Windows 7: Intermittent Fault With Kingston 100 G2 USB Memory Stick

Hello all,

I have a Kingston 100 G2 USB memory stick (8GB - formatted with FAT32).

I use this stick a lot, and is it a work USB. Just recently my home PC has not been wanting to play ball with it.

This is what happens:

- I plug my stick into ANY USB port on the PC
- No automatic detection, no automatic drive letter assignment, not in Disk Management
- After 2 minutes OR a forced refresh in Disk Management, the device will detect
THEN, either
- The device shows up (is detected), drive letter assigned, and can be accessed as normal.
- Windows reports that the device needs to be re-formatted, and appears as a RAW file system in Disk Managment

Before you ask me to just re-format the disk (I do have backups!), read this:

- The memory stick works on any other PC/laptop fine (including my Win 7 x64 at work, XP Pro x86 on a laptop and in Fedora Linux - and every other PC/laptop it has been plugged into)
- My other memory stick (a Kingston DT1, 1GB) detects as normal - everytime.

So this means the following:

- The memory stick is fine. Its not defective.
- The USB Bus controllers on my HOME PC (the one with the problem) are working
- Disk Management service(s) are working as normal (correctly assigning drive letters)

The only odd thing I can see is in Device Manager, in which this keeps showing up:

WPD FileSystem Volume Driver (w/ Error 31)

I have never seen this before. It doesn't normally show up. I can only guess this is causing the problems?

What I have tried:
- Various ports on the PC
- Safely ejecting, and then reconnecting
- Uninstalling the device driver - Kingston 100 G2 USB driver.
- Uninstalling the device driver for the odd, problematic WPD FileSystem Volume Driver
- Disabling the device driver for the odd, problematic WPD FileSystem Volume Driver



My Configuration:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 w/SP1
Intel i5 2500 @ 3.30Ghz
8GB RAM

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I was just wondering if anyone knew of this problem.

I'm going to continue trying to solve this myself, but any recommendations of things I can try are most welcome.

Thanks in advance,
Dan

Just giving you guys a running follow up of things I am trying.

I backed up all the files again, from one of the tries when it does connect and detect properly.

I then Safely Removed, and reconnected. The problematic 'You need to format this disk' (Disk management, File System: RAW) came up, I said okay to formatting the device. Windows built in formatter went a bit crazy, and then told me it was unable to perform the format.

Weird.

I also found this article - Correcting the DREADED Vista Problem - USB Device Not Reconigsed

And I have tried the suggested point the drivers manually task - which hasn't really done anything. Worth a try though.

I will say this, I did install TrueCrpyt when I got it. But the whole thing failed miserably, and I gave up. I have reformatted the drive since then using MiniTool Partition Wizard (Home Ed.) - and this seemed to make the device work. Up until now.

I remember when I set this up, it did something regarding mounting drive I: (which is the drive letter which the USB stick is auto-assigned). I shall try quickly, assigning it something further down the alphabet and see what happens.

FYI: I don't have TrueCrpyt installed anymore. So if it is causing any issues, then I'm guessing its remnants in the registry?

Just thought of something else quickly.

My drive lettering is as so:
C: - SYSTEM - STATIC HDD
D: - MUSIC - STATIC HDD
E: - VIDEO - STATIC HDD
F: - BLANK DISK - STATIC HDD
G: - DOCS/PICS - STATIC HDD
H: - DVD DRIVE - PHYSICAL DVDROM
J: - DVD DRIVE - PHSICAL DVDROM
K: - VIDEOS - STATIC HDD
L: - DVD DRIVE - VIRTUAL DRIVE

Weird, not really in any logical format.

[Edit]
I have re-arranged the drives so that letter I: is assigned to a physical DVD-ROM drive, however with the USB drive now auto-assigning itself to K: - and the problem still exists.

Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it don't.