Unable to install any USB devices

[neo101]

This is an age old problem with USB.

The old (easy) way was simply to pull all USB items/leads out of the sockets.
On a PC make sure no leads deliver electric current and pull the electric lead out of the wall socket for a couple of minutes.

On a laptop you also pull the battery out so no power is getting to computer.

This causes usb to reset itself once it gets its knickers in a twist and solves >98% of usb problems.

Sometimes you have to go one step further to solve this and reset your bios parameters by removing all electric/battery supply then sticking the jumper on the motherboard shorting the cmos for a minute (after also removing motherboard coin-cell battery).

Reinstall laptop battery/plug back in wall
Now put your mouse and keyboard leads back in.
Now ONE BY ONE your old accessory/printer leads etc let usb/OS detect each one before moving to the next item.

All usb probs (except bust accessory/mashed driver /broken lead/completely screwed windows registry) should be solved.

 

[mtbmed]

Difusal - I'll give the repair an attempt tomorrow when I get home from duty. btw, my install of WIN 7 is only about a month old and on a clean HDD. Oh well, the beauty and simplicity of PCs ...

 

[Difusal]

Difusal - I'll give the repair an attempt tomorrow when I get home from duty. btw, my install of WIN 7 is only about a month old and on a clean HDD. Oh well, the beauty and simplicity of PCs ...

Only a month old? :/ such a bad luck... sorry.
Try what neo101 also suggested please

 

[apoorv90]

I haven't had any problems with windows 7 since I did this I now use windows 8 but I used 7 until last month. Just try to do it again and make sure you do every single step hope this helps ya

I am having same problem and have carefully followed your steps as outlined now two separate times. I also did a cmd line tool to find orphaned drivers and devices and removed them all before a third unsuccessful attempt at your fix. boooooo. I am stumped and at my wit's end. This all started near the same time as a failed install of my cellphone drivers. I uninstalled those but had no further need of either phone or usb devices, so no problem noted afterward. The beginning of this recent issue is due to my Microsoft Mouse (an older usb cabled mouse) right click button failing to work. I bought a new wireless mouse and keyboard to install and now get the failed to install warning. All other efforts to fix have ultimately led me here.
Thoroughly stumped. I can uninstall my old mouse, and it will reinstall correctly. Nothing new will. The new Mouse/USB button/Keyboard install just fine on my other PC running WIN XP.

Thanks for any ideas
????

edit: the link to the cmd line tool (sic) is included for clarification of what I did there: How To Easily Remove Old Drivers from Windows

Well, I would advise you to open a cmd prompt as admin, and run "sfc /scannow". Let it run and reboot. Sometimes this works like a charm. If it doesn't work, maybe I would tell you to grab the windows 7 installation disk and try to use one of the repair tools. After all that and since we aren't going anywhere, the last option would be reinstall everything: backup your files, format, clean install and that will for sure remove any existing problems. You could install windows 8 though, it's much much better than 7, all the drivers are automatically installed just perfectly!

thanks for that, but unfortunately it didnt work for me..
is it possible that a pc wont support 2 usb mouse at the same time as i am afaraid that if i disconnect the old mouse first and then connect the new one, some corrupt file may create problem even for the old mouse to function. thats y i am connecting both the mouse and trying to use the new one unsuccesfully. if u have any other ideas pls do post.

thanks.

 

[mtbmed]

apoorv90 - I tested that on my other PC and my laptop. The USB mouse had no problem running simultaneously with the other mouse on both ...

 

[mtbmed]

Well, I tried the unplug ALL and restart method. Nice. For whatever reason, the PC did not like that so it reorganized all USB drivers, assignments, everything. I plugged in the new wireless mouse and keyboard. BAM! Worked right away. Thanks for all the help Will file this one away in my memory hole for future reference ... have a feeling won't be the last time

 

[apoorv90]

This is an age old problem with USB.

The old (easy) way was simply to pull all USB items/leads out of the sockets.
On a PC make sure no leads deliver electric current and pull the electric lead out of the wall socket for a couple of minutes.

On a laptop you also pull the battery out so no power is getting to computer.

This causes usb to reset itself once it gets its knickers in a twist and solves >98% of usb problems.

Sometimes you have to go one step further to solve this and reset your bios parameters by removing all electric/battery supply then sticking the jumper on the motherboard shorting the cmos for a minute (after also removing motherboard coin-cell battery).

Reinstall laptop battery/plug back in wall
Now put your mouse and keyboard leads back in.
Now ONE BY ONE your old accessory/printer leads etc let usb/OS detect each one before moving to the next item.

All usb probs (except bust accessory/mashed driver /broken lead/completely screwed windows registry) should be solved.

thanks

but that didnt work for me either..

 

[apoorv90]

apoorv90 - I tested that on my other PC and my laptop. The USB mouse had no problem running simultaneously with the other mouse on both ...

well thats what should happen ideally.
thanks..

 

[apoorv90]

hello all,
thanks for all your help, in the end I had to re-install the windows and everything is working fine now..

Thanks once again.. God Bless

 

[hjmberdelao]

Hey there! I had this same problem too! untill a while ago! It's very frustrating! I spent days on it! So, I will make your job easy by telling how to solve this. This was the way it worked for me!

Here's the solution for the ones who might have this problem:
This worked for me in Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit!
You must have all administrator privileges!

1- Open Windows Explorer

2- Go to C:/Windows/System32/DriverStore

You will have a couple of folders and files.
You will have *.dat files and other file named: infcache.1

3- Right click every file (dont touch the folders!) and choose properties.

