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General discussion

Cannot recognize USB devices

Mar 8, 2004 7:11PM PST

Hi. I'm helping my friend troubleshooting his Acer Travelmate 280 notebook. His notebook runs Windows XP Home Edition.

His notebook has 2 USB ports, and whenever we plug any USB devices into the USB ports, sometimes in Device Manager, it will be listed as Unknown Device, sometimes, it may list what the device is (for example, Unknown Mouse).

When we try the Add New Hardware Wizard, we will get this message: Cannot Run Two Hardware Installations, saying that Hardware Installation Is On The Way, Please Wait Installation Finishes. Why did this happen, as there are no hardware installed other than this, besides that, every other device in Hardware Manager is enabled and running well?

Yes, by the way, I saw that IRQ 10 was shared by Intel Extreme Graphics and the Intel USB controller, and IRQ 17 was shared by Intel USB Controller and Ethernet NIC. I don't think I can disable Intel Extreme Graphics, but I can disable the Ethernet NIC, however, it still doesn't work.

May I know is there any solutions to this? I think this is more to a software problem than to a hardware problem, right? Thanks a lot!

Discussion is locked

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Re:Cannot recognize USB devices and not installing USB driver.
Mar 8, 2004 8:10PM PST

I see two issues.

1. USB is not to the point where you plug in devices and they work (all the time.) In fact, you cause real pain to the users by doing that since special instructions on how to start over (I've seen people reload the OS!) In short, you install the drivers, then the USB device.

2. The IRQ sharing is by design.

Bob

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Why is it so not automatic?
Mar 8, 2004 9:22PM PST

Hi Robert. Thanks for your advice. I'd tried by right clicking on the device in Device Manager, Reinstall Driver and it worked. I didn't install special drivers, all I used was the generic drivers as supplied by Microsoft.

Eventhough this does solve the problem, I'm still quite unhappy with its 'laziness' of detecting new devices. I don't believe that for each and every devices that I install (mouse, USB hubs, flash disk) etc., I have to manually ask Windows to 'Reinstall The Driver'. On other systems, if it needs drivers from me, a Window will come out asking me to 'feed' it with drivers, if it does not require one, a 'pop' sound will be produced and voila! The device works. But why is it so with this computer? It isn't an old computer which can't support Plug and Play, neither is the Windows XP on this system outdated (it has been updated. I've checked its BIOS and did not see anything suspicious.

I checked the System Event Viewer, and saw a few warnings by PlugPlayManager (Event ID 270), saying that the user interface has been supressed due to Factory setting. I thought it would be that something is altered in the "Plug and Play" service properties, so I compared it with my 'normal' computer, and found that every setting inside is the same.

What do you think is the remedy to this problem? Besides that, what should I do so that the Add Hardware Wizard will run normally, and not display the message "Cannot Run Two Device Installations"?

Thanks.

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Re:Why is it so not automatic?
Mar 8, 2004 9:37PM PST

Welcome to the current state of affairs. It's a PC with all the warts and more that have followed a some 20 year development cycle. If you want to see a bit more seamless setup, you shouldn't be looking at the usual PC, but a Macintosh.

Why is this still happening? It's the money.

To bring the PC and the OS down in price, shortcuts and omissions are everywhere. I have no remedy to the problem except to understand why this is so.

Bob

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Re:Why is it so not automatic?
Mar 9, 2004 12:25AM PST