USB Flash drives not recognized

[Guest]

Under Vista Ultimate, when I insert a flash drive, the OS does not recognize
it as a USB Mass storage device, and prompts for drivers.
Here are some details:
1. This system was upgraded from XP
2. A Sandisk Cruzer Mini 1GB flash drive was installed prior to the upgrade
(this device is the only thumbdrive that works)
3. A USB card reader is present (system allocates 4 removable disks) and
working
4. I've verified the Sandisk drive is working on another system
5. I also get the same results with an older 128 MB flash drive

 

[Guest]

i have the same problem with my Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB . i use Vista
Ultimate on both my Laptop and Desktop. on my laptop as soon as i insert the
USB card Vista detects it and assigns it as a Driver. but on my Desktop it
prompts for drivers? Even if i direct the installer to "C:\Windows" every
time i re-insert the USB card , it prompts for driver for an "Unidentified
Device" which again i have to point the installer to "C:\windows" for it to
work!

is there anyway of finding out what's causing the conflict? perhaps a driver
installer? or another USB Device? i have unplugged all my USB devices but
this still happens or perhaps a driver installer?

can anyone show me how i can check for conflicts properly? thanx

 

[Don]

i have the same problem with my Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB . i use Vista
Ultimate on both my Laptop and Desktop. on my laptop as soon as i insert the
USB card Vista detects it and assigns it as a Driver. but on my Desktop it
prompts for drivers?...

Quite a few people are having the same problem with USB sticks, which
appears to be a Vista bug in need of a fix. I'd like to track it down,
but I can't reproduce the problem. If either of you feel geeky enough
to do some debugging, I have some ideas to try -- but a basic knowledge
of the Registry would be helpful, otherwise it might be too confusing
for a beginner.

 

[GreenWing]

Does your 4GB Cruzer have the U3 stuff installed on it? Mine came with U3
installed...I went to u3.com and used their utility to remove U3, formatted
the stick to NTFS and it works fine on my vista notebook and desktop (both
ultimate) for readyboost or normal drive...

Greenwing

 

[Guest]

I have a Kingston 2GB Datatravler U3 stick. The problem was Launchpad for the
U3 would work. The solution was released abut 10 days ago. A Vista compatable
version of Launchpad. Since then I've had no problems.

 

[Don]

Does your 4GB Cruzer have the U3 stuff installed on it? Mine came with
U3 installed...I went to u3.com and used their utility to remove U3,
formatted the stick to NTFS and it works fine on my vista notebook and
desktop (both ultimate) for readyboost or normal drive...

Thanks for the tip. I was wondering how to get rid of U3. More
importantly, did Vista ask you for drivers every time you plugged
it in?

 

[Don]

I have a Kingston 2GB Datatravler U3 stick. The problem was Launchpad for the
U3 would work. The solution was released abut 10 days ago. A Vista compatable
version of Launchpad. Since then I've had no problems.

Before that, did Vista ask you for drivers every time?

 

[GreenWing]

Thanks for the tip. I was wondering how to get rid of U3. More
importantly, did Vista ask you for drivers every time you plugged
it in?

No...the u3 stuff installed and was working (except for the removal
function)...I wanted the stick for readyboost, so I deleted off the U3 crap
via u3.com...Ultimate sees the drive fine and has never asked for a
driver...Treats it as a regular USB drive since installation...I have the
stick inside my desktop so I never remove it...

Greenwing

 

[Guest]

Mine did come with U3 installed but i removed it using the installer as well
and formatted it with NTFS but my Desktop never automatically found the
drivers for it, i had to point the installer to "C:\Windows" for it to be
able to find the drivers! Since installing the Drivers, now every time i
re-insert the USB card in, Vista tells me it needs to look for driver for
"Unidentified Deviceâ€, so again i have to direct it to "C:\Windows" in which
case the "Unidentified Device" becomes "SanDisk Cruzer Micro" when it finds
the driver.

i would do anything to find out why this happens. So am i willing to do
debugging, YES, just tell me how.
thanx

 

[Guest]

Tell me where in the registry you want me to look and I'll post what I find.

