Total USB failure

For the third time in about a month my Vista Business will not respond to any
USB ports or devices. I have already tried KB940199 and KB941600, no luck.
I have not yet tried fiddling with infcache.1, I will try that next. The
last two times I unplugged everything and hiked the computer over to the
campus computer shop and then everything magically worked again -- maybe my
computer just wants to go for a walk every week or so, but this is getting
annoying and I would like to get to the bottom of this. In case it helps I
am using a recent Intel m/b, so I'm pretty sure the hardware is OK.

Hi dkmcf:


Solution when Windows Vista does not recognize a USB device when plugged:
==================================================

1. Disconnect all USB devices that are working with conflicts (they are
shown in the Device Manager).

2.Restart and see that no Windows popup offers to install drivers, and never
can.

3. Go to start > Computer > Windows > inf > INFCACHE.1, which is the file
causing the trouble and we want to delete it. To do so we need to have
maximum authorization as Administrator Privileges.

4. Right click INFCACHE.1 > Properties > Security tab > Edit the permission.
If you are the Administrator, give yourself Full Control (all options with
checks), for you need it to delete and move a Windows Operating System file,
and click Ok.

5. Before deleting the INFCACHE.1 file, copy it to any other place, just in
case. Delete the original Windows INFCACHE.1 inside the inf file. Restart.

6. Start connecting your USB devices one by one, giving Windows Vista enough
time to install the drivers and show the Successfully Installed popup display.

7. Look where you saved the copy of the INFCACHE.1 file and delete it.

Efrain Morales



"dkmcf" wrote:

> For the third time in about a month my Vista Business will not respond to any
> USB ports or devices. I have already tried KB940199 and KB941600, no luck.
> I have not yet tried fiddling with infcache.1, I will try that next. The
> last two times I unplugged everything and hiked the computer over to the
> campus computer shop and then everything magically worked again -- maybe my
> computer just wants to go for a walk every week or so, but this is getting
> annoying and I would like to get to the bottom of this. In case it helps I
> am using a recent Intel m/b, so I'm pretty sure the hardware is OK.

EfraÃ*n,

Thank you very much. This may work for others, but I tried all of this and
it did not work for me. However, it may turn out that this is not an OS
problem after all, it may be a hardware problem. For instance, Device
Manager shows that all the USB devices are working, even though they do not.
So something is telling Vista that the USB is OK, even though it is not.

I called Intel, and the tech there suggested that the m/b may have a short
to ground creating the problem. Unfortunately, there's no good way for me to
diagnose that, since it would require running the computer with the m/b apart
from the case. In the meantime, I just shut down the PC, unplugged
*everything* from it, plugged everything back in, restarted, and then
everything worked again. Go figure. Next time I may try just unplugging the
power cord. This does not solve the problem, but it may give me a workaround
that I will just have to learn to live with.

-- David McFarlane, Systems Designer
Dept. Psychology, Michigan State University

Hello i think i have the same problem.I cant find any of my USB working its
like they have no power? The device manager shows that they are working. My
computer is maybe 6 mounth old.I really suck with computers it took me a week
to find this place sort of...if anyone out there could help me with this
problem i would be very thankful. Explain it to me like a child. I also get a
pop up that says that i have a problem with a unknown portal but i dont get
any help from that and it keeps popping up. many thanks

"dkmcf" wrote:

> EfraÃ*n,
>
> Thank you very much. This may work for others, but I tried all of this and
> it did not work for me. However, it may turn out that this is not an OS
> problem after all, it may be a hardware problem. For instance, Device
> Manager shows that all the USB devices are working, even though they do not.
> So something is telling Vista that the USB is OK, even though it is not.
>
> I called Intel, and the tech there suggested that the m/b may have a short
> to ground creating the problem. Unfortunately, there's no good way for me to
> diagnose that, since it would require running the computer with the m/b apart
> from the case. In the meantime, I just shut down the PC, unplugged
> *everything* from it, plugged everything back in, restarted, and then
> everything worked again. Go figure. Next time I may try just unplugging the
> power cord. This does not solve the problem, but it may give me a workaround
> that I will just have to learn to live with.
>
> -- David McFarlane, Systems Designer
> Dept. Psychology, Michigan State University
>