Windows Vista - Found New Hardware Issues

[brm5017]

I have a client's computer with Windows Vista Home Premium. It's up to date as far as windows updates are concerned.

The problem is USB Devices cannot be installed successfully. For instance, I use a usb wireless mouse / keyboard combo on all client computers. The computer will start up fine, with both the mouse & keyboard working perfectly. Once the drivers for the USB Receiver are attempted to be automatically installed (every single time the computer boots to windows), they stop working & windows tells me there is no suitable driver found. I've never had this issue before.

Google recommended deleting the INFCACHE.1 file, with no positive results.

I have this issue with ALL usb devices, including flash drives & printers.

Any tips out there? I'd like to get through this without a re-format.

 

[FooseSB]

I have a client's computer with Windows Vista Home Premium. It's up to date as far as windows updates are concerned.

The problem is USB Devices cannot be installed successfully. For instance, I use a usb wireless mouse / keyboard combo on all client computers. The computer will start up fine, with bhto the mouse & keyboard working perfectly. Once the drivers for the USB Receiver are attempted to be automatically installed, they stop working & windows tells me there is no suitable driver found. I've never had this issue before.

Google recommended deleting the INFCACHE.1 file, with no positive results.

I have this issue with ALL usb devices, including flash drives & printers.

Any tips out there? I'd like to get through this without a re-format.

This isn't Vista-specific, but I've had some success when I uninstall the onboard USB controllers in Device Manager, reboot and have Windows rediscover. Driver corruption is what I assume was the problem.

 

[brm5017]

Thank you for the tip - I'll give this a try now.

Vista has always treated my devices rather nicely, I wonder what could have caused a driver corruption.

 

[brm5017]

Ok, now I have no USB Host controllers, as Vista will not install the now currently Un-Installed controllers. I guess I'll have to reformat - or repair?

 

[FooseSB]

Ok, now I have no USB Host controllers, as Vista will not install the now currently Un-Installed controllers. I guess I'll have to reformat - or repair?

Ouch, sorry. Does Windows even detect hardware upon reboot? If it doesn't, the OS may be hosed.

If you've got a good internet connection on that machine, you might want to check Windows Update for drivers.

 

[LunchBox]

Did you try going to control panel then add hardware and trying to install the software in this manner?

 

[K007]

Did you try going to control panel then add hardware and trying to install the software in this manner?

Yes, this might work. I have encountered display drivers (ATI) that had to be installed this way eventhough the exe installer was there, installed it but no hardware found.....

 

[ithinkyou5.0]

is this an upgrade to vista from some other OS? or first time build? cos ive seen new boreds fk up driver installs because of bios problems if so a bios flash will clear it right up.

 

[brm5017]

OEM Install. I've read on many different forums that this is somewhat common, depending on your chipset I suppose. My USB drivers have become corrupted, or missing completely.

I've talked the client into allowing me to do a full format / install.

For the archives I'll post some of the helpful posts on other forums.

 

[brm5017]

As seen on another forum:

Hi!

Yes, inspired by some recent activity on a thread on this same subject,
following you have my findings/suggestions for checking to solve this
problem, which I faced and got solved in October on one of my support
clients:


1. Recovery from usbstor.inf

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?forumID=133&threadID=215320&messageID=2298800

The last 11th post on the thread:

USB WORKING!!
by noblemosby - 22.10.2007 9:28
In reply to: Know Vista USB problem by camf33
Ok, so I found out why vista has problems installing USB drives. Here's how
to fix it:

1. In C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository I had two folders named
"usbstor.inf" but each one had a different set of numbers attached to the end
of the folder name. - could this be where part of the problem lies?

2. When i looked in my C:\Windows\inf folder i discovered the usbstor.inf
and usb stor.pnf files were missing - this definitely had to be an issue.

Once I discovered these anomalies, I proceeded to copy the pnf and inf files
from the most recently updated usbstor.inf folder to C:\Windows\inf. I then
went back to the update driver wizard, pointed to the inf folder and what do
you know but they all started working again.

I did this for my ipod and as soon as I reconnected it, it recognized it and
worked immediately. This worked for my Vista Ultimate 64-bit hope it works
for you.


2. Point to the C:\Windows\System32

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=101664

The 5th post on the thread:

01-31-2007, 03:49 PM #5
lmychajluk
Notebook Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: NJ, USA
Posts: 580
Rep Power: 8 Re: Windows Vista USB Flash Drive Driver Problem

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you plug in the stick, does it prompt you to install the driver? If so,
tell it you have the disk, and then point the directory to
"C:\Windows\System32".

Also, check Device Manager. Are there any unrecognized devices? Try to
install a driver for each, using the same method as above.

I couldn't get any USB sticks working with Vista until I did the above.

-Lee


3. MS updates/hotfixes

One more suggestion, check the relevant hotfixes/KB's from MS pages.


OK, and, still there was one more different type of solution suggestion,
but, sorry I can't remember/find it anymore ... check it on the net, hope it
pops up to you ...


Best regards,

Pete V.

 

[brm5017]

And Another:

Ok, so I found out why vista has problems installing USB drives. Here's how to fix it:

1. In C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository I had two folders named "usbstor.inf" but each one had a different set of numbers attached to the end of the folder name. - could this be where part of the problem lies?

2. When i looked in my C:\Windows\inf folder i discovered the usbstor.inf and usb stor.pnf files were missing - this definitely had to be an issue.

Once I discovered these anomalies, I proceeded to copy the pnf and inf files from the most recently updated usbstor.inf folder to C:\Windows\inf. I then went back to the update driver wizard, pointed to the inf folder and what do you know but they all started working again.

I did this for my ipod and as soon as I reconnected it, it recognized it and worked immediately.
This worked for my Vista Ultimate 64-bit hope it works for you.

 

[Fixedathome.com]

Ok, now I have no USB Host controllers, as Vista will not install the now currently Un-Installed controllers. I guess I'll have to reformat - or repair?

Too late now, but system restore would most likely have got the controllers back

 

[FooseSB]

Maybe too late now, but one other thing just occurred to me:

Check Services, and see if there are any that are any that are listed as Automatic that are not listed as Started. Try to start them manually. If it lets you, then disregard this post. If you encounter any error messages when trying to start one of these services, then you're on to something.

Recently we worked on a laptop that would not recognize a digital camera when the user connected it. We finally found that the Windows Image Acquisition service was being hindered by the HP printer software. We uninstalled that particular software, and the problem went away. We reinstalled it, and the problem stayed gone.

In this case, it may be a different service (Plug and Play sounds like a possibility). Just another thing to check, if it's not too late.

 

[brm5017]

Too late now, but system restore would most likely have got the controllers back

I tried that, actually one of the first things I tried. Same error. Windows updates coincidentally started to fail at around April 18th (which I suspected was when the USB error actually started to occur). System restore only went back to April 25th.

I still have not re-formatted the HD, so there is still hope. Re-format comes in about 3 hours when I get back from my house-calls.

 

[brm5017]

Thanks for the tips, they're greatly appreciated. If there are any other suggestions or ideas, keep them coming!