USB2.0 Mass Storage Device problem

[schitz011]

Since upgrading to Xp Pro SP2 my Dell Inspiron 8600 has decided that any USB mass storage devices plugged into my ports won't show up in My Computer.

They are recognized and installed correctly, they show up in Device manager and disk drive manager (?) but not in My Computer. Both my Creative Muvo player and flashdisc suffer from the same problem, but any hardware (mouse, printer etc..) plugged into same ports works fine. The player/disc work in other PC's just fine.

I've tried finding new drivers for the controllers, reinstalling them through windows, all the things I can think of, but no luck. Is there a known problem with SP2 mucking around with Mass Storage Devices and if so, is there an update/new drivers etc?

I've looked all around the net and i'm drawing blanks here. Many peeps with the same prob, but no real answers..

any guesses?

 

[RDPearson]

Maybe try reinitialising/partitioning the drives through disk manager. If you have data on them back it up first.

 

[Luke7777]

Possible solutions from the Dell forums
I'll cut & paste a few

I have sorted a problem I had with the 64MB Memory Key not showing up in My Computer. I have both CDRW and DVD Drives loaded which take drive letters D: and E: respectively. The USB device should have picked up on Drive F: - the next available. Unfortunately, I had a network drive mapped to Drive F and so I disconnected this and remapped it to Q: - hey presto! the USB device now shows up as Drive F and everything works out fine. Hope this helps some of you guys - it is logical when you think about it; but it took a lot of thinking about!!

Or here is another solution that is similar...

0) Plug in your USB drive into a USB port on your computer
1) Right-click MyComputer and select => Manage option
2) Select Disk Management option under the Storage node
3) Right-click on your USB volume from either the top or bottom (graphical) lists and select => Change Drive Letter and Paths...
4) Select Change... button and select an unused drive letter in the drop-down button
I selected the B: drive letter and it worked. The only weird thing is it shows up as a 5.25' floppy drive. Go figure!

 

[Luke7777]

And one more

How to fix USB not working with Dell XPS and Windows XP Professional
October 29, 2003 2:31 PM

At work I'm using a Dell XPS. It came preinstalled with Windows XP Home Edition. I promptly installed over that Windows XP Professional Edition so I could have features like remote desktop access to my machine from home. What I did not know is that Dell's drivers don't automatically re-install the USB drivers correctly, so USB was not working.

After many reboots, bios tweaks, and chipset upgrades, I finally found the solution. (Dell's solution was to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows. Yeah right!)

1. Press Windows Button & Pause/Break to go to the System Properties (or right click on My Computer and choose Properties, but the other way is more fun.)
2. Choose Device Manager.
3. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section
4. Right click and choose Properties of one that says something about PCI bridge (I forget the exact name and after you fix the problem, this item goes away. If you aren't sure, you try step 5 and 6 on all of the USB items in that list.)
5. Click on the Driver Tab (it's kinda slow loading).
6. If the driver information on top says "Not found" or "Not installed" then click Update Driver... and let it look for the driver itself (I didn't need the XP CD but that might be because I keep a copy of it on my hard drive just incase. You might need it, I don't know.)
7. After it finds the driver, click Okay and USB should start working immediately - no reboots needed!

Finally, back to the world of USB!

 

[schitz011]

cheers for all that guys!

You know I have such an issue connecting to Dell's website, sometimes it's all cool, othertimes like wading through molasses..

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Luke7777]

Thank us by posting the solution to your problem

 

[bboy]

was gonna say the above, disk manager, assign driver letter... drink beer in joy!

 

[swordfish1]

another solution is not to use windows XP

I don't understand what people like so much about XP, it is one of the worst OS that M$ has ever produced!

 

[Claymore]

another solution is not to use windows XP

I don't understand what people like so much about XP, it is one of the worst OS that M$ has ever produced!

So what's your OS of preference? Windows 3.0?