Forcing XP to acknowledge connecting devices

Aside from installing an OS that wasn't built by Microsoft engineers,
is there a way to get a PC to recheck all of the external firewire/USB
devices and connect to them if not already connected? I'm using
WIndows XP Pro - SP2.

I have a firewire DVD burner. If I connect it to my XP-Home system it
recognizes it every time. The XP-Pro machine? Eh. Since the drive
is noisy I like shutting it off, but when I turn it back on I have
this crazy expectation that, you know, things will actually work.

So now I have all these applications running, one of which is the one
I want to use with this drive and Windows refuses to see that a drive
has been attached. I don't want to reboot. I just want the thing to
do what it's supposed to do. Hell my other system is unreliable for
video capture. Sometimes it recognizes that I've connected a video
device and sometimes it doesn't. At least with that system I can
"play the game" of reconnecting over and over until the Microsoft
software gives in and complies. This system seems especially
stubborn.


Did Microsoft at least get this working with Vista?

.

Relevant Pages

  • Video capture problem ?
    ... Once I've installed the suggested Microsoft Security Updates, ... If you use a video capture program, such as Microsoft Windows Movie Maker, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: [OT] need help with tech issue (video capture)
    ... > The only video capture I've done was for a live webcast, ... I normally hesitate to recommend anything written by Microsoft ... > (actually I will go way out of my way to avoid recommending ... I cheated and bought a stand alone DVD recorder. ...
    (rec.pets.cats.anecdotes)
  • Re: 2nd tuner support in MCE ???
    ... If you're a Microsoft system builder, ... I would like to extend MCE to add the following 2 features: ... > I have been looking into writing a secondary video capture process for MCE ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)