Beastslayer

Hi. I might be able to help. My USB ports stopped working after I installed a bunch of WinXP Security Updates which changed things around in my system. This is probably the root cause of hundreds of people's systems running into USB port problems [censored] back to as early as 2006. The following thread was started in an effort to deal with this issue. . . http://www.compatdb.org/support/topics/176233_usb_device_not_recognized_malfunction.html That thread has a number of semi-useful solutions which work for some people some of the time; maybe they will help you. However, it sounds more possible to me that your hardware is experiencing a conflict between your USB system and your new networking card -which might have installed an offending bit of code similar to the problematic MS Security Updates. So. . , open up your Networking Connections folder and look for one or both of the following connections. . . (Firewire) 1384 or (Device name) 1394 The names may change, but the numbers will not. (You can also look for these in the Hardware Device Manager). Disable them, reboot, and see if that doesn't resolve the conflict. It did the trick for my system. The only trouble is that it might also prevent you using your new cell phone device. There is some discussion of the 1384/1394 device solution here. . . http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-21877-windows-xp-won-t-recognize-wd-ext-hard-drive#p75275 Cheers and good luck!

Greetings, all! --I just found a new and working solution to this problem; one which has never been mentioned before on this forum. First of all. . . I just spent a LONG time reading through this entire thread, which began back in 2006, and from what I gather, the problem is the result of one of the Microsoft Security Updates. The problem cropped up globally at the same time for hundreds of people, and since then, presumably, whenever the update installs or some variant on the update code is installs itself. Without knowing that the Microsoft Security Update code was the culprit, people have been struggling and have come up with two basic tactics discussed at length in this forum and used with some limited success... 1) Flush the USB drivers from the system and let Windows install them again. 2) Waiting for the whatever information is stored to fade out when the system remains without power for 30 minutes. A third solution was mentioned once a year or two ago involving uninstalling two Windows Security Updates which had presumably been interfering with USB functionality. --Though neither of those updates were on my system, probably because I was using much more recently built versions of the service packs, (SP3) so I couldn't try that. Okay. So now the solution which DID work for me. . . A conflict with a device driver involving Firewire and/or a network card. Disabling the 1394 and/or 1384 devices in Network Connections for many people will restore USB functionality. This can also be done through the WinXP Device Manager. Please refer to the following forum thread to see a detailed discussion of this solution. . . http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-21877-windows-xp-won-t-recognize-wd-ext-hard-drive This solved it for me, and I hope it helps other people struggling with faulty USB connections. Cheers and good luck!