USB mass storage devices won't work

[Guest]

I am usning XP with SP-2 on a Sony Viao, P4 3.2 MHz. I am trying to add a
couple of storage devices via USB and the system will not recognize them. I
have tried a USB flash drive and an MP3 player. Other USB devices (printer,
camera) work just fine. When I plug in these devices, they show up as "other
devices" in device manager, with yellow question marks and exclamation marks,
with message that the driver is missing. I have tried installing a driver
for the MP3 player, to no avail. Any suggestions?

 

[S.Sengupta]

'General USB troubleshooting in Windows XP'

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310575

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

 

[Guest]

What is the size of your storage device? One other thing check SONY website
for updates that may correct this problem.

 

[Guest]

The only thing I haven't tried in these tips is to unistall and reinstall the
USB controllers. In the tips, the statement is to:
"5. Right-click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers
node, and then click Uninstall to remove them one at a time.
6. Restart the computer, and then reinstall the USB controllers. "


Does this mean to look for attached USB devices and uninstall them, or to
uninstall each of the controllers (there are 4 listed in device manager, plus
another 5 USB root hubs, plus a few specific devices)? When I reboot, will
these drivers be reinstalled automatically? Sorry for the naive question,
but this is new to me -- I appreciate your help with this.

'General USB troubleshooting in Windows XP'

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310575

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

I am usning XP with SP-2 on a Sony Viao, P4 3.2 MHz. I am trying to add a
couple of storage devices via USB and the system will not recognize them. I
have tried a USB flash drive and an MP3 player. Other USB devices (printer,
camera) work just fine. When I plug in these devices, they show up as "other
devices" in device manager, with yellow question marks and exclamation marks,
with message that the driver is missing. I have tried installing a driver
for the MP3 player, to no avail. Any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

The flashdrive is 512 megs. THe MP3 player is 1 gig. I've checked Sony and
found no updates.

 

[Martin L]

Got this problem lately.

You have to replace the usbstor.inf file in your \windows\inf directory. Inf
folder can be hidden. Have your windows showing hidden files to be able to
see that folder.
In the i386 folder on your XP cd, you will have the file "usbstor.in_"
Copy that file in your windows\inf directory and issue the following command
in a command prompt windows:
Be sure to be in the windows\inf folder and type "expand usbstor.in_
usbstor.inf" without the quotes. It may ask if you want to replace the
existing file. Say yes.
After that, in the device manager, remove everything under usb section to
have windows redetect it and you should be fine after restarting windows.

 

[Guest]

Thanks much for this advice -- I will try it when I get home. Sounds hopeful!

 

[Guest]

Well, I tried this and it didn't work...after restarting, windows did not
find any of the drivers and now none of the USB port work. It seems
something is more seriously wrong. Perhaps the problem goes back to a system
crash a while back. I bought the computer with XP 2004 MCE. When it
crashed, I restored the system to its "factory" settings. Now I see the
system tells me I am running XP Professional, not MCE. So maybe there is a
conflict due to a mismatch of drivers and operating system. I may have to
just do a clean reinstall....ouch.