USB drivers not found in Windows 2000

[Vince_D]

Windows 2000 SP4 has lost it's mind, and it is causing me to lose mine!

Bottom line: I think a recent windows update messed up the USB drivers on my machine. I cannot install simple "plug-and-play" USB devices on the machine. Details follow. I'm not too good with hardware, so I apologize if I provide too much or the wrong information.

I have an 8-year old Dell desktop running Windows 2000 SP4 with all the updates that are offered by Windows update.

In the past, all USB devices would be found and installed by Windows automatically, without the need for any special drivers from the manufacturer. For example, I have flash disk drives, that "just work" when plugged in. The same goes for an SD memory card reader. I do have a USB optical mouse that requires a driver for extended features, but the basics work with whatever driver that Windows supplies by default.

Recently I plugged in a USB flash drive that has been working fine for YEARS, and Windows is now asking for a driver. I know for a fact that I never did anything special to use this drive in the past. Why is it now, all of a sudden, looking for the driver? It works as "plug-and-play" when I plug it into my WXP machine.

I fiddled around a bit and Windows found C:\WINNT\inf\oem3.inf which as far as I can tell, was pointing to USBSTOR.SYS, which I confirmed was NOT anywhere on my system. I found a Windows 2000 copy on the Web and installed it, and now the USB drive works.

Next I went to plug in the SD card reader (that has also been working fine for YEARS) and Windows is asking for a driver. I think that it, too, found oem3.inf, but after that installation completes, the New Hardware Wizard starts again, trying to install "Generic USB SD Reader USB Device". I know this has never happened in the past. If I cancel the installation, I do see the drive as something like "E:", and I can navigate it just as I used to using Windows Explorer. However, after I eject the device and plug it back in, the New Hardware Wizard once again wants to install the "Generic USB SD Reader USB Device". If I cancel this time, the drive does not show up in My Computer. I contacted the manufacturer and confirmed that no special drivers are needed for W2K. Again, this device works as "plug-and-play" when I plug it into my WXP machine.

I have 2 USB hubs that are connected and working fine. I have my optical mouse plugged into one, and decided to plug the mouse directly into the back of the box, instead of the hub. Big mistake! The mouse does not work at all, and the New Hardware Wizard is asking for a driver. It's a Microsoft mouse, so downloaded and installed the latest software from the MS site. I see a bunch of OEM*.INF/PNF files in C:\WINNT\inf\ that are specific to the mouse, but the New Hardware Wizard keeps reporting that no drivers were found.

And you guessed it, when I plug the hubs back in, they are not found either.

One fix I saw in the forum involved deleting the fine "infcache.1", but no such file exists on my system. Any ideas? It seems like I need to get copies of the standard USB drivers that are part of Windows. Please don't say reinstall Windows!!

Thanks.

Vince

[CCT]

Hello Vince_D:

I suggest you run sfc /scannow (System File Checker).

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/wfp.mspx#ELD

[Vince_D]

Hello Vince_D:

I suggest you run sfc /scannow (System File Checker).

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/wfp.mspx#ELD

Thanks for the suggestion, CCT. I forgot to mention that I had already tried that, but I did it again anyway, then rebooted. I saw the progress meter, and was NOT prompted to replace any files. After the reboot I plugged the mouse in and got the same result: Windows does not find the driver. It's a good thing I pretty good with keyboard shortcuts!

I also plugged the card reader into the back of the box and got the same result. The generic USB Mass Storage Device driver is found, but then it is looking for the driver for "Generic USB SD Reader USB Device", too. It fails, but I can navigate the drive until it is unplugged and plugged back in.

I mentioned my plight to a co-worker and he said that it sounds like Windows is asking for a "more specific" driver when a "generic" Windows-supplied driver would and should suffice.

Any ideas on what is causing that to happen?

Vince

[slgrieb]

Vince, it isn't unlikely that you've downloaded an update that has caused your problem. If you open Control Panel, then go to Add and Remove Programs, you'll see a check box in the top right hand corner of the screen that says "Show Updates". Put a tick in it, wait for the refresh, then try removing the last update.

[CCT]

Look at that article again and this time use the /purgecache switch THEN the /scannow.

[Vince_D]

Look at that article again and this time use the /purgecache switch THEN the /scannow.

The doc seems to indicate that /PURGECACHE automatically does a /SCANNOW, but I did both, anyway, in the order you suggested.

I tested by plugging in the SD card reader because that was the simpler device, and still have the same problem.

slgrieb suggested uninstalling patches, but I'm a bit reluctant to do that. There are many, and I'm not sure how far I would have to go back. Will uninstalling them lay down the old drivers, anyway?

[BOB IROC]

Have you thought about booting using something like WinPE off of a CD or something to see if it may be the USB ports themselves? I had a customer that had similar problems with XP Home and it would recognize her USB mouse and some other USB devices but not flash drives or card readers. Booted into XP PE using a HirenBoot CD and nothing was recognized either. Computer had boot support for USB drives and they would not show up in the boot options or any BIOS settings before the OS either. Also just for Giggles I took a spare drive and loaded XP fresh and nothing and all I could determine is that the onboard ports were bad so I added a PCI USB card and those worked.

[Vince_D]

Bob-

This is a bit over my head so I will have to research how to do what you suggest.