4- go to security tab

5- click Edit

6- choose your account and check the box: full control (see ss)

7- Click ok.

8- Repeat to every file

9- Select all the files (*.dat and infcache.1)

10- Press shift+del

11- Press OK.

12- Now, go to C:Windows/System32/Driver Store/File Repository/

13- Search for folder named usbstor.inf

14- Open it (if you have more than one, choose the most recent)

15- Copy "usbstor.inf" and "usbstor.PNF"

16- Paste those two files to C:/Windows/inf

17- Reboot your pc and voilla! :b

If Windows doesnt install them automatically go to device manager, uninstall all unknown devices and the ones with the yellow exclamation mark, then click in "check to see if there is any hardware changes"

Now, Windows will install all your hardware successfully :b



Did it work?

i made this steps but still during the installation it says that FAILED.
pls help.

 

[jaguarslave]

Difusal, you are an absolute Genious...Your instructions worked like a charm. You just saved me 5 hours of boring OS reinstallation and apps reload for a user. Thank you Sir!

 

[polis]

Just like others, I just joined to say thank you.

1000 Thank's

I spend more than a week trying to sort this out, nothing was working except your solution!!!

Just like others, I just joined to say thank you.

 

[shis52c]

Thanks a lot Difusal for this useful workarround!!! It works for me too...

Kind Regards
Hacene

 

[Paulzinho]

I had to sign up just to thank you Difusal. It worked and no reinstall (reinstall is not a fix in my opinion). For those of you who it didn't work for your problem is NOT the same as OP. Problem. My problem: no new drivers or USB devices recognized. Old USB devices previously recognized still worked. If I uninstalled the driver of a previously working usb device. Reinstallation and detection would fail. Thanks again Difusal.


Cheer!

 

[Dietrich32]

Unfortunately I had a similar problem in which my Toshiba Satellite L850 laptop simply stopped recognizing my devices and acting as if I had not even plugged them in. I have tried every solution listed in this thread thoroughly and still nothing has worked. What's worse is I cannot reinstall Windows since my laptop did not come with an OEM disc for some reason. Is there any possible solution to this at all?

 

[Dietrich32]

Polite bump, I would really like to know if there is any possible solution to my problem. The one suggested on the first page did not work unfortunately.

 

[Raif]

Finally works!!!

I tried Difusal way but it didn't work for me, than I pull out battery and again didn't work and I had finally found a solution. Follow steps bellow, i founded on other site.
How To Delete the UpperFilters and LowerFilters Registry Values

1. Click on the Start button.
   If you're using Windows XP, also click on Run.
2. In the search box (Windows 7 and Windows Vista) or the Run textbox (Windows XP) type regedit and click OK or press the ENTER key.
   This will open the Registry Editor program.
   Important: Changes to the registry are made in these steps. Take care in making only the changes outlined below. While it's not a necessary step to complete this process, I recommend that you play it safe by backing up the registry keys you're modifying.
3. Locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder under Computer/My Computer and click the |> or (+) icon next to the folder name to expand the folder.
4. Continue to expand folders until you reach the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class registry key.
5. Click on the |> or (+) icon next to the Class key to expand it. You should see a long list of subkeys open up under Class that look something like this: {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
   Note: Each 32-digit subkey is unique and corresponds to a particular type, or class, of hardware in Device Manager.
6. Determine the Correct Class GUID for the Hardware Device. Using this list, find the correct Class GUID corresponding to the type of hardware that you're seeing the Device Manager error code for.
   For example, let's say your DVD drive is showing a Code 39 error in Device Manager. According to the list above, the GUID for CD/DVD devices is 4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318. Once you know this GUID, you can continue to Step 7.
7. Click the registry subkey corresponding to the device's Class GUID that you determined in the last step.
8. In the results that appear on the window on the right, locate the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values.
   Note: If you don't see either registry values listed, this solution isn't for you. Double check that you're looking at the correct device class but if you're sure you are, you'll have to try a different solution: How to Fix Device Manager Error Codes.
   Note: If you only see one or the other value, that's fine. Just complete Step 9 or Step 10 below.
9. Right-click on UpperFilters and choose Delete.
   Choose Yes to the "Deleting certain registry values could cause system instability. Are you sure you want to permanently delete this value?" question.
10. Repeat Step 9 with the LowerFilters value.
    Note: You might also see an UpperFilters.bak or LowerFilters.bak value but you do not need to delete either of these. Deleting them probably won't hurt anything but neither one is causing the Device Manager error code you're seeing.
11. Close Registry Editor.
12. Restart your computer.
13. Check to see if deleting the UpperFilters and LowerFilters registry values solved your problem.
    If you've completed these steps due to a Device Manager error code, you can view the device's status to see if the error code is gone. If you're here because of a missing DVD or CD drive, check Computer or My Computer and see if your drive has reappeared.
    Important: It may be necessary to reinstall any programs designed to utilize the device you've removed the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values for. For example, if you removed these values for the DVD/CD device, you may have to reinstall your DVD burning software.

 

[snord]

Thank you--you're a lifesaver!

 

[pdw1975]

Four and a half years on and you are STILL saving people. I had the issues this morning on a new installed refurb but your guide saved me.
Thanks a million and more.
Piers.

 

[ramyar]

.inf file error

Hi,
When i tryed to install my .inf file it say:The INF does not support this format of installation.What should i do