Windows XP Won't Install New USB Drivers

I have plugged in all sorts of USB devices, including cameras, mics, keyboards, MP3 players, memory sticks, UPS's, modems and external hard drives... and I have only seen power issues and incompatibilities between USB and USB2 ports to cause problems with detection and operation. I suppose if a driver or firmware is supplied, it can be installed

Success At Last...

3rd party drivers can be installed when Windows doesn't provide them, and it's sometimes necessary as found with the new Belkin USB 2.0 PCI card I'd recently installed. Got that working after reinstalling the driver from CD, but these old Buslink USB 1 drives won't work no matter what. Driver installs, but XP fails to recognize it, and this only happened after I stupidly removed the driver to re-install after it failed to fire up. Before, the driver installed automatically without need of the manufacturer supplied driver. This should have been the first red flag that all was not well. Had I daisy chained these drives, or not tried to switch between the two (hot swappable) drives to search for a file, one of the two drives would still be working.

None of the external Buslink firewire, firewire/USB combo, (or SATA/firewire/USB combo) drives are having a problem, and so far HP printer is holding tight, as is HP Scanjet, APC Back-UPS, external Sony combo burner, keyboard, mouse, and these old USB 1 drives were working fine up until lately. I begin to wonder if it isn't as you say, conflict between USB 1 & 2, so may give Belkin a call on Monday to ask. What makes this hard is that the old USB drives aren't nearly as valuable to me right now as is my Wacom tablet, so between the two, the Belkin USB card is going to win precedence.

This is a Dell Dimension 8200, around 5? years old... and while slightly outdated, is still enough of what is needed to make most things work relatively well. Until recently everything did, and the biggest change made to this system is that Belkin 2.0 card.

UPDATE: After speaking with Buslink support and taking advise to purchase 3.5" USB 2.0 enclosures to update these outdated USB 1.1 drives, all is well again with my hard drives. No more driver conflicts, and these new enclosures are beautiful by comparison to their yellow mustard faced ones, and only cost $15 each at XPCGear.com.

I might add that original suspicion about Windows updates was most likely what caused system instability. After reading this most recent patch information, I'm convinced of it:

"Update for Windows XP (KB929338)
Typical download size: 725 KB , less than 1 minute
This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the stability of computers running Windows XP. This update prevents some Stop 0x1a or Stop 0x0a errors. After you install this item, you will have to restart your computer."

This is precisely the problem I was starting to have and nearly cost a fresh install. So far I've managed to salvage this OS and nothing so far has failed to work since upgrading to USB 2.0 and chucking USB 1.1 devices. I'm thinking Windows XP Home does not handle them well anymore with all the changes that have been made to it in the name of improved security.

hello All
I first posted with this problem, tried everything suggested except reinstall. No luck until I did reinstalled. As I posted on 3/3 it worked and had not had any further problems with the wizard launching in place of plug and play loading.

sky319
asked if I lost any data. I restored with the system recovery on the hard drive. It left the My Document folder in tack but everything else was wiped out. Lost outlook address book and I think I lost my favorites. But I had backed them up before so I only lost the most resent additions.

No problems with usb sense. But I did have a freeze issue. Last week when I brought my computer out of sleep mode the compaq splash screen froze. Nothing would work. power kill and power up did no good, the splash screen came back. With no mouse or keyboard I was screwed. I had remembered reading some where when I was looking for the usb fix some one having a similar problem and was suggested to unplug the power cord. I did, waited a few minutes, pluged it back in and it booted up like it should. No problems so far.

but now, I hold my breath everytime I boot and everytime I plug a usb device in.

The only solution is to reinstall. Forget trying anything else, been there, done that, nothing worked. If you have reinstall on the hard drive it will be a piece of cake.

Good luck.

Painfully I'm inclined to agree, a fresh install cures nearly anything... so I'm looking around for bargains to buy a larger HD for when the time comes and there is no choice. May as well make the best of it and upgrade at the same time.

