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Windows XP refuses to recognize my thumb drive

M

MJGunn

Golden Member
Its working fine on a few other machines, but on my laptop, I plug it in, and windows xp says it can't recognize it, needs a driver. The only ones memorex provides is for windows 98/me, so I'm kind of stuck. Anyone have any ideas why other computers are able to recognize it no problem, and my laptop is being difficult?
 
try going to control panel/ admin tools/ comp mangament/ disk management
and see if if will let you assign the drive a new letter. I've had that problem with 2k3 but never with xp.
 
Well, the problem is, windows doesn't recognize that it IS a drive, so it doesn't show up in computer/disk management.
 
Are you using an unpowered hub? Some thumbs need more power.

Try plugging directly into the PC, or if you are already, try using a different port.
 
then go in to the hardware devices thing an see if you can find it there. Let me know if u can.
 
I assume you at least have SP1, and the drive is USB 2.0? Sometimes XP won't recognize a USB device, and marks it as"unknown device" from then on. It's happened to me like that, even with drives that need no drivers.

Try un-installing the unknown device from the control panel.....shut down.....remove the AC plug and/or the battery. Let it sit for a few minutes, then put it back together, and reboot with the drive plugged in. That unplugging the power thing seems to fix USB problems for me anyway.
 
Well, its a laptop, no hub. I've tried both ports, no luck.

When I plug it in, it says USB device not recognized, and I've just checked, when in, it is not listed in device manager.
 
It could be that there is a problem with the USB port. I've seen this before a few times.

If you have an Intel processor based system, make sure that you have the latest INF drivers. Centrino chipsets are not completely supported by Windows XP so you must load them.

The same also goes for AMD based laptops.

If you are still having problems after loading the chipset/USB drivers, you have a bad USB port.
 
Feep: No, there is nothing in the device manager that isn't accounted for.

Andy: Thanks for the advice about the INF drivers, any idea where I should look for them (it is an intel system)? I have a palm I believe I've synced on the laptop in the past, I'll check if its working just to be sure.

As for SP2, yes I did install it, if the drivers Andy suggested don't work, I guess I'll uninstall it and try it again.
 
what you need to do is try somthing esle that should be plug and play to see if the port is dead.
 
What version of USB drive is it? USB1.1 or 2?? Sometimes you may want to update your USB root drivers to make it work.
 
Originally posted by: DotheDamnTHing
can you try on another machine mayber?
Click to expand...

he already said that it works on other machines. Read the thread before posting, or at least the first message, which is where he said that.
 
When you hot plug the flash memory, do you hear the device added chime? If not - then the problem is the port. Does any device work in those USB ports on your laptop?
 
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