp4 player is still not working windows giving the information that USB not recognized
Olá pessoal
Tenho um Pen Drive MP3, quando conecto, aparece a imagem dele, com todos os documentos de forma inlegÃvel, Ãcones anormais incomprienssÃveis, (me entendem?), e quando tento apagar, formatar, colar ou realizar qualquer alteração, ele diz: “Odisco está protegido contra gravação”.
Por favor, me deem uma ajuda. Há algum software que faça este trabalho, formate ou restaure?
try not only shutdown your computer, but also switching it off at the mains socket. Seemingly this allows any residual current on the motherboard or any stray capacitance to discharge. it would work 90%
Wow thanks Sam Adams your message about removing those files worked for me, I took notice because I have daemon tools installed. My Ipod used to work fine in the front ports then one day stopped working and would only work from the rear ports which was annoying but after removing those files and rebooting started working from the front again.
Thanks
I have an Asdit 2GB USB memory stick that can not be seen in Windows Explorer(on several XP machines). This device is present in Device Manager and Disc Management on all PC’s that have been tried. Any ideas how to access the content of the memory stick?
I am trying to upload the latest software on my TomTom 920T thru my IBM ThinkPad T60 but keep getting a message that the device is not recognized.
Any suggestions?
I bought a Sony MP4 player about 1 month ago but I could not use it till now cause a little message balloon would appear all the tim which said: windows does not recognize the usb device..so I tried the suggestion about using one of the usp ports on the REAR of the computer and it WORKED immediately…GREAT!! THANKS!! Carline, Holland
HEY PPL! HOWS IT GOING? AIGHT,
CHILI GREEN 300GB 2.0 HOLDING AROUND 100 GB WORTH OF DATA!
>>>>>>>>USB DEVICE NOT RECOGNIZED<<<<<<<<<<< (BLA BLA MALFUNCTIONED BLA BLA)
I’M SAD! VERY SAD! NO BACK UP COZ THIS WAS MY BACK UP!
VERY DESPERATE! READ HUNDREDS OF POSTS AND TRIED ALMOST MANY OF THEM.
I DID: UNPLUG, USB REGISTRY DELETING, CMD PROCESS, CHANGE CABLES ETC.
NOTHING WORKS!
IN FACT, AFTER THAT HAPPENED, MY PC WON’T EVEN RECOGNIZE MY MOTOROLA MPX220 ANYMORE!!!!!!!
HELP SEEKED! ANY BROTHERS OUT THERE WHO CUD HELP ME OUT. APPRECIATE GRANDLY! THX.
The USB malfunctioning problem is a common bug originally conceived by Microsoft to punish all users for their dangerous experiences. Microsoft considers users (even if they are pretty honest) as future hackers able to perform malicious actions with their PCs. For this particular reason, Bill Gates’ empire blasts PC owners by adding annoying pop-ups, nag icons, blue and red fatal screens and other bugs. The Redmond giant refuses to resolve that problem, stating that “all users are potentially malicious and for this reason we refuse to fix the USB malfunctioning error!”
Yet another happy google searcher. My ngear multi flash card reader was not working on my Desktop computer, but was fine on my Asus Linux based EEEpc. Thanks so much for your solution!
After wrestling with this problem for several days, trying every suggested fix including powering off the machine for a day (and taking out the laptop battery), I got nowhere. I concluded this was a hardware problem, and I suspect that will be the case for the majority of people experiencing this problem. Electronics such as motherboards do go bad, and when they do, no amount of tinkering will help. My company’s IT department gave me a new laptop but with my old hard drive. Problem solved. Of course if your computer is your own, you will have to go through some trouble to convince the manufacturer to repair or replace it under warranty.
Dear Sir i am in a serious situation.My USB 2.0 is not working now.It is saying USB device not recognized .I have done the following methods
1)Gone to deviceMgr and deleted the unknown device.
2)Done the deletion from registry.
