USB Device Not Recognized (Malfunction)

[Sophora 0]

Clueless,

What about you? can you narrow down your malfunction to one particular device? (sounds kinda like an insult...)

[djblackbeer 0]

I don´t know which device could made the problem, I just had connected my usb mouse and an external USB Hard drive, I think that maybe it was an overvoltaje problem but whatever of these it has made a several problem because it doesn´t give power to my peripheral, I updated my bios and reinstalled the drivers but I think that is a physical problem not software, any comments??

[MUCBASEBALL21 0]

I have done some research and it's really starting to look like my ipod caused the issue. I have searched several forums and I keep seeing ipod's in the listings. I have a gateway laptop and am using a 4 port USB hub for about 6 months now (never experienced any issues). I just bought an ipod and the other day I plugged the ipod in and boom my computer shut down completely. I was scared to death!!!! I thought everything was fried!!! I left it off for about 30 minutes and unplugged all USB ports and it started up! I then started getting the "USB device not recognized" error. I then started researching and tried unplugging the power cord and battery and this worked!!!!!!! Until I plugged my ipod in..... My PC now recognizes everything but the ipod. I don't know what to do now. I just spent 300 bucks on a useless 30 gig ipod that I can't use! Great : )

[Kain Bloodstone 0]

Sophora,

It is my Fiance's MP3 player, and she bought it from a friend for like 35 bucks. Didn't get any software for it, just the mp3 player and the MP3>USB converter thingy (for pluging it in)...

 

Baseball,

Look back to the very beginning of this thread, where I posted a few things, try Restacking your USB Drives, it worked for me once. But then I got the problems back. It has been known to be the end all method of fix for "some" people though, worth a shot. I have also done the Cache release (unplug computer from wall and let sit for 15-20 minutes), that worked once as well. It seems like my computer is learning, kinda like a cockroach who changes its DNA to overcome extinction. I just can't kill this problem, and when it returns, the fixes I used last time around don't seem to work again.

 

But a warning, DO NOT FORMAT OR RECOVER YOUR HARD DRIVE EXPECTING A SIMPLE FIX! You will be angry and disappointed.

 

I'm really hoping that eventually someone will come in here with the Cure All End All fix, or maybe Microsoft will offer us a bit more support. You'd think that being the biggest proprietary Software Distribution Corporation in the world, they would want to make sure all their stuff works and their consumers are happy....oh wait, I said proprietary didn't I?

 

-----

Decided to repost my system here so that people don't have to keep looking on front page to find it, in case it helps at all.

 

Alienware Area 51 Gaming PC

ASUS P4C800-E Motherboard

Intel P4 3.2ghz Processor (486 Pin Chipset)

1gig DDR2 Ram

160gig SATA HD

ATI Radeon 9550 SE Video Card

Audigy ZS 2 Sound Blaster

Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2) Fully Updated

-----

[Sophora 0]

Baseball, Kain, DJblackbeer: In your research, what would you guess is the oldest occurrence of this problem? It seems pretty recent to me (less than 4 months for most people).

 

Are we dealing with a previously undiscovered bug that is carried on otherwise innocuous usb devices? I certainly alters the hardware somehow, because as I noted: even my Linux OS doesn't read the devices. There are regedit fixes out there that lead nowhere.

 

I wonder if there's a commonality in that some of us (Sophora, Kain) seem to trace the problem to devices purchases used (and perhaps wiped before we got them (?)).

 

I can't help but think that this seems to be getting bigger as more people encounter it (virus, trojan, worm? crazy ol' me...)

 

If that's the case, then a REAL fix ought to be forthcoming.

[Kain Bloodstone 0]

According to my research, this has been happening for a long time.

Infact, I have an article here dated back to June of 2005.

http://www.ntcompatible.com/Desperately_need_help_---_USB_Devices_Not_Recognized_t32356.html

 

I'm sure that it dates back a bit further as well, because some of the articles I've come across were having problems with their USB on Win98SE. Thats old... lol.

 

But yah, I'm really hoping a fix in is our future.

