USB Memory sticks - Vista failing to detect

[cprelude]

Hi, I've spent a large part of today trying to figure why a client's Vista PC is failing to install standard USB drives, one an HP 16GB, the other San Disk Cruzer 8GB. There is nothing unusual about these drives. They do have some pre-installed software, but none of it is set to launch automatically in a way which could throw the detection, and install of the USB drives. Each drive installs perfectly successfully on two Windows 7 machines we have tried them with.

This Vista machine is, however, the main office machine, so is in constant use. When we insert the drive, Windows begins the installation process, but then gets "lost", searching Windows update of all places for the drivers it thinks it needs. After about 5 minutes of this nonsense, Windows then spits out an error message asking us if we have the CD containing the drivers that came with the drive. USB drives don't come with driver disks!

So we are stuck, though I have scanned for Malware using the antivirus programme on board, as well as Malwarebytes. I have heard of people having similar problems with Vista, and seen various fixes posted around the internet, including deleting an inf cache file, and also attempting to delete a registry key.

Anyone else had any experience of this? Any solutions found?

Paul

 

[SilverLeaf]

Just possibly had this exact problem. Let me guess, regular (non mass-storage) usb devices work fine (keyboards, mice, etc), but anything related to storage will fail?

I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out to no avail. Turned into a N&P, unfortunately.

 

[NYJimbo]

When we insert the drive, Windows begins the installation process, but then gets "lost", searching Windows update of all places for the drivers it thinks it needs. After about 5 minutes of this nonsense, Windows then spits out an error message asking us if we have the CD containing the drivers that came with the drive. USB drives don't come with driver disks!

which service pack is installed on that machine ?

 

[swisschris104]

I will list a bunch a ways that you can attempt to repair this.

1. Has this just started happening? If so you could try to use system restore and restore it to an earlier point before you started to get the problem.

2. Try to install the driver from the manufacterers website.(In compatibility mode if possible)

3.Open up CMD as an administrator and run sfc /scannow to check for any system integrity issues that may be causing this.

4. Try an registry repairer.

It would be useful if you were to cause what is doing the error again and look in your even viewer and send us the information on the log of the error

 

[NYJimbo]

I will list a bunch a ways that you can attempt to repair this.

This is a forum for repairs technicians and people who are starting their repair business. This is not a place for end users. Please do not offer general end user help that anyone can get from a thousand other websites.

How did you get in here ?

 

[Disposable_Me]

Is the universal plug n play service running?

 

[Xander]

Oh i thought it was the exact opposite. I am completly new to the site just hoping to get some expirence helping people out. before i start looking for jobs such as help desk and desktop support. was just looking for some personal expirence

This isn't a training ground for advanced end-users who hope to field calls for HP/Apple. I have a friend who does iTunes helpdesk and she can barely run a MBAM scan by herself.
If all you're doing is looking on Google for answers to other people's questions here, that's not helpful. We're all pretty good at using Google for ourselves.

a+ and network+ certified so not too nooby

And yet you give advice that my grandmother could find on Google....

I will list a bunch a ways that you can attempt to repair this.

1. Has this just started happening? If so you could try to use system restore and restore it to an earlier point before you started to get the problem.

2. Try to install the driver from the manufacterers website.(In compatibility mode if possible)

3.Open up CMD as an administrator and run sfc /scannow to check for any system integrity issues that may be causing this.

4. Try an registry repairer. HIDE YO WIFES HIDE YO KIDS! Seriously? Registry repair is the snake oil of the internet.

It would be useful if you were to cause what is doing the error again and look in your even viewer and send us the information on the log of the error

 

[NYJimbo]

a+ and network+ certified so not too nooby

Well, just so you understand, the UPS guy who comes to my shop with packages is also A+. The cab driver who takes me to the bank once a week is also A+ and Cisco CCNA.

Over 800,000 people are A+ and many more join them every day. Its a nice piece of paper but it only means you can answer a little more than two thirds of the computer questions asked in a test of 90 questions.

 

[BillMoney]

Just possibly had this exact problem. Let me guess, regular (non mass-storage) usb devices work fine (keyboards, mice, etc), but anything related to storage will fail?

I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out to no avail. Turned into a N&P, unfortunately.

Had one of these last month spent a while on it and went the nuke and pave route myself

 

[cprelude]

which service pack is installed on that machine ?

Hi there, they've got up to SP2.