3)Connected in the rear of Pc also.
So please help me as soon as possible.
Thanks in advance.
Hey, after reading and attempting a few of these posts I admit I got frustrated. I had tried the cmd steps and tried uninstalling the driver. No luck. Just wanted to let you know what I had done before I tried this. Completely unfounded I decided that the USB ports get their power in a series. If you try moving the usb to a different port on the back of course, this may be the fix for you. OBTW, sandisk cruzer 2GB, 5 USB ports on back, had recently hooked up printer via usb and extender to reach and upon first attempt after hooking up usb, computer froze. Then was left with this problem. Sorry for long post, hope it helps someone.
Ok T droped my Nintendo WIFI USB Connector Numurous times and now it says it’s malfuntioning.Help please!
Want to thank this poster.wish i would have found his comments much earlier would have saved hours of aggravation .Thanks again”Explorer was not recognizing any USB mass storage device including ipod and sandisk although they appeared in device manager. After tearing out what little remaining hair I have left, tracked the problem to the existance of three driver files in windows\system32\drivers :
secdrv.sys
sptd.sys
sptd409.sys
All dated around when the probelm surfaced.
One is related to anti-piracy software that probably came with a computer game, the others were installed as part of a failed attempt to install damon tools 4.0. In any event, I deleted those 3 files and rebooted. The system then “saw†the devices and asked me to reboot again afterwhich everything behaved properly. All is well although I am tired and bald.Comment by Sam Adams on December 3, 2005 “
dear Users i m getting prob in MY USB ie “unknown capacity” from this error i m unable to retirieve my data or can’t be able to make my USb format. when i take properties of my USb it shows unknown capacity, and then if i click format then windows give me msge “windows was unable to format” . Plz i request that anybuddy have any solution for this error so kindly reply me at farooqui.khurram@gmail.com, kfarooqui@fascom.com,
from
Khurram Farooqui
Right, I connected my Freecom external HDD to a port in the back of my CPU, instead of trying to use the front ports, and it works now.
No wonder. The dinky wires from the internal USB header to the front ports simply cannot supply enough power.
Amazing advice! I work for a big firm that would kick my arse at the very least if they knew how much clients’ work I had lost on my Flash Drive (PQI 256MB USB Flash Drive) oh, and plus all of the documentation for my house & bank!
Thanks everyone for their posts & advice & hope my post provides the same info.
-USB flash drive coming up with “USB Device Not Recognised” after plugging it into a usb port on the front of my Dell Dimension 3100 XP PC. Simply plug it into a port in the back of the PC (TRY BOTH) & see if that helps.
Kind regards
Martin
I don’t know if this is related, but when I inject my USB mouse into the USB, it just sits there and say USB cannont reconize this device. I have a laptop with a mouse pad, I can use this but sometime it gets very frustrating. If anyone can help please. I don’t want to resort to changing my motherboard.
Buna ,
Am un HDD extern WD si este detectat ca un nou device dar nu il pot vedea , deci nu este reprezentat. Ce este de facut?
Va multumesc
My problem is a bit different:
I have a Sony Vaio running XP Pro. I was transferring a bunch of video files to my new SimpleTech external drive when another process started up and froze my machine. After waiting a long while for it to resolved on its own, I cold booted the machine. When it came back up, NONE of my 6 USB ports were working and I started getting the ‘USB device not recognized’ message. All ports and all devices were working before the reboot.
I’ve followed everyone’s advice: uninstalled all of the ports and restarted so that they would reinstall, deleted the vid entries from the registry, etc., nothing works. After deleting the vid entries and restarting, I got the messages that it had detected new hardware and new USB devices properly. But when I tried looking at them, they were Unknown devices.
So it seems like the ports are OK, and I know the devices are OK, they just don’t talk to each other.
Any other ideas?
