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Solved USB Flash Drives Not Recognized

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Synthtony

Synthtony

PCHF Member
Mar 30, 2022
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#1
I have recently had a problem where any Flash/Thumb drives I try to connect to my PC are not being recognized. They are showing in the Device Manager with the Code 38 Error: Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory.
I am also getting this error on my Logitech Wireless Mouse and Keyboard, though they both work fine. With the Flash drives, I can get them to show up if I do a cold boot. I can even add or take away files, but if I pull one of them out and put it back in, it will throw the error.
I have done the following:
1. Confirmed the drives work in other computers
2. Confirmed all the USB ports are working.
3. I do have several other external drives (physical disc and SSD) connected to USB ports and they all seem to work fine.
4. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the devices.
5. I have done the complete clean boot sequence to try and see if there is a conflict.
6. I have run both the SFC and Scandisc functions
7. I have run the device Troubleshooter
8. I have flushed the Memory
9. I have made sure I have the latest BIOs and checked that there is no disc boot issue.
I have a Dell Precision 5810 Desktop Tower.
So short of reformatting the drive and reinstalling WIndows, are there any thoughts on what I can do to correct this issue?
Thank in advance for any help you can provide.
SHort of reinstalling the OS
 
#2
Welcome to PCHF :)


  • Remove All usb connected items from the computer, only leave the mouse and keyboard installed.
  • Download drivecleanup.zip to your desktop.
  • CLICK HERE to determine whether you’re running 32-bit or 64-bit for Windows.
  • Once the determination has been made, open either the 32-bit or 64-bit folder.
  • Right Click the .exe on the inside of the folder, and Run as Administrator.
  • A command prompt window will open, telling you what has been removed upon completion.
  • Reboot your machine.
  • Check the issue.
 
#3

Malnutrition, Thanks so much for the suggestion. I ran the file and it seems to self run with all of its keys already in the command string. I did not see any resulting message, just a click to close after the script. After rebooting, I have the same issue. I can insert a thumb drive and it pops right up, but if I pull it, or even safe eject it, and the put it back in, it does not show up in explorer or disck management but it is yellow flagged with Error 38 in the Device manager.
If you have any additional ideas, let me know.​

 
#4
Make sure and run both of them as administrator, to ensure you ran the correct version.

If that fails let us get some information from your machine.

Step 1:

Please download MINITOOLBOX and run it.

Checkmark following boxes:
Flush DNS
Reset FF proxy Settings
Reset Ie Proxy Settings
Report IE Proxy Settings
Report FF Proxy Settings
List content of Hosts
List IP configuration
List Winsock Entries
List last 10 Event Viewer log
List Installed Programs
List Users, Partitions and Memory size
List Devices (problems only)


Click Go and Attach the log in your reply.

Step 2:Speccy Scan.
  • Please go here and download Speccy.
  • Install and run the program.
  • Upon Completion:
  • Hit File
  • Publish Snap Shot
  • A link will appear, post that link.
Step 3: Autoruns Scan.
Download Autoruns and Autorunsc Unzip it to your desktop and then double click autoruns.exe
After the scan is finished then click on File>>>>>>>>>>>Save
The default name will be autoruns.arn make sure to save it as Autoruns.arn under the file type option.
Attach the text in your next reply.
 
#10
The first thing that we will do is download Junkware Removal Tool by Malwarebytes. Save it to your desktop run as admin, this is an outdated crapware removal tool, it will remove some junk but most important, this will create a restore point. I do not need to see the log from this, if you want to go back to before any of these steps you will have a restore point created....



Uninstall the following with Geek Uninstaller.

Advanced SystemCare (HKLM-x32\...\Advanced SystemCare_is1) (Version: 15.2.0 - IObit)
Bitdefender Agent (HKLM\...\Bitdefender Agent) (Version: 26.0.1.220 - Bitdefender)
Bitdefender Antivirus Free (HKLM\...\{1FCCF41D-5F00-4FE2-9653-162D0486C8B4}) (Version: 1.0.21.270 - Bitdefender)
BitTorrent (HKCU\...\BitTorrent) (Version: 7.10.5.46211 - BitTorrent Inc.)
ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.103.2.1 (HKLM-x32\...\ClamWin Free Antivirus_is1) (Version: - alch)
Dell SupportAssist (HKLM\...\{E0659C89-D276-4B77-A5EC-A8F2F042E78F}) (Version: 3.10.4.18 - Dell Inc.)
Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update (HKLM\...\{900D0BCD-0B86-4DAA-B639-89BE70449569}) (Version: 5.4.1.14954 - Dell Inc.) Hidden
Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update (HKLM-x32\...\{ec40a028-983b-4213-af2c-77ed6f6fe1d5}) (Version: 5.4.1.14954 - Dell Inc.)
Driver Booster 9 (HKLM-x32\...\Driver Booster_is1) (Version: 9.2.0 - IObit)
IObit Uninstaller 11 (HKLM-x32\...\IObitUninstall) (Version: 11.3.0.4 - IObit)
Mozilla Maintenance Service (HKLM\...\MozillaMaintenanceService) (Version: 95.0.2 - Mozilla)


4K Video Downloader (HKLM-x32\...\{52c19095-d66a-43cc-a45a-ee9434df7074}) (Version: 4.15.1.4190 - Open Media LLC) <=============Replace with...
addons.mozilla.org

Ant Video Downloader â Get this Extension for ð¦ Firefox (en-US)

Download Ant Video Downloader for Firefox. Browser extension with a companion application for downloading and merging streaming video segments.
addons.mozilla.org addons.mozilla.org



Open your device manager and under storage devices right click and uninstall all items listed related to USB, do so after you have safely removed all the USB dongles from the machine.

www.raymond.cc

9 Ways to Remove Unused, Old or Hidden Drivers

Almost every piece of hardware attached to your Windows computer will show up in Device Manager as an installed device. This includes Graphics cards,
www.raymond.cc www.raymond.cc


Reset your Hosts file, it isn't listed correctly under minitoolbox log.


  1. Click here to download RstHosts v2.0\
  2. Save the file to your desktop.
  3. Right Click and Run as Administrator.
  4. Click on Restaurer, then click OK at the prompt.
  5. This will restore the default host file.

Open Elevated command prompt and run chkdsk /f /r then reply Y to run on the next reboot.



Open notepad, copy and paste the content of the code box below into it, and save as tempclean.bat
Save to desktop.
Then right click and run as admin.

Code: 
del /s /q C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\download\*.*
del /s /q "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\temp\*.*"
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.tmp
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.log
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.chk
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\recycled\*.*
del /f /s /q %windir%\*.bak
del /f /s /q %windir%\prefetch\*.*
rd /s /q %windir%\temp & md %windir%\temp




After this, reboot your machine check the issue.
 
Last edited:
#11
Malnutrition said:
The default name will be autoruns.arn make sure to save it as Autoruns.arn under the file type option.
Click to expand...


As far as Autoruns, please make a new log after doing the steps I have listed. I need the .arn file. You might ask yourself why do all of that, after years of working on computers, I always correct any and all errors that I might see, start with the basics and everything else comes easy after that,
 
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