I'm troubleshooting a very strange USB issue.

The computer I'm working on is a run of the mill Dell Inspiron desktop model. It has this weird problem of not working with all USB devices, especially storage devices. The peripherals that are currently installed are completely functional, but a simple WD Passport drive simply wasn't recognized.

The client recently tried using a basic PNY flash drive, but the drive wouldn't show up in Computer. It showed up in Device Manager, but with a driver issue. The problem is that these are, of course, plug and play devices with no drivers available. It should be built into Windows.

Any ideas?

Have you wound your way through trying all the different ports? It's possible that one or the other USB port is fried.

I thought so too, but they all operate the same way.

My guess is a bad or missing chipset device driver. It could be specific to the USB chipset, or, it could be covered by one of those Intel Chipset Driver Updater packages if it's using one of the Intel chipsets.

Also could be a sloppy implementation that isn't providing enough power on the USB ports for some devices. Have seen similar behavior, especially with low power devices like Raspberry Pi. Try on a powered usb hub and see if it makes any difference.

The chip set drivers are a possibility. Do you think installing an expansion card would bypass the built in drivers or would they just use the Windows drivers?

I'll try a powered hub the next time I'm there.

Ok, I'm at a loss. I tried installing a PCIe USB3 card, but it simply won't install. It appears that Windows will no longer install drivers for ANY new devices.

In fact, here's some more weirdness for you: the computer has a wireless keyboard and mouse. If I remove the receiver for those to another USB port, device manager complains that it can't find/install the drivers for new device. If I merely move the receiver back to the original port it was installed on, it works just fine. So the devices that were already installed will continue to work on their original ports, but no new devices can be added in any way.

I found some instructions on moving some of the USBstor files, but that doesn't seem to have done anything.

Any ideas? I've attached to images of how the new USB card appears in device manager.

And that first shot shows you how a run of the mill Sandisk Cruzer isn't even installable.

Virus? Complete reinstall?

It seems to me the bigger problem is your non-functional pci bridge. I'll bet if you get that working, the usb may sort its self out.

I have no idea why the usb would have partial functionality on the far side of a non-functional pci bus, one would think it would have none. Still, the way things work in Windows has little relationship to how things should work.

Hmmm. Does Windows have a security setting where it's possible to prevent certain users from installing device drivers?

Moving devices to another port and not working makes sense though. Windows has to treat them as different devices so still "reinstalls" them when you move ports. Every port will do the same.

So it appears the driver/device installation is a problem rather than the specific driver itself.

Certainly I'd look at fixing that PCI to PCI bridge.

Yep. So I don't think it's hardware. i.e., it's not a malfunction in the PCI bridge hardware itself. The hardware works, its drivers might be screwed up. It's an operating system problem or a permissions problem. Perhaps a bad file or setting in the operating system which prevents the device driver installation from proceeding.

My next step would be to google "code 28" along with the Plug-n-Play hardware identification numbers of the troublesome devices (Device manager, "Details" tab of the device, select "Hardware Ids"). See if others have had the same problem.

Thanks guys. To clarify, I'm fairly positive that the "PCI to PCI Bridge" is the USB 3.0 card that I just installed, not the bus for the rest of the USB ports. It isn't the cause of the problem, it's a symptom showing that I can't install drivers for any devices at all.


Yeah, that's why that particular behavior made sense to me. If the OS doesn't need to reinstall the drivers, it works fine. It's only when new drivers need installing that things halt, whether it's for devices that are familiar or new to the computer.


If there is, I would hope that there would be more of an indication of the block than things simply not working. The user is an administrator, and I'm able to monkey around with system files and the registry, so it would be weird if I just wasn't allowed to install new drivers.


I do believe that there was a virus on this computer at some point, and that it probably mucked some things up as it was dragged out kicking and screaming. A complete reinstall would be challenging, given that this is one of those wonderful situations where the user has a Dell computer with no reinstallation disc. I'll check for a recovery partition, though... I'd prefer to avoid that solution if at all possible. I just wish there were perhaps some system files I could grab from another Windows 7 install or something. I don't know...

I've already reinstalled whatever software I could grab from Dell's site, but nothing seems to have corrected it...

You don't need the disc if you've got the product key, right? Visit the Microsoft Software Recovery page and use the product key to re-download Windows 7. Then do a non-destructive re-install.

Yeah for Wiundows 7 you don't need original install discs. The licence is the sticker on the machine. Just download ISO and create a DVD or USB to reinstall. You'll need to get the device drivers separately from Dell though.

Direct download of ISOs here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/186775/how-to-download-windows-7-8-and-8.1-installation-media-legally/

An install "over the top" or repair might fix it. Image it before so you can roll back if necessary.

Some system files might have been damaged, causing the driver reinstallation problem. See if SFC /SCANNOW fixes it.

Unfortunately I already tried that and it didn't find anything. I've tried that command countless times and it's never done anything. I swear they only put that in there to give me false hope

Would that Windows disc give me any other possible fixes other than a reinstall that would require me to put all the applications back on there too?

If the USB devices have worked previously, have you tried a system restore to before they got all jacked up? I find that is a lot easier than fixing/reinstalling and usually works if you keep the backup files long enough.

I tried that when this first happened but it didn't work. I think whatever virus was on there eliminated the restore points.

Ouch, nasty bugger it sounds like.

Edit: I guess that is a good reason to make backups of them externally on occasion.

Yeah, I try to push full image backups on my clients but they don't usually go for it...

This, sounds a bit like what happened to my 10yo nephew's pc.

Restore points gone.
Could not install anything.
Admin privilege gone from authorized accts.
Trying to reset admin accts via live Linux failed.

Nuking the hard drive was the only solution.

Yeah, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to have to reinstall Windows. Or a repair, whatever it's called.

I'll follow up with whether it's fixed. Thanks for your help, folks.

Ok, this doesn't work. I get this:

Looks like the Digital River downloads are now gone too. That's kinda annoying although I'd have all the ones that are relevant to my machines.

I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to get a non-messed-with ISO from the usual filesharing places. Still needs to be registered though so I'd be comfortable going down that path.

Which specific version do you need?

I just remoted the system last night and noticed that there's a recovery partition, so I'm going to try that first. Once it's back up I'll be sure to make a restore disc, and probably create an image before and after all the applications are reinstalled.

Thankfully, the Windows reinstall has fixed the problem.

Thanks, everyone!