Can't use USB pendrives with Windows Vista RTM

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Embryo

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Feb 6, 2001
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When I insert a pendrive in the computer, Windows automatically installs the respective driver for the device and the icon "Safely Remove Hardware" appears in the taskbar, but that's it. I don't receive any message asking to open the device and it's not listed in Windows Explorer.

Does anyone have the same problem?

Thanks in advance!
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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Vista has the option to disable or limit USB devices via Local or Group Policy. You're not on a Domain, are you?
 
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Slikkster

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2000
3,141
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Any chance you have this pen drive set to "speed up your system"? Vista allows flash drives to be used to provide extra virtual memory, helping to speed up operations.

It's possible your drive has been inadvertantly set for this. The feature is called "Ready Boost".

Anyway, read the info on the following page, and see if it applies:

http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/04/14/576548.aspx
 
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Embryo

Member
Feb 6, 2001
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The problem is that I don't even get the "Auto Play" dialog box when I insert the pendrive. And I just noticed that when I remove it, the "Removable Drive" icon in Windows Explorer quickly appears then disappears again. Odd...
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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Something like this can happen when you have a mapped drive letter that is the same as the USB drive letter. In Disk Management, see if the USB drive shows up. If it does, try changing its drive letter to some high, unused, value.
 
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Embryo

Member
Feb 6, 2001
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Slikkster: Not that I'm aware of. I've just reinstalled the OS, didn't change any configuration yet.

RebateMonger: I don't have any mapped drive at this moment, and yes, I can see the USB in drive manager listed as "USB Mass Storage".
 
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Embryo

Member
Feb 6, 2001
121
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76
Quick resume:

1) Installed Windows Vista
2) Attached USB flash drive
3) Windows installs driver
4) Device Manager lists the drive as "USB Mass Storage"
5) The icon "Safely Remove Hardware appears in the taskbar
6) Windows Explorer shows nothing
7) Remove drive
8) Windows Explorer shows "Removable Drive" for half a second
 
B

btcomm1

Senior member
Sep 7, 2006
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I can help!

Vista sucks :)

Do you have more then one pen drive you can test? It might be that it requires a differn't drivers that windows vista doesn't have it? I'm just guessing here.
 
T

TG2

Banned
Nov 14, 2005
774
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Under disk management, is a drive letter assigned to the USB device ?

it will connect in Vista, but wont show in Explorer if no drive letter is assigned
 
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Embryo

Member
Feb 6, 2001
121
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btcomm1: Yes, I've already tested three different pendrives...

TG2: I'll take a look at this, but after installing Vista shouldn't this be "automatically" assigned?


Could this have to do with motherboard chipset drivers? I have an ASUS A8NSLI Deluxe, but ASUS didn't release any drivers yet except for nVidia which has released their nForce beta drivers for Vista RC2. I'm using those who came with Vista.
 
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ShaharT

Junior Member
Dec 5, 2006
5
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0
I have the exact same problem, using the same MOBO - the Asus A8NSLI Deluxe. I just upgraded an XP install to Vista Ultimate RTM, and lost access to two different types of USB thumb drives (that work well on other XP machines) as well as access to a Western Digital MyBook 500GB USB external hard-drives. I've been trying -everything- to get this fixed, changed drive letters, removed the USB device, more stuff - and nada.
Seeing now i'm not alone, means its more likely related to an Asus driver thing. I also have an Nvidia 7900GTX and use their Vista driver. So now probably we need to wait for the mobo Nforce driver and any Asus driver. Any luck / new discovery from your side?
I can be reached at shahart at gmail.com - i'll post in the forum as well as be happy to let you know personaly by email of anything new I find.
Shahar
 
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ShaharT

Junior Member
Dec 5, 2006
5
0
0
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunatley, neither keys (upperFilters & LowerFilters) suggested in the Microsoft article appear in my VISTA ultimate under that registrey value... likely that solution is indeed specific to XP, or the problem is related to an Asus A8N or Nforce drivers required for vista - as I saw elsewhere other users have no problems with their USB and external drives.
 
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Slikkster

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2000
3,141
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Ok, with a little further research, it appears this is now a "known issue". Supposedly Asus is working on it. One workaround is apparently to turn off USB 2.0 in the bios (boo on that), and someone else got around it by installing a PCI USB card. Again, not the most desirable, but until something is done, it could help, and those cards are cheap. Here's the thread I'm referencing:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=21862
 
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ShaharT

Junior Member
Dec 5, 2006
5
0
0
Many thanks for your research. I'll disable USB2 in the bios and wait for Asus to post a new driver while my data (hopefully) transfers slowly over USB1 :)
 
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ShaharT

Junior Member
Dec 5, 2006
5
0
0
Just to close the loop:
disabling USB2 in the bios did work, but for USB flash drives as well as external storage such as WD Mybook USB drives.
I'll wait for Asus to release an updated driver and post again once thats out.
Many thanks.
 
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ShaharT

Junior Member
Dec 5, 2006
5
0
0
Has anyone heard anything from Asus or knows who to contact at Asus to get an ETA for a fix for this problem?
I was thinking of getting a separate PCI-USB card, but my HTPC has run out of slots.
Turnning off USB2 support in the BIOS does indeed solve the problem of this Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe MOBO working with USB storage devices when with >3GB of RAM on Vista RTM - but my external storage devices are now so... slow... I can hardly use them. Any suggestion or insight on when a fix is going to be made available will be much appreicated.
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
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0
If you have another PC on the network, you could just use IT for reading the USB pendrive. Share the pendrive across the network.
 
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UMfanatic

Senior member
Jan 16, 2004
443
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0
Vista may not recognize the pen drive, it is still beta, and not everything was meant to work in vista, Vista has worked fine for me thus far but every now and then I get all sorts of weird errors
 
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