ThinkCentre M31 not 'seeing' USB key

[ZeroID]

Bit of a puzzler.
Old IBM M31 desktop cannot see USB keys. Also doesn't seem to recognise the CD/DVD drive. Running WinXP SP2 and been a good reliable beast.
I can see the drive in the Devices Manager, even names the keydrive type but it does not show up in 'My Computer' as a drive listing.
Drivers appear to be current and it can see my Treo mobile on a USB connect with ActiveSync.
Wasn't too bothered ( it's my PC at work ) as I use another PC beside it and networked to acccess CDRoms, Keys etc via mapped drives but now I have another user with the same problem so it's become a nag.

[mnoakes]

I had this problem in the past very frustating until I found a solution.

had Daemon tools (virtual CD) previously installed on my system, and the installation was corrupted. I think it was after i repaired windows using the repair procedure from the original CD. After that Daemon Tools stopped working, disappeared from the "add/remove programs" list, but somehow stayed on the system and caused trouble...

I think what was causing the problem is not Daemon tools itself (i used ver 4.0.3), but the ScsiPassThrough-driver (SPTD) that is installed with it (ver 1.25). Somehow it confuses windows with the drive letters. (according to daemon tools "SPTD is also used in some proprietary security, antivirus and monitoring applications...") so maybe you could have the same problem even if you don't have daemon tools installed. Anyway, you may want to try these steps anyway, they might solve your problem.

i couldn't re-install daemon tools, since i got error when installing the sptd driver.

How to fix the problem:

1. download the stand-alone sptd driver from here:
http://www.duplexsecure.com/download...t-v135-x86.exe
or here for 64bit:
http://www.duplexsecure.com/download...t-v135-x64.exe
do not run the installation, but save it to the hard drive.

2. start the computer in safe mode.

3. click start->run... browse and select the installer from where you saved it, and add the word remove at the end of the line (so you will have something like (in my case i placed the installer on the desktop):
"C:\Documents and Settings\User01\Desktop\sptdinst_x86.exe" remove
and click ok.

restart the computer normally.
After i did this, i plugged in the usb stick and VIOLA! it works!

[mnoakes]

If your system has some problems with SPTD installation you can do as follows:

If your system is already running then go to step 2 directly. Otherwise start from step 1.
Step 1. Boot in safe mode and press ESC key when you see on bottom line of display: "Press ESC to cancel loading SPTD.sys". This will abort loading of SPTD layer.
Step 2. Find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\ Services\sptd" registry key in REGEDIT and set DWORD Start value to 4 (i.e. disabled).
Step 3. Reboot again in normal mode and check if your issue is solved.

To reenable SPTD restore the DWORD Start value back to '0' and reboot your computer.

[mnoakes]

Links are here sorry

http://www.duplexsecure.com/download/SPTDinst-v156-x86.exe 32-bit or

http://www.duplexsecure.com/download/SPTDinst-v156-x64.exe 64-bit

[ZeroID]

This PC has never had Virtual CD installed so there is no SPTD process to kill. But I found out something weird about it. I realised it uses USB to the KVM so obviously ports work. It has two on front, 6 on back in a 2 - 4 configuration. So plugged key into a rear spare port and it works .. only the front 2 ports don't, the most convenient ones for a USB key of course.
So stuck a powered USB hub into the back and I now have convenient USB capability. ( Rear of PC is buried in connections and cables ).

I think the mobo might be a bit under powered or under resourced somehow to the front ports. Only explanation I can think of. Problem 'solved', user will need a hub and cable. I'll go check the leftovers box in the server room.

[seedubya]

It's not uncommon to have problems with (particularly) usb keys and drives on the front/side/extra USB ports on any machine. I have a brand new dell here that won't recognise OEM disk caddys connected to the front ports. It has no problem with keys or disks but not caddys. USB is not quite so universal as everyone likes to make out. Also, as you pointed out, lack of power on the extra USB ports is often a problem.