USB Flash Drive Not Recognized

[benkmann]

Hey all,

I recently bought a 512 MB PNY Flash Drive (USB 2.0), brought it home,
and it worked great for about a week. Then all of sudden yesterday, it
refused to be recognized. I run Windows XP home, so it SHOULD have the
driver for the device. Here's what happens:

I plug it in, and it says "Found new device." Then it says "There was
an error installing the device. You should re-plug the device or
replace the device." Ha, false on count 2. The device is still good
because it is recognized on other computers. I tried uninstalling the
driver, but then as soon as I plug the drive back in it just repeats
itself.

So I checked in Device Manager. It's listed as "Unknown Device" under
the USB category, but there is no exclamation point to it. I click on
it, and it says there's no driver for it!

And yet Windows HAS the driver...hm...

Any help is appreciated, thank you!

-Curt

 

[jt3]

Did you try removing it in DevMgr? Then, if you re-insert it, does it
reinstall it?
Joe

 

[benkmann]

Yeah, removed the "Unknown Device" driver in Device Manager (which is
what it installed for it). Then when I re-inserted the drive, it just
re-installs the "Unknown Device" driver =\

-Curt

 

[jt3]

What about the USB controller--do you see nothing connected to it in DevMgr
(while the flash is plugged in)? I've seen the controller reinstall when I
inadvertently deleted it, and after a reboot it found the flash drive when I
plugged it in. Of course I have to have about the flakiest XP system
around, so this may be no guide.

 

[benkmann]

How do I look at that, the USB controller? How does it change whe
there's something plugged in?

Here's the strange thing. I'll do a System Restore, and then all of
sudden the USB drive works fine. Then about 3-5 days later it STOP
recognizing again, and gives me that error again.

What all does System Restore do/change? And what might keep comin
BACK onto my system that's knocking the USB out of commission?
Thanks!

 

[jt3]

What I meant was to look in DevMgr--If the thumb drive is plugged in, you
will see it there, depended from the USB controller. As far as the System
Restore, what you'd be doing there is using a version of your registry that
is older than the one you're currently using. Sounds like you have
something on your computer that's doing this.

Joe

 

[Guest]

I have a similar problem.

I expected to see the USB flash drive appear in Windows Explorer listed
under My Compuer alongside A:\ C:\ and D:\ etc etc.

I decided to do a search for a file that I knew was on the flash drive, and
it was found. The flash drive was assigned the E:\ drive and was located in
Control Panel, Portable Media Devices. So I can expand the drive in Windows
Explorer and use the files as normal. The only issue remaining is that every
time I insert the Flash Drive, Windows tries tries to instal drivers... I
then need to cancel this. I still do not need to do this on my other PCs
with the same Flash Drive.

Also under Portable Media Devices is Nero Fast CD Burning Add In. I
wondered if this could be causing a conflict of some sort. It is supposed to
be used with Windows Media Player 9 although I have WMP 10 installed. Do not
know how the add-in got in there.

Does your device appear in the same place on your PC??

 

[akridget]

I have a similar problem.

I expected to see the USB flash drive appear in Windows Explorer listed
under My Compuer alongside A:\ C:\ and D:\ etc etc.

I decided to do a search for a file that I knew was on the flash drive, and
it was found. The flash drive was assigned the E:\ drive and was located in
Control Panel, Portable Media Devices. So I can expand the drive in Windows
Explorer and use the files as normal. The only issue remaining is that every
time I insert the Flash Drive, Windows tries tries to instal drivers... I
then need to cancel this. I still do not need to do this on my other PCs
with the same Flash Drive.

Also under Portable Media Devices is Nero Fast CD Burning Add In. I
wondered if this could be causing a conflict of some sort. It is supposed to
be used with Windows Media Player 9 although I have WMP 10 installed. Do not
know how the add-in got in there.

Does your device appear in the same place on your PC??

 

[akridget]

i also had the problem. This worked for me. I set the usb flash drive
as B:\ using right click on my computer, click manage, click disk
Management,right click usb flash drive(probably E:\), click change
drive letters and paths, click add and change to drive B:\. then ok
everything out. Reboot. I also uninstalled nero but do not know
if it had anything to do with the problem.

 

[Guest]

Found a solution that worked for me.

It would appear that, when new hardware is identified, Windows XP Home does
not automatically look in the c:\windows\inf folder for the driver. When I
told the wizard to look in that folder, the drivers were loaded with no
problems and everything is fine again.

What has caused this, I do not know...but all seems ok now.