In the mean time, I noticed that several Microsoft KB articles list the current versions of USB-related files, and upon checking my system, I am either missing some or what I do have is out of date. In the tables below, what I have is prefixed with ">>".

Could this be the root cause of the problem? If so, what is the best way to proceed?

USB Keyboard and Mouse May Not Work After Restart or Hibernation with ICH3 Chip Set
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316257

   Date         Time   Version        Size    File name
   -------------------------------------------------------
   22-Jan-2002  11:18  5.0.2195.4864  82,112  Halaacpi.dll
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6691  82,176
>> Located in C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386

   22-Jan-2002  11:18  5.0.2195.4864  66,848  Halacpi.dll
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6691  66,848
>> Located in C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386

   22-Jan-2002  11:18  5.0.2195.4864  82,976  Halmacpi.dll
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6691  83,040
>> Located in C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386

USB devices are not detected or use 100 percent CPU time after you apply the hotfix that is described in article 810090
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829759

   Date         Time   Version            Size    File name
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   21-Sep-2003  01:36  5.0.2195.6824      24,752  Hidclass.sys
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6655      24,752

   21-Sep-2003  01:36  5.0.2195.6824      24,976  Openhci.sys
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6675      24,784
>> Located in C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386

   21-Sep-2003  01:36  5.0.2195.6824      32,944  Uhcd.sys
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6655      32,848

   08-Oct-2003  17:56                     32,543  Usb.inf
>> 19-Jun-2003                            32,543
>> Located in C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386

   21-Sep-2003  01:36  5.0.2195.6824      20,752  Usbd.sys
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6658      20,688

   21-Sep-2003  01:36  5.0.2195.6824      19,792  Usbehci.sys
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6709      19,728

   21-Sep-2003  01:36  5.0.2195.6824      49,776  Usbhub20.sys
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2196.6655      49,776

   21-Sep-2003  01:36  5.0.2195.6824     138,768  Usbport.sys
>> 19-Jun-2003         5.0.2195.6681     138,288

Universal Serial Bus 2.0 Support in Windows 2000
(I'm not too worried about these because I don't think my motherboard supports USB 2.0)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319973

    Date          Time    Version         Size      File name
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    07-May-2002   16:52                     7,159   Usb2.inf
>>  Not on system

    09-May-2002   23:12                     8,736   Usb2.cat
>>  Not on system

    18-Apr-2002   23:46   5.0.2195.5605     6,416   Hccoin.dll
>>  19-Jun-2003           5.0.2195.6655     6,416

[BOB IROC]

Sorry Vince.. Hiren's Boot CD is a very useful CD that has all sorts of diagnostic tools. It can be downloaded from here:

http://www.9down.com/Hiren-s-BootCD-...d-Patch-73110/
UnRar Password: www.9down.com

Information on it can be found here: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

Just burn the ISO to a CD and it is bootable and one of the Options is to boot the computer in a light XP Mode to help with Diagnosis. There may be other diagnostic tools you can use to help troubleshoot your problem or at least help you determine if it is a hardware problem or an OS/driver problem or something.

[Vince_D]

Thanks, Bob, but RapidShare has blocked the file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/20774091...BootCD.9.8.rar

Could it really be the ports? The USB Optical mouse was working fine before I unplugged it. The same goes for the SD card reader, the flash drives and the USB hubs. The USB keyboard is still working because it has not been unplugged. That accounts for all 4 USB ports on the motherboard. What are the odds that 3 of the 4 of them are now bad, and only went bad after devices were unplugged from them? I have tried plugging into all 3 of the open ones at one time or another since this ordeal started.

Any thoughts about the missing/outdated files I mentioned earlier?

Thanks.

Vince

[BOB IROC]

Maybe not the ports but the Onboard USB controller that controls all the ports. I know this is an older system but if you are comfortable going into the BIOS maybe you can see if the motherboard supports legacy USB operation for booting off flash drives to somehow see if the computer can detect the drives/devices before it gets into windows.

[Vince_D]

Bob-

The only boot options in Setup are Floppy, Hard Disk C, and CD-ROM.

Vince

[NooNoo]

Right click my computer, select properties, click the hardware tab and click the device manager button. At the bottom, is there a USB entry? If so, click the + by it and expand the entry.

What is shown there... is there any ? or ! or errors showing?

Have you reinstalled SP4?

[Vince_D]

Right click my computer, select properties, click the hardware tab and click the device manager button. At the bottom, is there a USB entry? If so, click the + by it and expand the entry.

What is shown there... is there any ? or ! or errors showing?

Have you reinstalled SP4?

Here is what I see after a fresh reboot:

Universal Serial Bus controllers

  -- Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
  -- Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
  -- USB Root Hub
  -- USB Root Hub

There are NO "!" or "?" on any items.

After plugging in a flash drive that works, I see the addition of:

USB Mass Storage Device

Again, NO "!" or "?" on this or any other item.

Note to Bob: The flash drive is recognized and works, so does that indicate that the Onboard USB Controller is OK?

Will re-installing SP4 lay down any drivers that are missing? If so, maybe that is the way to go.

[Guts3d]

Just a thought, this happened to a customer of mine with Win2K a few weeks back and I bought a $20 U.S.B. PCI card, installed it, loaded the drivers that came with it ( A cd, in this day and age! ) and voila, all ports started working fine. Might be a cheap fix, Vince D.