-=PCTechTalk=- Re: USB Problem
- From: Gman <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:27:59 -0400
Fred,
Certainly! Any and all new info helps to better isolate the actual
issue.
As I understand the situation, we know that this problem belongs only to
the one computer, so it's not an issue with the sticks themselves. We know
that it's not a bad USB controller driver since at least one stick works.
We also know that it's not a port problem port because the same sticks work
or don't work even after being moved around to different ports. There's not
much left to test as I'm left with just one last ditch effort to help get
this working for you.
When Windows detects a USB controller, it automatically installs the
driver and additional driver support files to enable USB support for itself.
Among the driver support files are a series of .inf files that allow Windows
to recognize different USB devices when they are added to the system. This
is why plugging in a new key will usually bring up a couple of tooltips that
tell you that Windows has found new hardware, which soon after changes to
tell you the actual make/model of the device. The file that contains the
info for USB storage devices (including USB keys) is called "usbstor.inf"
and is located within the Windows\INF folder. My thinking here is that
perhaps this file has become the object of some file corruption. not enough
to render the entire file useless, but maybe just enough to have scrambled
the part that contains the info for the keys that are not being recognized.
To test this, go into Explorer (either through My Computer or Windows
Explorer), locate this file and then create a Copy of it. Then, rename the
original to something like "usbstor.bak" Next, go to the same location on
one of the other systems (it MUST be running the same OS) and copy that
system's version of usbstor.inf to the one key that does work in both
computers. Next, move back over to the non-working system and replace the
original usbstor.inf file with the one you found on the second system.
Finally, reboot your system and then try the keys again. If you find that
it now works, you'll know that at least one file had suffered some
corruption and you should run CHKDSK on that drive with both options checked
to make sure everything else is in order. It probably wouldn't hurt to
defrag the drive afterwards if that hasn't been done in a while.
Peace,
Gman
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Ward" <fred.ward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 3:53 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: USB Problem
> GMan,
>
> When both stick drives are in USB ports, Disk Management only shows the
> one
> thats working - nothing is shown for the other one. (its not the port as
> I've exchanged them and repeated the test).
>
> Everytime I plug in the unrecognised stick, it tries (unsuccessfully) to
> install new hardware, but can't seem to find the drivers - they are there
> and work for the other stick.
>
> Does that help?
>
> Regards,
>
> Fred
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