[collinsdayle]

Hi,

I'm having a number of problems with my USB devices. It started happening all of a sudden and various devices are not being recognised. For example my webcam, printer, Garmin GPS, camera and telephone aren't recognised. When I disconnect them and then reconnect I get a bubble from the system tray saying the device is not recognised. Although it was working fine before.

Using the device manager I've tried to update the drivers, but windows tells me that the installed drivers are the most up to date. Although, when I try to get information about the drivers it tells me there aren't any installed for the device! The only thing I've found to work is to select the option to uninstall the drivers and then try to reinstall / update them, but this only works on some occasions and only works temporarily (i.e. at some point it will tell me that it can't recognise this device again).

Can anyone help?

Thanks

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Are you plugging these toys in the front USBs or the back USBs?
If the front, try plugging them in the back.

[Neil Jones]

Are you plugging these toys in the front USBs or the back USBs?
If the front, try plugging them in the back.

[collinsdayle]

They are currently plugged in the back but I have tried both. I've also tried moving them around i.e. using various USB sockets. It makes no difference

[Neil Jones]

Have you tried these devices on other computers?

[collinsdayle]

This is something I haven't tried but will. Hopefully I can try plugging them into my work computer although I won't be able to install the software. I will let you know how I get on.

It seems odd that all the devices failed at the same time and now sometimes work although this is intermittent. Also, the computer obviously recognises the fact that some devices have been connected. Specific example include:

Mobile Phone - I have a windows mobile based phone. When I connected the phone in the past ActiveSync would run and start syncronising the phone with my computer. Now what happens is a ballon appears from the task bar that reads "USB not recognised - one of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and windows cannot recognise it". I've tried reinstalling ActiveSync and the associated drives for my phone but it doesn't make any difference

Garmin Forerunner 305 wrist GPS - When I connected my GPS in the past then a bubble would appear saying that it recognised a Garmin GPS device. I was then able to run the associated Garmin Training Centre application and download the information to my computer. What happens now is absolutely nothing when I attached my Garmin GPS. It's doesn't even show up in My Computer.

Camera - When I connected my Casio Exilim to the computer then Picasa photo album used to load and ask me if I wanted to download new pictures to my computer. Now it says the save as for my mobile phone e.g. "USB not recognised".

Printer & Webcam - These used to come up with the "USB not recognised" message. However, for some reason or because of something I've done they no longer say this and work fine.

Thanks Dayle.

[Neil Jones]

If all the devices have failed at home this can be a Windows issue or (less likely) an issue with the USB ports themselves.
If they all work at work then the issue is with your system at home.
Also isolate each device as its not uncommon that one device can suck up all the power meaning nothing else gets a look in.