 

Not for anything, but have you noticed that this is the Biggest Topic in the forum right now? Heh.

[MUCBASEBALL21 0]

Thanks Kain.

 

I have been experimenting a little bit and found some strange things. Now it looks like it wasn't my ipod.... well hopefully not. I did the whole cache release thing and prior to turning my pc on I plugged in my ipod and it worked. So I had three usb connections mouse, keyboard, and my ipod. I then tried to plug in an external hard drive to my hub and that was not recognized and also gave me a lack of power error. I wonder if this is a power issue? My hub has an external power supply so I wouldn't think this would be an issue. The really weird part is that I then unplugged my ipod from the usb cord and tried to plug it back in and boom it didn't recognize it. So now I have to go through the whole clearing cache again. This is really starting to get annoying. Hopefully a fix will be found soon.

[Kain Bloodstone 0]

Haha, welcome to my world, Baseball.

 

I've been ailed with this problem since a little bit before Christmas.

[Sophora 0]

Well, at the moment the devices in question are working! I did none of the things Kain and others did, simply because of reading everybody's frustration.

 

Twice now the USB ports turned up functioning, both times have been under the following circumstance: I haven't restarted, hibernated, shut down, etc. for about 72 hours.

 

Yesterday morning I jumped bright eyed out of bed and checked and the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon was present in my tray. With mounting suspense I clicked My Computer and Lo! the Card Reader was present, the External Hard Drive was present! Yeeeha.

 

At any rate: I have until next restart to get a bunch of stuff done.

[Sophora 0]

Baseball: my crystal ball says it was a combination of the ipod and the sauerkraut. Get it? Sauerkraut::Hot Dogs, Hot Dogs::Baseball. OK, somebody else take a crack at bringing some levity to this frustrating topic.

[reganweb 0]

Unfortunately, I have the same problem as well, and it's killing me. I have a HP DV5020us laptop, and this problem happened to me about 3 days ago.

 

I set Napster to download a bunch of songs, and then went to class. I got back a few hours later and my computer had frozen up. I had to push the power button, and upon rebooting, none of my USB devices were recognized.

 

I'm at the end of my rope, here. I tried regedit fixes, turning off power and letting the capacitors bleed off, USB stacking, you name it, I tried it. I'm really frustrated, as I need to use my USB devices.

 

It's interesting to see how this has a. affected quite a few people recently, and b. affected a couple other people with HP pavilion laptops...

[Scagnetty 0]

I think I found the problem.

 

I have a wireless mouse USB 1.1 on a USB KVM switch (between 2 computers) and a newer USB 2.0 external hard drive and when I plug them in at the same time, the two devices will not work correctly (i.e. I get the malfunction message).

 

If I unplug the external HD, the mouse/keyboard work fine. If I unplug the mouse, the external HD will work fine.

 

I disabled my onboard 1.1 usb ports (I have a usb 2.0 pci card) and tried just to use the 2.0 ports but the same problem persists.

 

I do not have a USB 2.0 mouse around to plug in & test it out. I need the external for back up, I guess I will have to purchase a new mouse.

 

I'll pick one up and report back later.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kain Bloodstone 0]

Not much to report as of now, means how I've just been working on my Vista laptop instead of my main computer...my usb works on this comp...heh. Later I'll try messing with my computer again and see if anything changes.

[Scagnetty 0]

I'm pretty sure if you have 1.1 and 2.0 USB ports on your machine, or a 1.1 device... it's going to slow down the whole USB bus.

 

I didn't get a chance to get the mouse, I want to try my existing hardware (1.1 mouse & 2.0 ext. HD) on my Shuttle PC, it has all USB 2.0 bus, versus my other ASUS machine which has a 1.1 bus and 2.0 usb add in card (pci).

 

I hope this makes sense.

 

 

 

[Sophora 0]

It makes perfect sense. But I don't know how to tell if any of my devices are 1.1...also, if I have a 3.06Ghz P4, I would assume that all the ports are 2.0, but I acknowledge that may be an unsafe assumption.

