USB Problems: "Function Driver not Specified for this Device Instance"

[Ed G]

Heya all,

First a bit about my rig:

AMD Athlon XP
Shuttle Spacewalker Motherboard (VIA KT266 USB1.1)
Windows 2000 SP4
MS Sidewinder Precision Pro USB
Logitech Wingman Rumblepad USB


I've been wrestling with this USB problem for a week
now and have yet to find a solution. I have a MS
Sidewinder joystick and a Logitech Wingman Gamepad
installed via USB on my machine (on separate ports). They
were working fine until I unplugged the Logitech gamepad
while the machine was still on. After that, the system
refused to recognize EITHER the MS joystick or the
Logitech gamepad. I tried rebooting and reinstalling the
gamepad but no luck. I got a "Function Driver not
Specified for this Device Instance" error message after it
tried to detect a unknown USB device. I tried manually
installing the wingman drivers but it gave this
error: "File does not contain information about your
hardware." Also, the autodetect will only try to install
the winnt/inf/usb.inf driver and during the attempt I get
that same "Function Driver" error message.

Frustrated with the problem and not receiving any
replies from Logitech support (other than the automated
response), I reinstalled the operating system AND still
encountered the same problem. I had installed the VIA 4-1
drivers as well at the 74 patch for VIA KT266
Motherboards. I've tried to reinstall the Logitech
software (after removing the old drivers in the "Program
Files/Common Files/Logitech/" folder but no luck. I;ve
tried removing all the USB devices and reinstalling but no
luck there (the system still detects 2 unknown usb devices
w/ yellow exclaimation points because of no drivers
installed, while recognizing the USB hub and USB host
controller just fine).

If any of you out there can and are willing to help
please do so as I am at my wit's end and about to abandon
USB forever.

Thanks in advance,

~ed g

 

[Bob I]

When you reinstalled the operating system did you "gut" the INF
directory? Also when "reinstalling" drivers you may need to strip
references to the old ones in the registry or Win2k will just reload the
wrong ones again.(I typically find that to be the problem with printers
)

 

[Ed G]

When I reinstalled the OS I formatted the hard drive.
Could the old drivers still be around? I'll take a look
at removing them later today and see where that gets me...

~ed g