Suddenly Windows Does Not Recognise My USB Mass Storage Devices

[Michael Kilpatrick]

I had my Canon camera connected to my pc this evening via its USB cable.
Suddenly the connection failed and an error message was displayed:
"One of the usb devices connected to this computer has malfunctioned and
Windows does not recognise it......................"
I have tried different cables, each of the 6 USB ports on my pc,
re-installing the camera driver and rolling back to the last System
Checkpoint. Didn't fix the problem.

To make it worse, now all my mass storage devices produce the same
symptoms - external hard drive, portable storage device for my camera,
Olympus MRobe mp3 player. I can't use any of them.

All my other USB devices (DSL modem, printer and scanner still work fine)
and all the mass storage devices still work with my laptop.

I'm running WXP SP2.

I thought of doing a "Repair" on my XP installation, but my Windows CD is
SP1 with SP2 added as a download. I got an error message that the version I
was about to install is older than the version on my pc. Should I uninstall
SP2 and do a repair?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any advice.

Michael

 

[Guest]

The only thing I can think of is to uninstall the USB drivers reboot then
plug in your camera to the usb port, this may work?

 

[Phillips]

Did you turn off the system - instead of restart?
Otherwise, check that WIA (Imagine Aqusition) Service is started - set it on
Automatic. Also, check any issues in Events logs.
You don't need to reinstall.
Michael

 

[Pentium]

Go into device manager from "SYSTEM" in CONTROL PANEL and check out the
status. You may have to disable then enable again. Then restart.

 

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Thanks for these 2 replies.

The WIA service is definitely running. I had a look at the event logs, but
don't have the knowledge to interpret them.

I have now realised that the issue seems to be with USB 2 devices - as it
happens all my mass storage devices are USB 2, all the others are USB 1.

The camera, external hard drive and portable storage device all work if I
connect them via an old USB 1 external hub that I have - but they work
slowly of course.

I seem to remember that Device Manager used to show at least one USB 2 hub.
It doesn't now.

I have also re-installed the motherboard drivers (SIS chipset) including the
USB 2 patch.

Could it be a hardware problem?

Thanks again

 

[Phillips]

Check if USB2.0 is enabled in BIOS.
Michael