Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

xp no longer recognizes USB devices

Nov 27, 2003 7:44AM PST

I had to reinstall xp using the original restore cd's from my manufactuere. I am running a tosh sat pro, 6100 with xp pro

since then windows no longer recognizes so called "plug and play" usb devices. Devices such as usb floppy drives, usb thumb drives, digital cameras, etc, all devices that normally work instantly when plugged into usb, no longer work. Instead the new hardware wizzard comes up, searches for drivers, cant find them, and the hardware dosent work. I am not talking about devices that require drivers, like printers, etc, im talking about flash drivers, usb floppy drives, external hd's that normaly get recognized instantly and show up in my computer.. any help?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:xp no longer recognizes USB devices
Nov 27, 2003 8:13AM PST

even devices like a standard usb hub, when its plugged in, the new hardware found wizzard comes up, it searches for drivers, cant find them, and the hub wont work.. devices like that shouldnt prompt the new hardware wizzard, and certainly dont require drivers, help!!

- Collapse -
PART I.
Nov 27, 2003 11:32PM PST

1. Because USB devices are Plug and Play devices there is little that can be done to control or configure them. However, most USB problems can be traced to one or more conditions as explained in the article, [Q310575].

2. When installing a USB device and an appropriate driver exists in the Driver.cab file, the device is configured without the operating system requesting a device driver. However, some USB devices might not be supported with WinXP and the system may prompt for the appropriate driver which you will have to supply by selecting the location on removable media containing the drivers supplied by the device manufacturer, [Windows XP Does Not Detect Your New USB Device (Q314636)].

3. The USB error detection and correction scheme uses "WMI" event-driven architecture to resolve errors. The interface usually notifies a user when a problem occurs on the bus, gives information about the error, and suggests solutions. When an error message is clicked, a dialog box appears showing status, [Q308423].

- Collapse -
Re:PART II.
Nov 27, 2003 11:34PM PST

4. Since WinXP does not include support for EHCI host controllers, the article (Q312370) discusses the situation and problems when using such. The article [Q329632] states that USB 2.0 support for any Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) compliant host controller is available in Service Pack 1 (SP1). If you have recently installed SP1 on your computer, please follow the directions listed later in this article to obtain the latest USB 2.0 drivers.

- Collapse -
Re:xp no longer recognizes USB devices
Nov 27, 2003 10:16AM PST