Am not anxious to reinstall all my software again as it will take forever. Fortunately this system isn't quite that unstable, and I'm holding on for long as it can last. Have discovered when Creative Zen isn't removed from a port, there is no BSOD error lately. It's as if Windows XP looks for it, can't find the device, snaps, reboots and is fine again. Otherwise, she runs fine. I'm still testing this theory, but this seems a constant in the equation lately.

Some think it's possible there is a hardware failure involved such as graphics card, hard drive, motherboard, and yet others say driver conflicts, hardware incompatibilities. Whatever it is, Windows XP is not happy about it.

Manual driver selection works

Following the previously mentioned advice to manually select a C:\I386 folder to install new USB devices, a directory of which I don't have, using C:\WINDOWS\inf worked. The inf directory is hidden, so depending on folder options it may not be visible in explorer. Also, the install wizard appears twice when installing a device, once for the hardware type, and then again for the driver. (Each time I just manually select the same inf folder.)

I can now successfully install any USB devices that I didn't already have installed before this problem appeared. The specific USB devices I was trying to use were storage devices (flash and hard disk based) and a mouse. To fix the problem of having to manually install new USB devices I will still probably have to reinstall the OS. (I was trying to avoid this as I'm expecting a free Vista upgrade, so I don't mind manually configuring USB devices until I get Vista.)

Interesting you should mention this as I recall using a similar procedure to reinstall system restore when it mysteriously vanished once. Had the same problem as you in finding \I386 folder on my system only to discover it residing on the XP installation CD. This made it a matter of changing the command path to it. Using this folder worked at that time and reinstalled system restore again, but it never worked quite right until I did a fresh install. Hope your results are better.

Also wish you well in your Vista install, however if a system is shaky from the start, an upgrade will not resolve it without a fresh install. I've been told by a friend who does computer consulting that upgrade installs of Vista aren't nearly as good as full software installs, and I'll quote him. Not sure if you meant an 'upgrade install' or upgrade to full install CD, but just in case I'll share his thoughts.

Sounds like a pain... but at least you'll know this going in. So far he's never wrong about these things and is running both Vista Ultimate RC2 on two computers and Vista Business on another, yet won't install Vista on his main computers being as there are no drivers for it to use with some of his previous hardware.

~ I digress in going off topic, but being as you mentioned it... ~ ;^D Anyway, good luck with your upgrade install, whichever may be the case!

Hi, I wonder how you have all got on since Feb. I eventually tried Driver Magic and paid $25 for the download. After using that hardly anything still worked so I went to a computer shop and had them to install Windows on a new C drive and leave the old drive in place (as my F drive. I only had the OEM recovery disc by the way. Then I copied what I could of my data files (not everything could be seen on F but most things could be. I wiped the F drive after a couple of weeks and use it to store backups every week. I think my problems were a symptom of Windows starting to fall apart.
Not only did Driver Magic not work for me (it made things worse) but the company would not respond to my requests for help (via their support page or direct to their email address). I tried several times. They offer a money-back guarantee on their website but I can't reach them. They are either dishonest or incompetent.

nick carntowan,
an OS reinstall would have saved you a lot of grief and money wouldn't it. Some motherboards are just better at USB than others

Too right Tmagic any relation to DMagic by the way?
I would like as many people as possible to know about Driver Magic's poor supporet though

Tmagic stands for technical magic, like being able to fix things... 650 is my birth month and year. I don't know DMagic.

Any of the so called driver "magic" programs are crap. A good Google search is more useful than any driver program

Wow, that's just sad. Never having trusted such programs and not having using them, wasn't sure if or not to warn against using one, but suspected it wasn't a good idea. Once ran a 'free' scan which came up with a lot of things that didn't ring true, so bolted and Goggled research on those drivers it said were out of date to find they were not. Seems they generate false reports to get people to buy into their software, at least this was my conclusion. Your $25 was an inexpensive lesson in 'if it sounds to good to be true'. Don't get me going on that similarly priced data recovery software I once used! ;^) Sometimes there are no easy fixes, and drivers must be dealt with independently.

