Vista doesn't see USB flash drive

Hi folks, My new laptop came with Vista, but I figured it might be ok.
Beyond the fact that it constantly hangs when I try to uninstal
programs, restart, or look at it funny, I've had a more frustratin
problem that's prompted my visit here. I purchased a SanDisk 2GB flas
drive, and the first few times I used it with my laptop, it worked jus
fine. Then, one random day, it didn't work. When I plug it in now
the usual "what would you like windows to do" display does not show up
and I am not able to access it through Computer - it's not there. Th
drive didn't die, because it will still light up, and I am able t
access it with my other computers running XP and 2000. If I loo
through the Device Manager, the drive is listed there, and I also hav
the option to Safely Remove Hardware (though if I attempt that, it wil
simply hang and then freeze, forcing me to do a hard shutdown).
considered formatting the flash drive with one of my other computers
but I'd rather not if I don't have to. I have tried many suggestions
have seen online, but I am open to all ideas right now. I know Vist
has it's problems, and I've been able to make due with them - I jus
want to be able to access my flash drive

--
themushman

This problem has been laundered in this forum time and again. I do have it
in one of my computers. I was kind of irritated when read it so I did not
bother to exactly match my symptoms with yours. I do not want to go into
numerous details of my struggle to overcome it over two years (it began way
before I installed Vista on my partitions) but the bottom line is: my
current diagnostics is that it is a hardware issue related to the PCI board.
I have three identical DELL desktops, all of them have at least three
partitions. Vista Ultimate installed on all machines, other partitions have
XP and whatnot, but I do have this problem only on one of the machines and
even DELL people could not troubleshoot it.

I believe if you examine the problem closely you may find that Vista has
nothing to do with it.

There was a post a week ago and my comment to the original post.
"themushman" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi folks, My new laptop came with Vista, but I figured it might be ok.
> Beyond the fact that it constantly hangs when I try to uninstall
> programs, restart, or look at it funny, I've had a more frustrating
> problem that's prompted my visit here. I purchased a SanDisk 2GB flash
> drive, and the first few times I used it with my laptop, it worked just
> fine. Then, one random day, it didn't work. When I plug it in now,
> the usual "what would you like windows to do" display does not show up,
> and I am not able to access it through Computer - it's not there. The
> drive didn't die, because it will still light up, and I am able to
> access it with my other computers running XP and 2000. If I look
> through the Device Manager, the drive is listed there, and I also have
> the option to Safely Remove Hardware (though if I attempt that, it will
> simply hang and then freeze, forcing me to do a hard shutdown). I
> considered formatting the flash drive with one of my other computers,
> but I'd rather not if I don't have to. I have tried many suggestions I
> have seen online, but I am open to all ideas right now. I know Vista
> has it's problems, and I've been able to make due with them - I just
> want to be able to access my flash drive.
>
>
> --
> themushman

Thanks for that, however...I can access it just fine through Safe Mode
so I really have no idea what is going on, but it can't be hardwar
related

--
themushman

Sounds like a driver issue.
In safe mode not all of your drivers are being loaded.

Good Luck

"themushman" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Thanks for that, however...I can access it just fine through Safe Mode -
> so I really have no idea what is going on, but it can't be hardware
> related.
>
>
> --
> themushman

Thank you. I figured I'd repost, in case someone else may be able to
benefit. I just downloaded the latest Vista SP 1 public beta, and many
problems have been resolved - including the error with my flash drive.
The machine is really running well now, and it's nice to see Vista
operating as it should. Robert Martin;835936 Wrote:
> Sounds like a driver issue.
> In safe mode not all of your drivers are being loaded.
>
> Good Luck


--
themushman