Re: USB Drive not recognized - Driving me crazy!!!

Anna,
Many thanks for your intervention, but after many weeks of frustration I
can tell you exactly what is wrong with XP.
The so-called "Update Wizard" needs to be rewritten. It just DOESN'T WORK!
It absolutely insists on protecting whatever driver it initially chooses, to
the exclusion of all else.
As XP will not accept the USB 2.00 driver which is supplied with my mobo, I
went to the expense of purchasing a high speed USB 2.00 PCI Host card with
four ports. When I install the drivers from the supplied CD, the response
is "The Wizard could not find a better match for your hardware
than currently installed". Which is patently ridiculous! When I direct XP
to a floppy containing updated Drivers I am told "The location you specified
does not contain any device information files". At times it even states
that the location (Drive A) doesn't exist!
I downloaded and installed the latest Driver from the mobo makers, ASUS,
same results.
With this state of affairs recurring time and time again, how can that
Wizard be operating correctly?
My mobo has six ports, of which four are designated as USB 2.0. The PCI
card has another four ports.
Infuriatingly, when I insert a flash drive into any of the USB 2.0 ports, a
balloon in the Notification area tells me I am inserting a 2.0 device in a
1.0 port (as if I didn't know!) and to use the hub listed above. The hub it
highlights has FIVE ports! Just what is going on here?
I have used Regedit to check that in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion the item 'DevicePath' points to '%SystemRoot%\inf',
and have checked that the INF folder contains USB.INF.
I have tried the sieber.de website, but no result. What else can I do?

FYG, the driver which the Wizard insists can't be beaten is version
5.1.2600.0 dated 01/07/2001, details shown as
USB\VID_0BC2&PID_0503\5&2C9A06280&1. I believe it is USBSTOR.INF or .SYS.
Is there something which can be done to resolve this problem quickly? In
the time It takes to move a couple of GB to/from my EHDD I could walk around
the block!
Is there, perhaps, a Vista USB 2.0 driver which the 'Wizard' dare not
reject?

Re your 14 points: 1 & 2 : I don't have Disk Management - Classic view?
3. Done that. 4. EHDD has own power and extension cable. 5. Done with flash
drive as above. 6. "Scan for hardware changes "produced nil results. 7.
Done that. 8. See (4). 9. Done that. 10. N/A. 11. Can't, EHDD under
warranty. 12/13/14 All done.
A useful check, but unfortunately no further clues.

Thanks, Jim.


Anna wrote in message
news:%23Vh8kBNNHHA.4928@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jim & Phil:
I'm afraid the following won't be of much or even any practical help to
you re these USB non-recognition problems that we've all been experiencing
and have reached epidemic proportions since the advent of the XP operating
system, but for the little that it may be worth, here are some of my
thoughts on this issue...

These USB non-recognition problems have been vexing all of us for some
time now. 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.

We've put together a more-or-less checklist for troubleshooting these
rather common USB non-recognition problems that (hopefully) may be of some
value to users 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. Try alternate powering on/off methods. If the USB device contains its
own power supply, try booting up with its power on, then try powering on
only *after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
8. Try a different USB cable.
9. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
10. If the device in question is not a commercial USB external HDD but
rather one in which you installed a 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 didn't seem to matter how
a USB external HDD was jumpered. But it may be worth a try.
11. 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 drive.
12. If the USB device is connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card, try changing the
PCI slot to which it's currently connected to another one.
13. 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.
14. Determine from the manufacturer of your motherboard whether there's a
BIOS upgrade affecting USB device recognition.

A number of posters have reported they've found useful information re
troubleshooting USB devices on this
site...http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html
Anna







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