BakeMyBrawls Posted October 30, 2009 Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 I have a relatively new computer (just a few months old) with Windows Vista Home Premium. It's been running fine until the last few days.When I first got the PC I installed all the drivers (where necessary) for my existing USB hardware: a scanner, two printers, an MP3 player, a 'flash' memory stick, and an external hard drive. All of these have been working fine.That is, until the last few days! Suddenly, some USB devices that USED to work, now don't.The printers and scanner DO still work.When I plug in my MP3 player, Windows seems to think it's a brand new bit of hardware, and goes through the motions of trying to install a driver. Of course the driver is already installed, but I get the message:Found New Hardware - USB-DRIVEUNITWindows encountered a problem installing the device software for your deviceWindows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it.Microsoft WPD FileSystem Volume DriverAccess is denied.Similarly, the USB stick comes up with the same error (albeit with the title "Found New Hardware - Voyager Mini"), however Windows still lets me explore the contents of the drive anyway.Any ideas why USB is suddenly "broken"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakeMyBrawls Posted October 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 Naturally I've made sure I have all the latest Windows updates. It occurred to me that Service Pack 2 might have broken things, but uninstalling it did not fix the problem. (I've reinstalled SP2 now.) Unfortunately I don't have any restore points.(I opted to post in the Windows forum rather than the hardware forum, since this seems to be a Windows problem rather than an issue with a specific bit of hardware. I'll try and write a follow-up post with a summary of all the things I've tried so far, as I've done quite a lot of googling on this problem!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted October 30, 2009 Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 Are the drives OK if tried in another computer?The message you are receiving often appears when a drive has been destroyed by injudicious plugging/unplugging USB devices - have a look at http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?showtopic=32464It may not be that but it gives you somewhere to start looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakeMyBrawls Posted October 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 Thanks for the suggestion. Pretty sure it's not that though. The devices work fine with my laptop. On top of that, they are not especially old, and it's kinda funny that several USB devices have started misbehaving simultaneously. I have tried plugging into different USB ports, with the same result.For starters, it seems weird that Windows keeps wanting to reinstall the driver; and secondly, why does the installation fail? :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted October 30, 2009 Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 As the devices are OK on another machine, it suggests that the USB connectors/chip on the computer are faulty - I have experienced this. They are not easily repairable, if at all, but you can install a separate USB PCI card. These cards are very low cost now and, if that isn't the problem, you haven't lost anything but you have gained extra USB ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakeMyBrawls Posted October 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 As the devices are OK on another machine, it suggests that the USB connectors/chip on the computer are faulty - I have experienced this. They are not easily repairable, if at all, but you can install a separate USB PCI card. These cards are very low cost now and, if that isn't the problem, you haven't lost anything but you have gained extra USB ports.I can't see how this would be the explanation.If something has gone wrong with my USB chips on my new PC in the last few days, how come the printers work?(Indeed, the computer can identify what each USB device is, so successful communication is clearly occurring. It's simply the driver installation process that is failing.)It really looks like an operating system glitch to me, but I'm open to all suggestions... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted October 30, 2009 Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 Your scanner + 2 printers all have their own power supplies.So ........ is it the power that your other non-working devices are (not) getting from the USB ports on the PC ???Are you using the rear ones (on the motherboard) or front ones (fed by motherboard headers)Does your external H/D have its own power supply ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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