Just a dumb thought – I am going through the same issues…but is it possible that there is just not enought power to run allll the things we have plugged in to USB ports? (like trying to plug too many things in if your electrical wiring is really old)
I have an older Dell – with 2 USB ports in back (one for printer, one for external hard drive) and I have a USB hub plugged in to the front). My external hard drive refuses to power up. I unplugged all USB devices, & one at a time tried adding. Sure enough, as soon as I added anything except the EHD, the EHD would slowly lose power. I went through the usual…thinking it was a power supply issue, purchasing a new external hard drive, and the exact same thing happened with a brand new one. Anyway…does this mean I have to plug & unplug everything each time? do I need a newer computer? Hmmm…would even that solve the issue?
@Kathi That’s possible, but it wouldn’t explain how USB devices work when plugged into the back and not when plugged into the front.
Regarding your hard drive, it’s hard to say, but narrowing it down to exactly what causes it is the first step to troubleshooting the issue.
i hv tried every method tat given..
but stil de prob haven solved yet~
stil keep getting de same msg..
aiks~
Same problem: “USB device not recognized”
Then i try to remove all of usb ports drivers, search and delete all USB driver files (like usbport.sys, usbhub.inf, usbehci.sys, etc. if any) in inf folder, dllcache folder, system32 folder. After that i try to re-install the drivers. And that solve my problem.
Note: look at “Disk Drives” section in Device Manager, if there’s a name of your usb, try to remove it too.
Ok.
SiRAY
oh, i forgot:
If problem still happens after you installed new drivers, try to disable one of the USB port in Universal Serial Bus Controller in Device Manager. That works for me.
Ok.
SiRAY.
hii guyz,
i am using transcend USB external harddisc.All of sudden windows gives the message ” USB device not recognized & may malfunctioning”.
I connected the same disc on my friend’s laptop,but problem persists.
Is the harddisc crashed??
Plz help.It is urgent.
-Amit.
@Amit It’s very likely your hard drive crashed.
I have attached UBS Printer and Scanner devices to my computer, but always there is message that “USB Device not recognized” and this message appears again and again. What is the solution, please suggest. Thanks a lot.
Hello. My situation is alittle different. I have a built-in 5 card reader in the front of my HP. I accidently deleted my F drive, right clicking safely remove hardware, instead of left clicking. The other card readers work. It is not recognized anywhere in My computer, system information at all or even it bios. Help is greatly appreciated.
Well I have a similar problem. I have tried everything, but no USB devices are recognized. Everything that seems to be a solution does not work for me, I still receive the error message. I am the person that fixes things themselves, so this is pretty much killing me. And my Warranty is expired so that’s not an option.
If someone comes up with a reliable solution, please contact me, I would really appreciate it.
I have a brand new sony vaio laptop. I had a working mouse attached and a few days after buying both the mouse & laptop, the mouse stopped working and I was getting a bubble message on my taskbar saying “USB not recognized”… I read other posts and tried it all, but finally I found a solution. All I had to do was turn off my computer, remove the power cord, then the battery. I put it all back in, turned on the comp, and everything is working fine!
Thanks very much I had a similar problem with a mp3 player (sansa e250) It worked immediately when I used a USB port at the back op the computer. Strangely enough We have two identical players, same firmware etc. One works fine with USB slot at the front the other one not!
hey guys…ive just read all ur comments and suggestions about “USB not recognized…” of which i have the same problem…however I don’t seem to have read about someone who has the exact problem as mine…well here’s my exact problem: I have bought a 1 GIG Apacer USB, and it worked in any computer. After a few days, it stopped working.. everytime i insert my USB in any computer, all i got is USB Device Not Recognized (Malfunction)take note its not only in one computer but in all computer i could rent, use or borrow. That’s my exact problem indeed… how can it be…? can any one help me…? does it mean my USB is really the problem..? do i have to replace it..? i cant replace it yet, not until i have recoverd my most important files… Please! Please! HELP ME! anyone.. please…my email add is aldrich03@yahoo.com
P.S. Could this be the worst to happen to any memory flash drive? or could this be a caused by some VIRUS…?