Scagnetty: your situation, while somewhat different, still has me blaming one device along the way for the origin of the problem. In your case it may have been the mouse...or it may have been the KVM switch itself. Are any of the devices in question used, by chance?

(Allow me to continue my paranoid skepto-phrenic vein: Is there a "design obsolescence" bug geared at causing us all to march down in frustration and buy new devices? Hence the prolonged silence from those who could fix it?)

[Scagnetty 0]

I have another guess at it:

 

I moved my ext. USB backup drive off the top of the PC up about 12 inches onto a nearby table and the USB malfunction message has not returned since.

 

I think I read or heard somewhere if you have too many USB devices close together or too close to a USB wireless transmitter (my mouse), something is going to go wrong. It's been 10+ hrs. and the message has not returned.

 

I can monitor the situation this weekend and write back on Sunday evening.

 

I hope this helps someone out there.

 

PS. All my equipment I purchased new, nothing used. I have used it over several years though. The newest thing is the ext. USB HDD which I don't know how I got along w/o it. Greatest thing (along with Norton 10 daily automatic backup) since sliced bread.

 

 

 

 

 

[Sophora 0]

Scagnetty: Man, if it's something as simple as spreading out your devices...mine have all been recognized since before my last post, and through a couple of reboots. I have wireless keyboard/mouse. These are the only usb devices never to cause a problem throughout this whole thing. Then there's the 250gb external hdd and the card reader. (I'm never going to stick that ipod shuffle in a usb port again.)

 

So I'll try to keep them all spread out all over the darn place and see if that keeps them all functioning. We're going to try your crazy fix.

 

BTW: I'm interested in hearing more about your auto daily backup. Is that all you use your external hdd for? How long does it take? How long did the first time take? Did you back up lots of media files? Should this be a new topic?

[Kain Bloodstone 0]

That seems to work for you guys eh? To bad I'm having problems with embedded usb ports, which are ALL 2.0.

 

And not using any wireless usb devices

 

Still a problem.

[Scagnetty 0]

I removed the Logitech wireless mouseman (Circa 2000) and got a plain Logitech USB corded mouse for my KVM switch. I haven't had any difficulties since then related to USB.

 

My PC has been shutting down at random though since moving here to this new apartment, I may need a new power supply. I know this unit has been in operation for approx. 5 years.

 

 

 

 

[Scagnetty 0]

Another quick thought:

 

Too long of a USB cable will produce the 'Malfuntion' or 'Device not recognized' message. I first ran across this years ago on HP's website when we employed too long of a USB cable for a printer.

 

We then had to get a USB extender cable and the device was recognized and worked again.

 

I hope this helps someone.

 

[GoodBoy 0]

While I have not experienced the exact issue you guys are having, I am having a USB related problem that seems to have recently started. I think it is USB related anyway. The problem was crackling sound in Vista (and the usb keyboard and mouse would blink off and back on), or ocassional Video problems in XP where a game would goto 100% cpu utilization, and I would have to reboot to fix it. Both I think are usb related problems (The game problem in XP happens when moving the mouse quickly, and once starts persists until I reboot). I read elsewhere of users with crackling sound issues and it was an IRQ conflict (issue seen with 2 different soundcards, my X-Fi and their C-media chip powered card). Granted, IRQ conflicts are not supposed to matter anymore, IRQ's are supposed to be shareable. But I plan to try and experiment with this tonight. The things you mention about powering the pc off for awhile, sounds like something you do to try and get the irq's to reset. You can accomplish the same thing by going into your pc's BIOS setup screen and choose "Set all settings to default" or "Reset Configuration". The actual setting to change will vary depending on the make/version of your BIOS. Some custom BIOS for companies like HP may not have a reset choice at all. Also, if the problem is in fact an IRQ conflict (which is a hardware setting), reformatting will not fix that.

 

In short, it seems that recently IRQ's for USB hub/devices while supposedly shareable with other devices in your PC, do not seem to be playing well with other devices. My pc is dual-boot XP and Vista. The OS's themselves can move IRQ's around during bootup. I think I will try to give my USB port its' own IRQ, and set everything else to other IRQ's, see how it goes.

