USB Device not recognised

[PK99]

Any computer literate folks able to help?

My PC (sony vaio desktop) has started flagging:

"USB device not recognised: One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned."

It does this for all external memory devices: Sticks and an External hard drive.

But is fine for Garmin and printer etc.

I've googled and tried some of the work-arounds, a friend uninstalled the devices and restarted the pc and all seemed well until i next rebooted.

 

[slowmotion]

It sounds like a Registry problem. I've never had much luck with software that claims to fix these. Others have. I wait until I'm really tearing my hair out and then re-install the operating system, having backed my stuff up. Not elegant, but it has worked for me.

Others here will give better advice....I'm no expert .

 

[Acyclo]

I'm with slowmotion. 'Nuke the site from orbit - it's the only way to be sure'. If you do, take the opportunity to create two partitions, one for the OS (c: ) and the other for your data (d: ). When you have a system working satisfactorily take a Ghost style backup of the OS partition. Do not rely on Windows rollback points.

 

[PK99]

I'm with slowmotion. 'Nuke the site from orbit - it's the only way to be sure'. If you do, take the opportunity to create two partitions, one for the OS (c: ) and the other for your data (d: ). When you have a system working satisfactorily take a Ghost style backup of the OS partition. Do not rely on Windows rollback points.

sounds a good plan - I have a tech savvy nephew coming over to lunch in a few weeks - I'll make him earn his nosh!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I would just delete the USB drivers from device manager and force the pc to re-install all of them from scratch. how depends on what version of what you are on. assuming windows here, but I may be wrong.

So delete everything it will let you delete from what I have highlighted.

Then select the Actions menu and select Scan for hardware changes and afterwards restart the laptop - this is important. Let it sort itself out and see what the outsome is

Also if the laptop is a much older version, you may find that the USB ports are not providing enough power to run the USB devices that require power, so it would detect they are there, but not work correctly. Is the external hard drive one that has its own power supply or is it a small one that draws power from the laptop?

 

[PK99]

I would just delete the USB drivers from device manager and force the pc to re-install all of them from scratch. how depends on what version of what you are on. assuming windows here, but I may be wrong.

So delete everything it will let you delete from what I have highlighted.

View attachment 16068

Then select the Actions menu and select Scan for hardware changes and afterwards restart the laptop - this is important. Let it sort itself out and see what the outsome is

Also if the laptop is a much older version, you may find that the USB ports are not providing enough power to run the USB devices that require power, so it would detect they are there, but not work correctly. Is the external hard drive one that has its own power supply or is it a small one that draws power from the laptop?

Great! We are on the same page.!

Tried the deleting drivers route - or rather my mate did - but only the ones showing an error.
Rebooting gave me back access to the external storage devices! Whoopie!
But on next reboot they went awol again!

PC is Vaio Desktop running Windoze7. About 2 years old and till very recently had no problem running the external storage.

Any further advice will be most gratefully received!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Try deleting them again, but this time all of them. restart without the hidden devices bit and let the machine sort itself.

the fact it is a desktop and 2 years old, rules out the power from the USB ports issues (unless the faulty drivers are to blame). printers etc have independant power so it could be why those devices still work. (this is why some external hard drives actually have the ability to be plugged into 2 USB ports to get extra power.) also make sure it is most definitely restart/shutdown you are using and not sleep... that would not help matters at all.

if that does not work, then I will have to go away, sleep on it and scratch my head and see what I can remember. (I quit IT in Feb 2011 to go off and cycle around the world and am trying very hard to no longer be a paid IT Engineer (don't mind helping out though)!)

Can I assume that you have the latest service pack and patches installed? and can you check if your AV software scans externally attached devices like USB drives on first attaching them - it can be an option with some AV software. It could help diagnostics if this was disabled temporarily - that feature only rather than the AV software as a whole that is.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Also the 2nd reboot may have accidentally hit a windows update which we had earlier in the week which may have undone what you had done by deleting the drivers, so I would be seriously tempted to try that route again. It may be a case that you need to track down your motherboard manufacturers drivers for Windows 7 (x86 or x64?) and use those rather than the MS drivers.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Great! We are on the same page.!

Tried the deleting drivers route - or rather my mate did - but only the ones showing an error.
Rebooting gave me back access to the external storage devices! Whoopie!
But on next reboot they went awol again!

PC is Vaio Desktop running Windoze7. About 2 years old and till very recently had no problem running the external storage.

Any further advice will be most gratefully received!

how did you get on?

 

[PK99]

how did you get on?

Soory too busy cooking for friends coming round tonight - i'm a bloke, multi tasking across competencies is not possible.

I hope to apply wet towels and try to sort it on sunday.

Thanks V much for the help!

 

[Crackle]

Good advice from satnavleftturnin100yards, only one thing to add. Is this a front panel usb or rear. If front panel, it might be faulty, or the motherboard drivers don't work with it properly and some devices don't get recognised (had this before). Rear panel might make a difference, try it and if it works, get a USB hub and plug it into the rear panel and forget the front one.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Good advice from satnavleftturnin100yards, only one thing to add. Is this a front panel usb or rear. If front panel, it might be faulty, or the motherboard drivers don't work with it properly and some devices don't get recognised (had this before). Rear panel might make a difference, try it and if it works, get a USB hub and plug it into the rear panel and forget the front one.

agreed - I have intended to make that the next step if needed, to look inside and re-seat cables between dedicated m'board socket for front USB panel and the panel itslef, especially if there is a little wobble in it at the front. But was also thinking along the lines that with the current drivers installed for some of the USB devices, windows will re-use them (if same driver) rather than go off and pull new ones from the driver store which is what I would prefer it to do.

@PK99 I am out tomorrow (collecting N+1 which was an accidental purchase last night ) so won't get back until mid afternoon/dusk from when I will be able to offer assistance if no-one else has come forwards in my absence!