USB Mass Storage Devices Unrecognized (Vista)

Hi all,

It appears that I'm one in a growing number of people with this
problem, so I figured I may as well jump in! I recently upgraded to
Vista Ultimate and backed-up all my XP files (music, photos, etc.) to
a brand-new Maxtor OneTouch III external USB drive. After installing
Vista, the drive was detected as a mass storage device and worked like
a charm (this was about a week ago); I've used it up until yesterday
with no problem. I also have an iPod Shuffle and a USB memory stick
that both detect as mass storage devices, and they worked fine as
well.

Yesterday, I went to burn a CD from some music files stored on the ext
HD, only to find... none of those three devices listed in Explorer!
Naturally, I tried unplugging and re-plugging the ext HD. After a few
seconds, Vista says 'installing drivers for your device' and then 'usb
device unrecognized' -- no dice. I tried unplugging, powering-down,
and re-plugging the drive -- no dice. I even tried unplugging,
powering-down the drive, rebooting the computer, then re-plugging the
drive -- still no dice. It always tries to install some driver (no
specifics given) and then fails to recognize the device.

The closest I've come (and this is interesting) is by uninstalling the
USB Controller device listed in Device Manager. Immediately after
uninstalling, Vista detects all 3 of my devices and pops-up the
explorer browser windows for each! I was stoked, until... 'installing
new drivers', 'unrecognized device', *poof* they all disappear again
from Device Manager and Explorer. So close.

What have I done between the time those devices worked and yesterday?

1. Extracted the GART driver from the Nvidia nForce 5.11 XP driver
package and installed it (my FPS in games were absolutely horrid until
I did this).

2. Disabled indexing (for performance)

3. Installed my 3rd gig of RAM (now running at 3GB RAM)

4. Set my CPU to high performance in Power Options

Here's my system specs:
AMD 2800+, 3GB RAM, Asus K8N mobo (nForce3 250 chipset), GeForce
7800GS OC AGP

I've already installed all the Vista updates I can find, and tried all
the power-off/on combos mentioned by everyone else. No, the ext HD
doesn't appear in disk management nor explorer or device manager. I
know my mobo is USB 2.0 compliant, and that all 3 devices worked only
a few days ago without a hitch (eliminates faulty devices, power
issues, etc.). I've found the following MS KB articles and will
investigate more when I get home: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925528,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/871233/en-us

Any additional help/troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated!

 

Here's what comes in the nForce 5.11 driver package (I only installed
the GART driver):

Audio driver version 4.42 (WHQL)
Audio utility version 4.44
Win2K ethernet driver version 4.16 (WHQL)
WinXP ethernet driver version 4.16 (WHQL)
Ethernet NRM driver version 4.82 (WHQL)
Network management tools version 4.88
GART driver version 4.36 (WHQL)
Memory controller driver version 3.38 (WHQL)
SMBus driver version 4.04 (WHQL)
Installer version 4.46
IDE driver version 4.46 (WHQL)

I'm wondering... should I install the SMBus driver? I have no idea
what it is, but perhaps it has something to do with USB devices? Could
be bad though since they're XP drivers. I've read plenty of people
installing the GART drivers on Vista with no problem, but nothing else
from this package.

 

I believe there is some sort of problem with Nvidia M/B's when it comes to
installing 3 gig of RAM.

I have an Asus A7N8X2.0 deluxe. Using 2 gig of RAM is ok. When I install a
3rd 1 gig stick (matched) I have all sorts of problems.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

Jason,

Did you install the most recent BIOS?

 

Fabulous question! I'll have to check when I get home as to which BIOS
revision I have installed.

 

This is an interesting idea... but I can't seem to find any related
posts/discussions about this topic. Do you have any links to resources
and/or fixes for it? I could try removing the new memory this evening
and see if it helps, but I'd hate to be stuck at 2GB forever.

 

Nevermind, found a great thread on the Nvidia website (http://
forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=21862&st=0)

Apparently, everyone's saying that http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925528
fixes the >2GB problem! Guess we'll find out when I get home and try
it tonight.

 

I do not believe that this problem is either Nvidia chipset or 3GB memory
related,
as I face the very same problems with Intel made DG965SS motherboard and 2
GB of memory. I have the latest BIOS (10th of May, 2007).
Thanks,
Vitaliy.

 

Just FYI to anyone who reads this... the MS KB925528 patch fixed the
problem!

Now I need to figure out why my WMV files are all garbled in Media
Player.

 

This problem was somewhat common in XP, though I haven't yet seen it in
Vista. When you plug in the device, do you get an opportunity to manually
select a driver? If so, try pointing the search to the \WINDOWS\inf
folder. If that works, see the ongoing fix under "XP asks for drivers or
just want to install new hardware" in the link below.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html#xp_asks_for_drivers

There is some other good information on that page for troubleshooting USB
storage device problems. Although it is written for XP, most of it will is
also applicable to Vista.
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