no. 129 is the great answers,… i was installed that program and then looking for the connected usb in my laptop. for the result unknown device, i uninstalled it an unplug the device and re-plug the device… and.. walaa my s-150 usb speakers fill the office with her sounds…
thx JJ…
hey guys i have a transcend JFv30 usb and WAS working fine, until now. it says, usb not recognized. One of the usbs attached to this computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it.
so yeah i tried doing this solutions
Solution:
I found the following solution workable for my case:
Remove Hidden Devices 1. Click Start. Click Run. Type cmd and press OK.
2. Type “set DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS=1″ (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Type “set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1″ (without quotation marks) and Press Enter.
4. Type “start devmgmt.msc†(without quotation marks) and click press Enter.
5. Click View. Click Show hidden devices.
6. Click “+†to expand Imaging devices, Unknown devices and USB devices.
7. Are there any USB devices and unknown devices (including grayed out devices)? If so, please right click it and click Uninstall.
(It’s found on the hersam web site)
After doing this, my device works again with no problem.
Your Problem:
If you get “Usb device not recognized” in Windows and the above solution doesn’t work for you, there might be other causes:
A) USB device worked before but suddenly stopped working:
The following solution might be applicable:
1) Remove all oem*.inf files =
1. Click start and click run then under the run line type in the command “cmd†(without the quotation marks)
2. In the command line, type in the following (without the quotes) and press enter after each command:
“cd \windows\infâ€
“ren infcache.1 *.oldâ€
“ren oem*.inf *.oldâ€
“del C:\windows\setupapi.logâ€
2) Removing all entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Enum/USB that start with VID ==
Removing the VID entries from the registry will cause them to be redetected at restart.
CAUTION: If you have a USB keyboard or mouse, do not remove the VID entry for these devices, otherwise, Windows may not restart correctly.
1. Click Start and click Run. Type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB.
3. Highlight and delete all the VID_…. entries.
Permissions may be set allowing the deletion of the VID_ entries by following the steps below:
a)Right-click the key to be deleted, and then click Permissions. The VID_… Permissions window will open.
b)With Everyone highlighted in the Group or User name section, select Full Control in the Permissions section.
c)Click Apply, and then click OK.
4. Turn off the computer.
Reconnect the USB device to the computer system: ==
1. With the computer system turned off, reconnect the USB hub to the the USB port.
2.Restart the computer.
3.A New Hardware Detected window should open and reload the drivers.
and after i restarted my pc, usb was fine…i opened it, files are there, but i noticed the cd rom was opening involuntarily..so i closed it, then it opens again, did it over and over again then i noticed my usb isnt detected anymore…huhuh i dont understand!
i tried doing the steps again, but it wont work anymore…please i need some help..need to back up my files in the USB..help meeee
email me maki_dowgy@yahoo.com
ill be happy to hear some answers
thanks
my usb devise was functioning at first but later after i restarted the computer the device is recognised but a message appears to format the device, i tried formatting it but a message then appears and says ‘WRITE PROTECTED CAN NOT BE FORMATTED’ what should i do i donot want to format the device as it contains some important data which can not be achieved another time….. please help me..
Hi all, my Usb cannot be recognized when I plug either in front USB, or in the back side of my motherboard, I reinstalled windows several times, but neither printer nor camera, and nor scanner does not work, if somebody had the same problem and then solved it please contact me, or post it hear, my email d_mike87@yahoo.com Thanks beforhand !!!
Hi Dear.
