"(e-mail address removed)"
My first post to a newsgroup so please bear with me.
I have 4 USB ports on the back of my tower/desktop no matter what I plug
into
my usb ports they all show device not recognized. and show up as Unknown
device as well.
And my device manager shows no problems with any usb port. I have tried to
reinstall the drivers but that did not help. Where can I find more drivers
for the usb ports (hopefully a free download and not driver detective
either)
Iam running XP Pro with everyupdate microsoft has to offer sp1 thru and
including sp3 and all other updates.
I did buy a new multi-port usb hub and plugged that in and same result.
device unknown.
I do have two devices plugged in to the usb ports, a HP printer and a
scale
for my postage system...both of which work perfectly and show up in the
device manager listing.
I have tried clearing/deleting all the ports and reloading them when
windows
starts up and still no go.
One other note...I take my sons Logitech webcam and plug it in and it
works
perfectly.
I have taken all the external drives that was plugged into the usb ports
and
tried each of them on another vista machine and they all work fine. I even
tried the 4 port usb hubs on the vista machine and the read perfectly as
well
but they (the 4 port hubs and external hard drives) will not work on my XP
machine.
I sure would like some help on this.
Thank you
(e-mail address removed)
jackreece...
First of all, if you would peruse this and other related newsgroups for any
period of time you would find that these USB non-recognition problems are
endemic.
These USB non-recognition problems have been vexing all of us for some time
now. Hardly a day passes where numerous queries similar to yours aren't
posted to this and other newsgroups dealing with XP issues.
We've become increasingly convinced that the relatively large number of
problems in this area involving the non-recognition of USB devices that
we've all been experiencing is an indication that there is something
seriously flawed with respect to either the USB 2.0 specifications, possibly
involving quality control issues affecting the manufacturer of these USB
devices as well as supporting components such as motherboards and other
USB-related components. Then too, we've become increasingly suspicious of
the XP OS as it relates to its recognition of and interaction with these USB
2.0 devices.
We have encountered far too many unexplained problems affecting
detection/recognition of these devices and their erratic functioning not to
believe that something is seriously amiss in this area.
We continually encounter situations where a USB 2.0 device - generally
involving a flash drive or USB external hard drive, will work perfectly fine
in one machine and not in another. And, in far too many cases, we're unable
to determine why this is so since we're unable to detect any
hardware/software problem in the balking machine that would cause this
non-recognition effect.
Anyway, re your specific problem...
We'll assume, of course, that your machine is equipped with USB 2.0-capable
ports. Since you've successfully connected two devices (a printer & a scale)
to two of the ports that would tend to indicate no problem with at least
those two USB ports. Yet you state "that no matter what I plug into my usb
ports they all show device not recognized and show up as Unknown device as
well." Could you clarify that?
If you problem is similar to others of this sort, I assume the devices
you're having problems with are flash drives and/or USB external HDDs.
BTW, do you have one or more front-panel USB ports on your desktop machine?
Same problem?
We've put together a more-or-less general checklist for troubleshooting
these rather common USB non-recognition problems that (hopefully) may be of
some value to you and others encountering this type of problem...
1. Access Disk Management and see if the USB device is listed. If so, and
there's no drive letter assigned, see if you can assign a drive letter to
the device.
2. If the USB device is listed in Disk Management with an assigned drive
letter, right-click on its listing and select Explore from the submenu.
Hopefully, Windows Explorer will open and the device will be listed.
3. Connect the USB device *directly* to a USB port on the computer, not via
a USB hub. Try different USB ports should your computer have multiple ports.
4. Avoid using a USB extension cable.
5. Try connecting a USB device (that does not contain an auxiliary power
supply) to a USB port both before and after the boot operation.
6. Where a USB (or Firewire) external HDD is involved, access Device
Manager, highlight the Disk drives listing and click on the Action menu item
and then the "Scan for hardware changes" sub-menu item. Do the same in Disk
Management > Action > Rescan disks.
7. Again, if the problem device is a USB external HDD that is not being
recognized by the system - access the BIOS and disable the "boot from USB
device" option should that setting be present in the BIOS. Ditto for "USB
legacy support" or similar setting if present.
8. Try alternate powering ON/OFF methods. If the USB device contains its own
power supply (as in the case of a USBEHD), try booting up with the device's
power on, and if the USBEHD is not detected, then try powering on the device
only *after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
9. Try a different USB cable.
10. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
11. If the device in question is not a commercial USB external HDD but
rather one in which you installed a PATA HDD in a USB enclosure, jumper the
HDD as Master (or Single if the HDD is a Western Digital disk). A number of
users have reported that jumper configuration corrected their
non-recognition problem. In my own experience it never seems to matter how a
USB external HDD (regardless of make/model) is jumpered when installed in a
USB external enclosure. But it may be worth a try.
12. If the device in question is a USB external HDD, first check out the HDD
with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. If it checks out OK,
and you can remove the HDD from its enclosure (without voiding any
applicable warranty), do so and install the HDD as an internal HDD to
determine if there are problems with the disk.
13. If the USB device is connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card, try changing the
card's PCI slot on the motherboard.
14. Access the website of the manufacturer of the USB device to determine if
there's any firmware update or info re the problem you're experiencing or
there's any possibility that the USB enclosure itself might be defective.
15. Determine from the manufacturer of your motherboard whether there's a
BIOS upgrade (or other software download) affecting USB device recognition.
(We have encountered a few - very few - older motherboards (about five or
so years old) that exhibit USB 2.0 connectivity problems, even though
they're presumably designed for USB 2.0 capability and the installed XP OS
includes SP1 or SP2. (I'm assuming your PC contains a SP since there were
definite XP OS-related USB-connectivity problems prior to the SP1 update).
In a number of those cases involving a motherboard problem an additional USB
2.0 driver was included with the MB or available from the motherboard's
manufacturer. Theoretically there should not have been any need to install
an auxiliary USB 2.0 driver, but we found this was the only way to ensure
reliable USB 2.0 connectivity. Admittedly this was a rare situation with
only a very few motherboards and we haven't encountered this problem with
motherboards manufactured over the past five years or so.)
You might also want to access
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html for
more detailed info on these USB-type problems and troubleshooting tips.
Anna
