DIGITUS® Professional

USB Problem

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Please note:
Here you can find a similar troubleshooting guide for PCI devices.

Possibly, your operating system already includes a set of USB drivers. It is up to the producer of the operating system to develop updates of these drivers and make them available to customers.

Usually, USB support is activated with the installation of mainboard drivers.

USB problems can occur any time. They rather depend on the operating system than on devices. Thus, these kinds of problems usually do not occur with Linux operating systems and Mac OS.
That is why this problem only affects particular devices/operating systems.


You might experience the following problems if there are troubles with your USB connections:

  • The device cannot be recognized ("Unknown device")
  • The computer cannot find drivers for a device (although they are already available).
  • device cannot be started up (e.g. error code 10)
  • System crashes occur if a USB device is plugged in ("bluescreen", system freezes).
  • The computer cannot be started if a USB device is plugged in.
  • The computer slows down whenever a certain USB device is plugged in.
  • Suddenly, a USB device does not work any longer with a certain computer.
  • USB 2.0 devices only function at USB 1.1 speed.
  • a WirelessLAN connection is regularly interrupted while there are no outer interference factors)
  • The computer does not assign a drive letter to an external hard disk drive.


Contents

General information

To exclude resource conflicts, please connect the device with another USB port as a first approach to solve the problem. If this will also not help you, you might have to install or renew your USB drivers.
Sometimes it is also helpful to reinstall the chipset drivers of your mainboard. Usually, the chipset drivers are enclosed with your mainboard on a CD/DVD. "All-in-One" or "4-in-1" driver packets are often also available for various types of mainboards.
Normally, mainboard drivers are available on the website of mainboard manufacturers.


How to solve USB problems

A USB (end) device does not work with all ports of a USB hub

In fact this problem could definitely occur if a USB device is not 100 % compatible, if it was cascaded and thus the device does not work at all or only with specific ports of a USB hub.

Example: USB hub (8ports) to USB0001 -> port number USB0011 assigned to 1st port of the hub, port number USB0081 assigned to 8th port. If the mouse device only works up to USB0041 (4th port) this device cannot be operated. The reason for this nonreaction is the way the manufacturer of USB end devices programmed the device´s hardware specifications in accordance with USB 1.0 specifications (we know this occured with mouse devices produced by a well-known mouse manufacturer). In this case only the first 4 USB ports and the first cascading are adressed (USB0011 to USB0044). USB 1.1, however, supports USB ports 0001 to 0084.


Windows does not boot up

If USB storage media - like USB sticks or card readers with inserted cards - are plugged into a USB port or USB port of a hub it sometimes happens that the computer tries to use these USB devices as a boot medium. This problem can be noticed if you remove the device from the port and the booting process is continued / the computer starts up as usual, booting the normal operating system.

  • In this case you have to disable USB booting in the BIOS mode of your PC or remove the USB storage medium before booting up the computer.


Windows cannot find drivers & other USB errors

Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 7

! Please follow these steps to the best of your knowledge and belief!
Show hidden devices in the Device Manager

In order to remove devices which are no longer connected with the computer from the Device Manager you first have to activate this function by using the option Show hidden devices in the Windows Device Manager.
In our Wiki article about the Windows Device Manager you will find information about how to activate this function.

INFCACHE.1 file possibly damaged
  • Here you find information about what to do and an explanation:

INFCACHE.1


How to adapt the Windows Registry file

Please note: Only people familiar with computers and Windows operating systems should follow the steps described here. Whenever you edit the Windows Registry file you act at your own risk!
Use "Regedit", the Windows Registry editor, where "DevicePath" at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion should include the entry "%systemroot%\inf". If you cannot find this entry there the Windows operating system cannot find driver INF files anymore.
Source in the Microsoft Knowledgebase

If Vista cannot find drivers you can enter the directory "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository". In this directory Windows will quite frequently discover drivers.

Cannot Install This Hardware Error Message

Installing newer Driver for previous installed Hardware, can cause this Message due failed deinstallation-routine: Cannot install this hardware. There was a problem installing this hardware. Network_Adapter_Model_Name… An error occurred in the installation of this device. The name is already in use as either a service name or a service display name.

The solution comes directly from Microsoft knowledgebase:You Cannot Install Driver Files for Your Network Adapter and You Receive a "Cannot Install This Hardware" Error Message

USB2.0 devices only operate at USB1.1 speed

By installing a USB 2.0 card you can expand the functionality of your operating system. If you keep on using an old USB1.1 controller at the same time with this computer the USB2.0 controller will either not be recognized or it operates merely at USB1.1 speed (12MBit/s). A possible solution would be to disable the USB 1.x hardware controller of the mainboard (please contact the manufacturer of the mainboard!).


USB drives are not displayed

If USB drives (USB sticks, USB hard disk drives, technical adapters, etc.) are not displayed in the Explorer / in My Computer, Windows might have a disk management problem.

  • Home - Run diskmgmt.msc. Please check at this place if there is a drive without a drive letter.
  • If you use USB devices with an On/Off switch, please make sure that these devices are switched on before you connect their USB plugs with the computer.
  • If USB adapters are displayed in the Device Manager but at the same time hard disk drives connected with the adapters are not displayed the problem might be that an adapter which does not support hard disk drive adapters is operated with a USB hub. You should use the direct connection to the PC/notebook.

Hyperlinks

Windows in general

Standby wakeups via USB not possible
USB Power Exceeded Error Message When Connecting USB Devices


Windows 98SE

Please make sure that you work with a Windows 98 SE operating system.


Windows ME


Windows XP


Vista


Miscellaneous

Users of Windows XP and Windows Vista can install the "User-Mode Driver Framework". It will especially fix problems with digital cameras, portable media players, PDAs and with other USB devices.
FAQ: User-Mode Driver Framework

If you follow this link you can get an easy-to-use program to fix USB issues:

After you have executed this program the Windows cache folders will be empty and the file INFCACHE.1 will be deleted.

Additional texts featuring more details


Additional support

If you cannot fix your problem with the help of these FAQs you can also contact our DIGITUS® support team via email. Please add in a note of your email a comment stating that the FAQs did not help you solve the problem.


Legal aspects

Please also take into account in what way our pieces of advice and recommendations have to be used!

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