Apparently, when I plug into my USB 2.0 ports with my sandisk cruzer flash drive or lexar flash drive and used different USB ports on this computer. Windows XP SP3 home is not recognizing it. In device manager, it says my flash drive is missing a driver with a yellow question mark. I thought these were Plug n play devices? The drivers for my USB controllers are installed and enabled. I recently had to reinstall an intel video driver. I've tried endlessly reinstalling drivers with the flash drive by telling windows to search in the drivers file in windows. It's not finding any drivers for the flash drive. anything else I can try?
USB 2.0 problem
- Thread starter Cutehumor
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To answer your question, these things are plug-n-play, the O.S. should automatically recognize them.
Are you able to plug these USB sticks into a different PC w/o issue?
Are you able to plug these USB sticks into a different PC w/o issue?
yes, they work in different pcs w/o issue. I think I fixed it to work, but it's still showing the USB flash drives as unknown devices in device manager. I told windows xp to find the driver in the hidden INF folder. it installed "USB Mass storage device" and I can use the flash drives now, but unknown device still shows for the flash drives. I told the unknown device (flash drive)to look for drivers in the same INF windows folder, device manager labeled the flash drive as "generic volume" however, in my other pcs, the flash drive is labeled as another "disk drive". how do I get it to stop labeling as unknown device?
I found this on another website after googling for hours:
"XP comes with drivers for USB mass storage. If it asks for drivers then it cannot find them...
Where to search for drives is stored in the registry. Start the Registry Editor (Run -> Regedit). Check if under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion the value 'DevicePath' points to '%SystemRoot%\inf'. Additional items, separated by semikolons, are ok but '%SystemRoot%\inf' has to be one of them. Screenshot
Then delete the file C:\WINDOWS\inf\infcache.1 - XP will recreate it.
The INF folder and the infcache.1 file are 'hidden'. To see them in the Windows Explorer:
Menu 'Tools' -> 'Folder Options'
Tab 'View', mark 'show hidden files and folders'
If it still doesn't work after a restart, the files in C:\WINDOWS\inf might be corrupt. An Windows repair install helps then.
Another thing to check is if the values 'FactoryPreInstallInProgress' and 'AuditInProgress' are set to '1' under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Factory
. They should be 0 or non present. "
"XP comes with drivers for USB mass storage. If it asks for drivers then it cannot find them...
Where to search for drives is stored in the registry. Start the Registry Editor (Run -> Regedit). Check if under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion the value 'DevicePath' points to '%SystemRoot%\inf'. Additional items, separated by semikolons, are ok but '%SystemRoot%\inf' has to be one of them. Screenshot
Then delete the file C:\WINDOWS\inf\infcache.1 - XP will recreate it.
The INF folder and the infcache.1 file are 'hidden'. To see them in the Windows Explorer:
Menu 'Tools' -> 'Folder Options'
Tab 'View', mark 'show hidden files and folders'
If it still doesn't work after a restart, the files in C:\WINDOWS\inf might be corrupt. An Windows repair install helps then.
Another thing to check is if the values 'FactoryPreInstallInProgress' and 'AuditInProgress' are set to '1' under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Factory
. They should be 0 or non present. "
Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
however, in my other pcs, the flash drive is labeled as another "disk drive". how do I get it to stop labeling as unknown device?
This may help someone out. I figured it out. I unplugged the pc from the wall outlet for an hour. I connected all 3 flash drives I have to the pc before I plugged the pc up. I plugged the power cord to the wall outlet. booted windows up, windows xp asked to install drivers for all the flash drives. I clicked no. went to device manager, all flash drives listed under "disk drive" now instead of listed as "unknown device". All I did was unhook the power cord from the wall for an hour!!! I look at driver details for each flash drive. It says no driver installed in properties, however I click on driver details, it's using a partmgr driver and sys driver. You gotta love windows! so I update the driver for each flash drive, and get the drivers from the INF folder from the C drive in windows. Plug and Play now works. The drivers are there, listed, and everything works. I have played musical chairs with the 3 flash drives and used the four different USB ports and all is fine now. Sheesh...
however, in my other pcs, the flash drive is labeled as another "disk drive". how do I get it to stop labeling as unknown device?
This may help someone out. I figured it out. I unplugged the pc from the wall outlet for an hour. I connected all 3 flash drives I have to the pc before I plugged the pc up. I plugged the power cord to the wall outlet. booted windows up, windows xp asked to install drivers for all the flash drives. I clicked no. went to device manager, all flash drives listed under "disk drive" now instead of listed as "unknown device". All I did was unhook the power cord from the wall for an hour!!! I look at driver details for each flash drive. It says no driver installed in properties, however I click on driver details, it's using a partmgr driver and sys driver. You gotta love windows! so I update the driver for each flash drive, and get the drivers from the INF folder from the C drive in windows. Plug and Play now works. The drivers are there, listed, and everything works. I have played musical chairs with the 3 flash drives and used the four different USB ports and all is fine now. Sheesh...
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