All the same, I'm still having driver problems and haven't determined which one, but still thinking Nvidia's Nview may be the one acting up. It isn't thinking this is a bad driver as much as it has been damaged, or didn't install properly and refuses to do so now. May be evidence of a deeper underlying problem, so now I backup, backup, & backup regularly in case the house of cards falls, which is what we are supposed to do.

What I don't understand is why if a primary drive has been turned into a slave it doesn't access portions of previous data unless there is something wrong with that drive.... or something ate data prior. Say, a worm or virus?

If this is remotely possible, it would be wise to exercise caution about what type of data is return transfered to the new drive. I've been there, and the way I dealt with it was to turn off system restore, then run a virus/Trojan scan on the slave. When it comes to a fresh install, I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'll wait a few days between software installs to ensure all is well and system restore has a chance to make restore points so I can roll back. Makes is easier to determine which restore point is the correct one to return to.

Anyway, hope all your woes are behind you...

A solution

My brother was having this same problem. After a little messing around we discovered that the file usbstor.inf was missing from his C:\Windows\inf folder. I sent him a copy of mine, he dumped it into the folder, and it fixed the problem.

My usbstor.inf file is still there, yet probably not entirely healthy. Don't dare mess with it, might stop things from working as they are. This file can be found in the \I386 folder on the XP installation CD also for those who don't have another computer to copy from and wish to try this.

My first Post--THANKS!

Have been beating my brains out for months to get new USB devices to work.

Tried the windos \inf folder route after reviewing tis thread. WORKS LIKE A CHAMP!

I have a Sony VIAO laptop, XP SP2.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

As it says thank you!

After the weeks of grief the \windows\inf trick worked for me as well and I was able to get an external USB hard drive recognised by my system on Saturday and finally back everything up.

The usbstor.inf file was there and I didnt bother replacing it 'just in case', just told XP to look in this folder and after a rather long wait (I am sure it was teasing me!) the drive was 'found'

Not had time to try my other non working USB devices but I suspect that they will finally be recognised as well.

There are so many other forums that seem to mention this problem as well I am surprised that nobody else has picked up on it.

But that aside, thank you once again for posting the solution.

Best

S

hi there, thanks so much for this thread. I looked for hours on the microsoft site hoping they would mention the problem somewhere but nada. I have ony this USB driver problem so far with USB memory keys that suddenly stopped loading. the c:\windows\inf did work for me but my laptop (an IBM T42 with XP SP2) still asks for the driver when I plug it in but since the installation has been done before it works...I am not very sure where it comes from; I install a lot of program here and there but maybe it is simply a Microsoft update that turned wrong...Good luck for all the others

I am adding some key words because it took me a while to find this forum: USB key not mounting, XP asks for USB driver, no USB driver available

Same problem here, I can definitely confirm it happened after I did a Windows Update, don't know which exact update caused it though. None of the suggested solutions (here and on other forums) worked for me, I fixed it by Repairing my Windows installation (not with the Recovery Console but a real Repair from the within the Windows setup process)

Oh and for the record, I'm using a Dell Latitude D620

If pointing windows to windows\inf allows you to install your USB device, you can go here:
double-u-three.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html#xp_asks_for_drivers (can't post links, replace the beginning with www)
Here's an excerpt:
It does not find the drivers
This is the case when the registry key that points to the INF folder is corrupt. Start the Registry Editor (Run -> Regedit). Check if under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion the item 'DevicePath' points to '%SystemRoot%\inf'. Additional items, separated by semikolons, are ok but '%SystemRoot%\inf' has to be one of them.
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.

Thanks so much.

The \I386 fix mentioned previously save my day.

It required the usbstor.inf file from an XP disk but seems to be working perfectly now.

Seriously thanks , I had less than 2 hours to fix this problem before a large conference began with people flying in from all around the world with presentations on usb devices.

Just hearing you've been successful made my day! That was the same fix which saved me once, but eventually had to drop 2 very old USB 1.1 externals into USB 2.0 cases to eliminate the problem entirely. Of course a fresh install now and then doesn't hurt. Got away 2 years without one, but that's about the longest period. Am pleased to know your meeting was saved by something useful mentioned on this forum.