I tried all the Trick which u post here but still the pbolem is not solve please help me to some other trick for my usb problems. i have lenovo x61 mptebook and i m not able to use my flash drive when i go in manage then i saw my flash drive but every time i need to select any drive latter for flash drive and after that i wii open it from the Disk Managment but the flash drive not show in MY COMPUTER so how can solve this plrblem If possible then send me mail or post here then i will try to solve the problem thanks Take care byee
Just recently my computer does not detect any removable flash drive and even my USB modem. Whenever I plug the device it displayed “One of the device connected to this computer has malfunctioned” or “USB device unrecognized” and that made it hard for me to connect to internet and download to update the drivers. One thing that troubled me is that it still detects my USB camera, USB keyboard, and even for my Ipod.
PLEASE HELP ME!!!
Note: I already formatted my HD and reinstalled WinXP SP2 but nothing changed. Its not like this before…
Hi Guyz ! This is Bappi here. I’m having problem with my Transcend JFV30 GB pendrive. When I connect it to my pc it shows an error that “Please insert a disk”. What should i do now. Guyz if you’ve any suggestion for me then plz mail me on bappi_575@yahoo.com !
My EHD has important data on it (who’s doesnt right?) And for some reason everytime I plug it in it says it needs to be formatted…How can I get the data off of there if it says it needs to be formatted? Anyone have any tips/tricks it would be GREATLY appreciated!! Thanks!
i plugged a cord from my phone into the computer pop up window said new device installed nothing else poped up im trying to pull pics from my phone to computer
i connect my i-pod through datacable to my pc then my pc give an error like “this usb device is not recognized….
Brilliant,just back from holidays and camera not recognised by computer.got this site up and the answer in 2 minutes !! just plugged in to the usb port at rear of computer, amazing !! Thanks
Here’s an interesting tutorial covering troubleshooting USB sticks:
http://filetonic.com/blog/2009/07/14/reformatted-pc-cannot-read-usb-sticks/
When I plugged my Flash disk in to the computer , the computer says, <> Some times in other computers it says <> . My Flash disk stored many needed data and due to this problem I could not access the data . How can I solve this problem and acquire the data?
hey i am using windows xp professional and i try to insert datacable of nokia n73 in the system and the mobile displayed pc suite activated but the system is not recognise my mobile what would be the problem can you plz help me to know what would be the problem
I am trying to plug in my w580i sony ericson in the laptop and have tried the 2 ports in the front and the port in the back. i have vista and am really wanting to upload some pics which is not possible. I hate this pop up ‘usb device not recognised’ since i cant connect my phone only to this laptop.
i have problem with my mp3 digital player
it used to work fine but that day when i connected to the computer it shows just **starting **(the mp3dp)and my computer shows usb device. unknown!!!!!!!!!
i tried to fix it but i coudn’t
can you help me .please
“USB device not recognized” is caused by a partial failure of the USB 2.0 hardware. The USB 1.1 part of the hardware usually still works.
To use the USB 1.1 part of your USB port, in Device Manager disable the USB Host Controller with “Enhanced†in its name. Then your USB port will work with all your devices at USB 1.1 speed.
I have a 128 MB USB and it used to work perfect, but now its not working on any computer. I tried on the back ports of the computers but still no luck…when I plug the USB a red light on the USB appears but the computer doesnt recognize it….what am I suppose to do….????????????
@juju Buy a new one. Sounds like it died. They’re getting cheaper by the day.
Oh man…all of the my school work is in it….i guess i lost them all
@juju It’s not necessarily gone. There are ways to attempt to recover your data but it doesn’t sound like you’ll be able to access the files easily.
You could try using PhotoRec.
Thank you for the solution to a problem I have working on for months. Plugging the USB flash drive (64GB Sandisk Cruzer) into the back fixed the problem of not being recognized. Even though the light to the flash drive was on when plugged into the front of the desktop, the power was not sufficient. Plugging it into the back fix the problem. Appreciate the post.
@F. Conte Cool, I’m glad it worked for you.
my windows 7 has just have errors come form this computer
have down loaded movie on to flash drive now it wont play on my portable dvd player it dose not recognize the format the player is a olin dvd player
my Dlink DWM156 not Recognized i got the error message how to sole this/// in window 7