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Question

PNY usb flash drive not recognize on brand new system

Feb 4, 2013 5:16AM PST

I just purchased a brand new laptop (HP ProBook 4540s, Windows 7 Professional, Core i7-3612QM) and it's having some issues with USB flash drives, specifically PNY brand. Having issues right out of the box, I am considering returning the laptop, but was wondering if anyone knew what might be causing the problem?

I first tried a 32GB PNY attache and the driver installed successfully, but the device never showed up in Windows Explorer. I next tried a SanDisk 2GB and then a Seagate 1TB both of which installed drivers successfully and immediately appeared in Windows Explorer. Next was a 16GB PNY and again the driver successfully installed, but the device never appeared in Windows Explorer.

If I go into Computer Management the PNY flash drives appear under 'Disk drives' and under properties it says the device is working properly with the proper drivers. Within Disk Management the PNY drives will show up when first plugged in and say 'Healthy (active, primary partition)' but then almost immediately changes over to 'Unallocated.'

I have tried uninstalling these PNY drives and then installing them again but have had mostly the same results (a couple of times the device showed up with 'No media' within Disk Management, rather than 'Unallocated').

I have repeatedly used these two PNY drives on other laptops (Dell N4010, Windows 7 Home Premium and Macbook Pro, Lion OSX) and various desktops with nothing but success.

Should I return the laptop, or might there be something with the system that is causing it to not recognize only PNY devices?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Just to check.
Feb 4, 2013 5:20AM PST

Does this model use the "Insyde" BIOS? If so I have a story to share. HP was never able to fix my laptop with that BIOS and at 3 months broke it in their service and at 9 months I still had no working laptop. This could be some stick that needs a fresh format but given my history I worry about this maker.

Again, HP buys the BIOS and if you discover a flaw, it appears and for me they are unable to correct it as they don't have the team to do so. Our office is out one laptop for reasons I can only guess as HP walked.
Bob

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Answer
Re: PNY drives
Feb 4, 2013 5:24AM PST

It would be interesting to know what HP Customer Service says about the issue. Did you already contact them?

Curiously, Google finds a lot of hits for "HP PNY flash drive". And http://www.pny.eu/product/c-20/HP-USB-Flash-Drives/ seems to say they are partners somehow. So nothing better than HP to tell you why it doesnt' work.

Kees

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Answer
Same here
May 19, 2013 2:39AM PDT

I have the same HP laptop, i5 core though, but I'm having the same issue. i bought a new 32gb PNY flash drive and it hasn't worked since day one. It works fine in my HP Netbook and on the computers at the college, but just not my laptop.

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In your case.
May 20, 2013 2:06AM PDT

32GB is very new and very large. I expect all 2GB and smaller drives to work all over. 8, 16 and with each step, you will find some machines that fail to work.

It can be the OS, a driver, formatting or all three issues.
Bob

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Answer
similar problem
Nov 26, 2013 3:27PM PST

I have a similar problem. surprisingly I tried my 16gig PNY flash drive in another HP ProBook 4540s running on Win7 and it worked fine. For some reasons it doesn't work on my HP, same make, same Operation system with latest win updates