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

Wow, where can I find a newsgroup devoted to U3 flash drives? I just bought one
90 minutes ago and I'm not sure I should use it on my 98SE machine if I still
want to use U3 on an XP machine. U3 changes the whole POV of a flashdrive for
me, so I don't wanna wreck it prematurely.

Thank You Staples for confounding a simple purchase for me.

 

[Guest]

There shouldn't be ANY problems between a 98 & XP machine. The default
drivers for the U3 work just fine on my XP machines. The driver issue was
with my new Vista machine.

 

[Guest]

The removal of the U3 programs might be the problem. If your thumb drive is
set up like mine, then it came with two partitions, one with U3 and the other
is the main data partition. Have you checked the SanDisk website? What I'd do
is visit the site, run the necessary software/Drivers to RESTORE your thumb
drive back to it's original state. Then you have a way of communicating with
SanDisk Support, which is what I'd suggest you do.

 

[Don]

The removal of the U3 programs might be the problem. If your thumb drive is
set up like mine, then it came with two partitions, one with U3 and the other
is the main data partition...

I have a Kingston which had U3 on it until I deleted it with the U3
removal tool. The only difference I noticed is that used to appear
in Vista as a CDROM disk (!) and now it's back to being an ordinary
USB drive. No driver problems either way, and it still works.

 

[Don]

i would do anything to find out why this happens. So am i willing to do
debugging, YES, just tell me how.

I posted a response to you in 'Vista Playing Dumb' a while ago before
I saw this post. First fetch the process monitor utility and spend
some time getting used to it. Learn how to tell it to print only the
info you want to see, so you aren't overwhelmed with data. It's just
a tool to display info, so it shouldn't be able to screw up your
machine any further than it is ;o)

After that, my approach would be to use it to see where Vista is
searching for its drivers. Is it looking for the wrong drivers
in the right place, or the right drivers in the wrong place, or
maybe both. Vista really shouldn't be looking for *any* drivers,
so that's the real puzzle to solve, but I'd need to work backwards
from the end towards the beginning of this bug.

You'll probably need more advice along the way, but get started
first and you'll probably get some ideas of your own to try.

 

[ACER Vista]

I just bought an Acer 9410 laptop and a 2G Cruzer Micro.. It does absolutely
nothing except give an invalid USB device message... no driver opportunity.
San Disk was no help at all. Just very rude off shore support which I ended
hanging up on.. I guess I will try the U3 site for fix and if
nothing...remove U3. Hate to do that but......

 

[Guest]

I have a Kingston which had U3 on it until I deleted it with the U3
removal tool. The only difference I noticed is that used to appear
in Vista as a CDROM disk (!) and now it's back to being an ordinary
USB drive. No driver problems either way, and it still works.

Well I'd go back to the Kingston site and there is a Vista compatible
launchpad update. D/L it and run it. What it does is: removes the old U3
programs, then safely makes a copy of any data on the drive, reformats and
then repartitions the drive, then puts the new U3 software on the drive, and
then finally copiies the data back onto the data partition. That should get
you a fully functional U3 system again.

 

[TMi]

I have the problem with my 3 USB key, but only on 1 of my 2 PC
* Sometimes it ask me to install dirver. the trick is to indicates
c:\windows\... driverstore ... then it will (at least) install 3 different
driver ... and it finally work
* Nevertheless, very often, it take 5-10mn to recognize (eg appears into
explorer as a disk, and light turn on on the USB key), if i log off it will
be recognised (or if i wait 5-10 mn).
* The only differnce i saw between my 2 PC, is that the 1 with problem has a
supplmentary item : in management tools / disk, i have "removable disk ",
not only "disk mangment" (sorry my Vista is french, so it's a translation of
french word, so the english real name is may be slightly diffrent)

 

[Don]

I have the problem with my 3 USB key, but only on 1 of my 2 PC
* Sometimes it ask me to install driver.