 

[cprelude]

Had one of these last month spent a while on it and went the nuke and pave route myself

I hope I don't have to do N&P but, based on two posts I've seen here, it looks like I may be following this route too! This will be fun, as they don't have any of their original software or driver disks! I'm sure you know that feeling

 

[JustInspired]

Hi, I've spent a large part of today trying to figure why a client's Vista PC is failing to install standard USB drives, one an HP 16GB, the other San Disk Cruzer 8GB. There is nothing unusual about these drives. They do have some pre-installed software, but none of it is set to launch automatically in a way which could throw the detection, and install of the USB drives. Each drive installs perfectly successfully on two Windows 7 machines we have tried them with.

This Vista machine is, however, the main office machine, so is in constant use. When we insert the drive, Windows begins the installation process, but then gets "lost", searching Windows update of all places for the drivers it thinks it needs. After about 5 minutes of this nonsense, Windows then spits out an error message asking us if we have the CD containing the drivers that came with the drive. USB drives don't come with driver disks!

So we are stuck, though I have scanned for Malware using the antivirus programme on board, as well as Malwarebytes. I have heard of people having similar problems with Vista, and seen various fixes posted around the internet, including deleting an inf cache file, and also attempting to delete a registry key.

Anyone else had any experience of this? Any solutions found?

Paul

I've had this many a time with XP.
I've tried every fix I could find until going for a repair install.
For some reason a repair install has never worked because it would get stuck on the last reboot, you know, the one with the black screen, Windows logo and "please wait" in tiny white letters.

So what I'm getting at is this...
On the weekend I had a netbook in with this stupid problem. I wanted to run my D7 on it but any USB flash drive I plugged in would result in the infamous "new hardware found" and the machine pretty much hanging at that point.

Out of desperation I downloaded that Tweaking.com Windows Repair utility - the one I've never wanted to look at before because of my fierce loyalty to Nick and D7.
I ticked all the boxes and without expecting too much, let it rip. Then did a reboot at the end of the routine.

To my great surprise, the problem with the mass storage detection was resolved! Felt the shame of cheating on D7, yes, but the problem had disappeared!

Now I'm not suggesting that this will work with Vista or even on XP under different circumstances. Perhaps D7's repair routines could have fixed the problem too, but without being able to use my USB flash drive, not having an external optical drive handy or the time/inclination to open the netbook to pull out the hard drive, this route was definitely worth trying.

 

[cyabro]

I've had this many a time with XP.
I've tried every fix I could find until going for a repair install.
For some reason a repair install has never worked because it would get stuck on the last reboot, you know, the one with the black screen, Windows logo and "please wait" in tiny white letters.

So what I'm getting at is this...
On the weekend I had a netbook in with this stupid problem. I wanted to run my D7 on it but any USB flash drive I plugged in would result in the infamous "new hardware found" and the machine pretty much hanging at that point.

Out of desperation I downloaded that Tweaking.com Windows Repair utility - the one I've never wanted to look at before because of my fierce loyalty to Nick and D7.
I ticked all the boxes and without expecting too much, let it rip. Then did a reboot at the end of the routine.

To my great surprise, the problem with the mass storage detection was resolved! Felt the shame of cheating on D7, yes, but the problem had disappeared!

Now I'm not suggesting that this will work with Vista or even on XP under different circumstances. Perhaps D7's repair routines could have fixed the problem too, but without being able to use my USB flash drive, not having an external optical drive handy or the time/inclination to open the netbook to pull out the hard drive, this route was definitely worth trying.

Hey great! thanks for the info as I've got one of these in the workshop at the moment too.
What options did you select in Windows Repair?

 

[JustInspired]

I think I was so sick of it I checked every single box.
Unfortunately this did not help narrow down the actual bit that fixed it but the client was in a hurry to get it back. Sorry.

You may want to image the drive first or at least run the recommended registry backup and restore point tools that are in the utility.

 

[Tekguy]

I remember having this problem a few years ago & these are the notes I wrote down, hope it is useful.

First make sure that the path for driver storage is correct in the registry. Check if under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
the value 'DevicePath' points to '%SystemRoot%\inf'. Additional items separated by semicolons are ok, but '%SystemRoot%\inf' has to be one of them.

The files USBSTOR.INF, USBSTOR.PNF and USBSTOR.SYS in C:\Windows\INF may be damaged or missing. There are backups of these files in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository - just copy them to C:\Windows\INF.

I have no idea why there is a space in Currentversion. I originally copied & pasted my notes, but after I saw the space I tried manually typing out the whole registry path only to have the space still remain.