Problem with usb drives/ports showing in explorer

Xeno Morph · 25 Oct 2012

I've been having a random problem with my usb drives or ports for at least six months now. Sometimes when I plug one in, I can hear the system sound that it makes, but the little auto play window that usually appears, allowing me to choose how to open it, such as with explorer, does not appear, and there is no icon when I open up My Computer, nor does it show up in device manager. When it does show, the usb drive can sometimes take over a minute (I'm assuming to read the drive) before the icon will show up in explorer. It doesn't seem to matter which usb port that I plug it into, and I tried gently wiggling the drive a bit to see if it might be a bad connection, but no luck with that. What's really frustrating is that it doesn't happen all the time. One minute it will work and the next time I go to use it, I plug it in, and nothing but the little system sound, no auto play window and no icon in explorer.

Out of seven usb drives that I have, most of the time it happens to the same 2 drives, plus my external HD, that is not to say that it never happens to the other usb drives, for whatever reason, it rarely is a problem with the others. Could it be corrupt drivers? To eliminate the possibility of the usb drives being faulty, I tried them in my other desktop computer and my laptop and they all work fine. I have had an external HD that I was using for data storage and backup with the same problem when plugging in to the usb port. It has been two months since it has shown up in explorer and as I am writing this, I tried plugging it in and wouldn't you know, "PING", it shows up with no delay. Just like that! AARRRR!

If anyone has some thoughts on this, please share your insight. Thanks.

Night Hawk · 25 Oct 2012

In the Device Manager look under Storage controllers and USB Serial bus controllers to note any yellow marked items. You can even delete any composite item under USB and restart the system to see Windows refresh the usb controller driver set to allow for better detection at times.

Under Storage controllers like the external HD you would want to check for updates to insure the controller for the external drive is installed fully to see that prompted detected when plugged in. A run of the System File Checker sfc /scannow at the Start>Run command line to run the system tool wouldn't hurt any either.

As far as flash drives some brands simply will not be detected or work swiftly on some systems while they seem to work well on others. After trying out numerous brands and sizes I generally tend to stay with the one or two that seem to always work no matter what machine or usb hub in fact they are plugged into. HP and PNY flash drives for example are good ones to avoid since they tend to problematic! San Disk works on most old cases and is more commonly sold in retail chains. Other better brands include Kingston, OCZ, Crucial, etc going by the better memory manufacturers as a reference.

jumanji · 26 Oct 2012

Hi Xeno Morph,

Try this:

From the Windows FileRepository- as in the screenshot - locate and open the the USBStor folder with the latest date.

Problem with usb drives/ports showing in explorer-usbstor.jpg

Copy the usbstor.inf and usbstor.PNF files to C > Windows > inf and the USBSTOR.SYS to C > Windows > System32 > drivers.

Reboot your PC.

Now plug in your USB devices and check whether the problem is resolved.

Xeno Morph · 26 Oct 2012

@Night Hawk
Thank you for your input. That must have been why those PNY's were on sale when I bought them.

I bought 3 of those. I had problems with them from the get go, no matter what computer I plugged them into, they just wouldn't get recognized by the computer,

but in that case I'm convinced that the drives were the problem. Fortunately, I did eventually get them to work. For each of my computers, I had to unplug all of my usb ports and plug in the PNY by itself and it came right up and installed the drivers, plugged everything else back in, and haven't had a problem since then, but they still don't work in my car stereo where all the others do.(most of my music I listen to in my truck are on usb drives)

@jumanji,
Thanks for the help.

I will try that, and post back the results.

Baron

Night Hawk · 26 Oct 2012

You're welcome! I bought a 16gb PNY and regretted it soon after since even on the main case it proved to be a hassle. That reminded me of years back when buying old PNY simms for a few old 9x cases and later going with Corsair or Kingston to see far better working results.

The 4gb HP was another good when grabbing one fast at an office supply store onsale. That will hardly even work on anything!

I have run into a few Kingston 2gb drives that were hanging on a rack for $6 in a Walmart one day and suddenly you could no longer see them made bootable while the better Data Traveler models 8gb and 32gb are used for everything including a USB Install Keys for both Vista and 7 as well as live Linux data recovery sticks. But it goes to show you can run into some duds even with the better brands at times.

The San Disks while sometimes slower then other brands still seem to be reliable. Note those are all USB 2.0 sticks since the prices are still up for 3.0 models. One of that brand's drives a 2gb model I use for setting up laptops and even a few portables running Android lately to connect them through the router here.

Xeno Morph · 27 Oct 2012

@jumanji,
Mine has only one folder. usbfilter.inf_amd64_neutral_8131f866ded003e6 Should there be more than one?

Just so I am clear on your instructions...Copy the usbstor.inf and the usbstor.PNF files to the C:\Windows\inf folder, then copy the USBSTOR.SYS to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers folder, and leave the originals in their parent folder usbfilter.inf_amd64_neutral_8131f866ded003e6. Correct?

jumanji · 28 Oct 2012

Yep. If more than one select the latest. Otherwise the one and only one. ( I am not sure why some have more than one. ( I have two.) Requires some research.:))

Yes. copy these as specified. Originals will stay in the Repository.

Xeno Morph · 13 Nov 2012

@jumanji,
Sorry, been preoccupied this past week. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Thanks for your help though. If you have any other thoughts, I'll check back in a few days.

jumanji · 15 Nov 2012

And so it is not the corrupt drivers.

Now you can try the following two fixes.

1. USB Fix-it - Official Microsoft tool I Love Free SoftwareFree Software To Fix USB Problems: Microsoft USB Fix It

2. USB Driver - General Fix for Problems

Xeno Morph · 26 Nov 2012

jamunji,
Been away this past week.(family gathering

) Thank you very much for the links to the software tools. I'll check them out and see if that solves the issue. I really appreciate how helpful you have been.

Baron