USB Issue

[mycroft69]

Okay, here's the issue: I have a PNY Attache 1 Gig U3 thumb drive I bought earlier this year. I've been using it with no problems until now. I plug it into the front ports of my home system and get a balloon message that reads "USB Device Not Recognized. One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message." I followed the Troubleshooter wizard, without resolution. The USB controller appears to function correctly. I also own a Dell Inspiron E1705, and the thumb drive works with it. I tried plugging into the back ports; same problem. I rebooted the home system and went into Safe Mode, main Administrator account. The thumb drive is recognized there. I rebooted and plugged the PNY back in at the Microsoft splash screen, standard mode, then log into my regular account. The PNY is recognized. But when I disconnect it (through the LaunchU3 software), then try to plug it back in, I get the Unrecognized message again. It looks to me like one or more of the general USB files for Windows XP Pro may be corrupted. Does anyone have some thoughts or a solution?

Here are my home system specs:

Codegen Group L-6018-1-S2F ATX mid-tower case
Kingwin AP-450 450W power supply
Gigabyte GA-7N400-L mainboard
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton CPU
2x256MB Corsair CMX256A-2700C2 XMS DDR333 RAM, dual channeled
80GB Western Digital WD800JB 7200RPM 8MB cache ATA 100 Winchester (primary master)
80GB Maxtor DiamondMax 7200RPM 4MB cache ATA 100 Winchester (primary slave)
Asus DVD-E616A3 16X DVD-ROM Drive (secondary master)
I/OMagic 16X dual format double layer EIDE internal DVD+RW drive (secondary slave)
Biostar GeForce VP5200SS16 128MB VGA/DVI AGP 4X video card
Terratec DMX 6fire 2496 PCI audio card with 6fire drive bay breakout
Diamond SupraMAX 56K PCI faxmodem
Hanns-G HN199D 19" LCD SVGA/DVI monitor
Micro Innovations 102-key PS2 keyboard
Logitech 2-button PS2/USB optical wheel mouse
Matsushita 3.5" floppy drive
Windows XP Professional SP2 w/current updates
K-World V-Stream VS-2800D USB video capture interface

mycroft69

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Also check that your USB ports are getting supplied with enough juice from the motherboard. Unplug a few of your other USB devices & then try it.

 

[corkyg]

If it doesn't work on a different computer or two, then it is probably toast. They do wear out, and sometimes just die suddenly.

 

[mycroft69]

At 450 watts and only 2 devices connected to the bus, there's plenty of power there.

I also own a Dell notebook, and it works w/out trouble on that one.

However, on the mid-tower, I re-installed the USB S3 patch from nVidia. That didn't correct it. I tried to re-install the original nVidia USB drivers, and they wouldn't install. In fact, they called for the Windows XP SP1, instead. So I searched for independent USB drivers at the Microsoft website and found something in their knowledge base about faulty USB drivers. Based on their documentation, I uninstalled every USB item in the Device Manager, then rebooted. Once the system was fully loaded, I plugged in the thumb drive. It worked. I ejected it from the LaunchU3 software, waited, then plugged it back in. It worked.

I consider this case closed. My thanks to you, and the management of this forum.

 

[Rastus]

I installed some Canon software for my camera and it made my USB ports not recognize some of my other periferals. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software and it fixed it.