usb key not recognised n mulfunctioned

[lionsl2005]

i have a usb pen its not recognised it says the usb devise attached to this computer has mulfunctioned and not recognised. i dont know what to do? any idea?

[vikpaw]

• i know it sounds silly but unplug reboot and try again
• try another usb socket
• try another computer
• check device manager, maybe uninstall it and then try plugging it in again
• if you are happy to lose the data on it try reformatting but only do a quick format.
• there are also special reformat tools available i have a couple somewhere

good luck, hope the data wasn't too important.

i have in the past reformatted a usb drive and then managed to run data recovery apps to recover data. but its risky.

[artsaudi]

Is it a new USB? Do you have any data on it?

[ninjabeaver]

Another thing to check if it's an older USB Key is that the usb connection has not broken on any of the solder links on it that connects to the little circuit board inside. If it has it'a a simple solder job.

[PEO]

Had this happen recently, the SIMS K:\ Drive was been picked up as removable storage. so neither removable storage or SIMS k:\ drive worked.

I simply MMC into machine that had problem and changed the K:\ drive that was picked up as storage device and change to another drive letter L:\ been the next on the list of available drives.

This fixed both drive issues.

[PEO]

Also worth a try, the user may have not done a safe remove hardware, therefore corrupting the device drivers for that device. Each usb data device has a unique serial number which is assigned to its own driver.

Plug the device in and MMC/Device manager, Under usb devices, right click and remove all storage device drivers. unplugg the device and restart the machine. Try plugging the device i again.

just another solution before you go formating the drive

[lionsl2005]

• i know it sounds silly but unplug reboot and try again
• try another usb socket
• try another computer
• check device manager, maybe uninstall it and then try plugging it in again
• if you are happy to lose the data on it try reformatting but only do a quick format.
• there are also special reformat tools available i have a couple somewhere

good luck, hope the data wasn't too important.

i have in the past reformatted a usb drive and then managed to run data recovery apps to recover data. but its risky.

I tried all of them but still no luk, it got some data but not too important, i dont mind to format but how? its not detected ny windows? how do i do that?

[vikpaw]

ah ok.



formatting in that case could be difficult. try PEO's advice first.

• click on start -> run -> and enter "compmgmt.msc"

this should bring up the computer management window. if you click on disk management, it should show you all attached disks including usb keys. Have a look to see if your device is listed there, you can tell by the capacity column as it should be significantly smaller than your hard drive. it might not be there but worth checking. next,

• click on device manager and see if there is anything listed with a yellow triangle by it, and / or an exclamation mark.

it'll most likely be under the last section - universal serial bus controllers.



if there is

• right click on the item and then left click on uninstall.

i think PEO is suggesting you do that to all items under the usb controllers section regardless of exclamation marks, though i'm unsure about that. if you're desperate give it a go.

reboot the machine and see if that helps the next time you plug the key in.

let us know how you get on. i'm on a time difference here, but i'm sure others will chip in with help through the day.

if none of the above works then as per ninjabeaver's post, you may well have damaged your key and may just have to replace it.

do you know the correct procedure to safely remove a usb key, i've got a very rough help document i made for my last school if it's any use to you to try and prevent the same thing happening again..

GL

[humberty]

Hi there

We have the same problem on our cc3 network where none of the teacher or student or even systemadmin can get their stick recognized.

It sudently happen last friday morning, probably following some kind of RM profile cleaning package.

To resolve the issue we don't have any other choice than runnibg all across the school to delete the driver and restart.

We also allocate a USB FIX package but it didn't seems to solve the issue.

Is someone here already had this issue and if so do you have a solution more efficient ?


Thanks

[vikpaw]

The simple solution to both fix and prevent future problems is to get rid of RM!