Does that machine boot okay when a USB key is plugged in?

the trick is to indicates
c:\windows\... driverstore ... then it will (at least) install 3
different driver ... and it finally work

What drivers does Vista install? Any interesting messages in
C:\windows\inf\setupapi.app.log or setupapi.dev.log?

I'm seeing entries about my Kingston USB stick in those logs -- and
the strange thing is that I see entries saying that DriverUpdate exited
with FAILURE status(??) but I have no problems of any kind with any of
my 3 USB sticks. Very strange!

You have two machines which behave differently, so we might get some
information by comparing the log files from the two machines after
plugging the same USB stick in each machine.

* Nevertheless, very often, it take 5-10mn to recognize (eg appears into
explorer as a disk, and light turn on on the USB key), if i log off it
will be recognised (or if i wait 5-10 mn).
* The only differnce i saw between my 2 PC, is that the 1 with problem
has a supplmentary item : in management tools / disk, i have "removable
disk "...

Yes, my USB stick appears as a removable drive also, and I have no
problems with drivers. You see that on the machine *with* problems, is
that correct?

Thanks for the information.

 

[TMi]

Does that machine boot okay when a USB key is plugged in?
YES, and USB is perfectly & immediatly recognised

What drivers does Vista install?

I think it's disk.sys ; usbstrore.inf ; parmgr.sys (i've not checked)

Any interesting messages in
C:\windows\inf\setupapi.app.log or setupapi.dev.log?

Here somme examples

1)
dvi: Enumerating INFs from path list 'C:\Windows\INF'
!!! inf: Error searching published INFs - likely system corruption!
dvi: Created Driver Node:
dvi: HardwareID - USB\Class_08&SubClass_06&Prot_50
dvi: InfName - C:\Windows\INF\usbstor.inf

2)
!!! sto: Inf file does not contain CatalogFile directive for
the specified processor architecture. Inf = e:\windows\inf\usbstor.inf
inf: Opened INF: 'e:\windows\inf\usbstor.inf' ([strings] <src
= normal>)
inf: Opened INF: 'e:\windows\inf\LAYOUT.INF' ([strings] <src
= normal>)
!!! sto: The driver package has a reference to a missing
file. File Name = qv2kux.sys, Error = 80070002
!!! sto: GetCopyFilesListFromInf() failed. Error = 80070002,
Inf = e:\windows\inf\usbstor.inf
!!! sto: Failed to copy the Driver Package to C:\Users\Thibaut &
Trinidad\{664648da-1798-4a1f-abbc-9150aed25765}. Error = 80070002
!!! sto: Failed to copy driver package from source into temporary
client location. Error = 80070002, SrcInf = e:\windows\inf\usbstor.inf,
DestPath = C:\Users\Thibaut &
Trinidad\{664648da-1798-4a1f-abbc-9150aed25765}
sto: {Staging Package To Driver Store - phase 1 exit(80070002)}
! inf: Add to Driver Store unsuccessful
!!! inf: returning failure to SetupCopyOEMInf
inf: {SetupCopyOEMInf exit (0x00000002)} 22:14:45.952
!!! ndv: Driver Package import failed for new device...installing NULL
driver.

Yes, my USB stick appears as a removable drive also, and I have no
problems with drivers. You see that on the machine *with* problems, is
that correct?

Yes, on both machine my 3 differents USB keys (one is mini hard disk)
appears in explorer with the same icon image.
But, but, the difference btw my to 2 PC is not on the explorer, is not in
the device manager neither.
The difference i see is when i open the "computer manager", in the part
where you can manage your disk i have an item which is not on the PC which
is working fine
In the bad PC i have (in french)
1) Stockage/Stockage amovible translation (approx) ->
storage/removable storage
2) Stockage/gestion de disque translation (approx) -> disk/disk
management (where you can see the partition etc, change the drive letter
.....etc)
In the good Pc i've only
2) Stockage/gestion de disque translation (approx) -> disk/disk
management

So for me that's a strange difference


Hope this help.