 

My pc uses and ASUS A8n32-SLI Deluxe mobo, an Adaptec XHub7+ powered USB2 hub (with a Logitech G5 laser mouse, Saitek keyboard, UPS, Printer, quickcam, external cdrw drive attached), and dual boots XP and Vista.

 

Someone should open a support ticket with microsoft, and let them analyze a memory dump to see whats going on.

 

GoodBoy

[Kain Bloodstone 0]

Scagnetty, the fact that your computer shuts off randomly w/o notice could be a heating problem.

 

Same thing just happened to me, apparently where I live now, dust collects a lot faster and it clogged up my processor fan which brought cooling to a halt. Basically when the processor reaches about 96 degrees Celsius (200something Fareheit!!) The computer shuts down to avoid burn out. So open your case and check for dust. If you end up having to remove the cooling fan, make sure you get some thermal paste to put on the chip before putting your fan back on.

 

Goodboy,

 

I've heard about adjusting IRQ's and such to hopefully make things work, but alas, I'm not quite sure how do to that...perhaps you can give me something else to try by telling me where to find the IRQ's, how to adjust them, so forth? That would be a great help.

[GoodBoy 0]

Well, just try the bios resetting method first. Reboot the pc, press F2, F10, Delete, whichever key is to get into bios setup for your model of PC. Many home built pc's bios use Delete key to get in. Mine does. HP i think is F2, IBM is F10.

 

Anyway once you get in there, look for a reset to defaults option.

 

Now, thing is, since the OS can move these settings around, this might only be a temporary fix. But, if you try the reset to defaults right after experiencing the problem, and it seems to help, then there is a good chance we are on the right track. If the IRQ's are not sharing properly, we can look at your IRQ settings in device manager, see what devices are sharing IRQ's with your USB root/hubs, and go from there. I would start by changing the drivers for any devices sharing IRQ's with your USB. Likely it will be video, sound, or network that is sharing. If the suspected device has the newest driver already, then we will uninstall it and go find an older version. If the driver is not the newest for that hardware, we will try up[censored] to the newest.

 

Something else to consider (not sure is already mentioned) is to make sure your motherboard is running the most recent version of its' BIOS. You mention an ASUS motherboard for a Pentium4, but you need to find out it's exact model number and current bios Revision. Should be displayed for a second or 2 right as you power it on, on the screen where it tells you which key to press to enter bios setup. This shows how to determine your mobo and bios versions: http://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?root=110&SLanguage=en-us

[Clueless 0]

Everyone,

This is Clueless reporting back. My DV8000 HP laptop came back from HP and the problem was fixed this time. They replaced the mother board.

 

Sophora,

My problem was that "none" of my 4 USB ports will recognize "any" USB device. Any USB device would end up with the unknown device message.

[Scagnetty 0]

I just lifted this from another website, so if you haven't tried this yet... give 'er a shot:

 

Do you ever get the "USB device malfunction" message on your fully-patched Windows XP SP2 box? Sometimes, the 'Unknown Device' error still reappears under the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" category even after you've tried disabling the system as I suggested in my previous tip?

 

This is when it's time to use Registry Editor. You will need to use the modern Registry Editor, regedt32.exe, because you must give yourself rights to delete a key. (The usual caveats apply --if you make a mistake, serious consequences may arise.)

 

 

In regedt32 go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CCS\Enum\USB.

 

Look in each folder labeled Vid_Xxxx. There should be subfolders containing information about one of your USB devices in each.

 

Right click on the Vid_Xxxx folder that contains a folder labeled 'Unknown Device' in it and click Properties.

 

Check Allow Full Control, then right click on the same Vid_Xxxx folder and delete it.

 

Reboot and plug the device in.

 

Regarding heat issues, my server was running at 78 or 79C. I need to pull the heat sync of my other machine or buy a new heat sync for it. The other machine is running at 59C, not too bad.

 

I have since turned off the two other machines and am just using the Shuttle. It will have to do until we move again.