USB devices not recognized but works on other computers

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I upgraded from a Dell desktop to a Lenovo desktop earlier this year. I have Windows 10 and all drivers and software are up to date. I have like 5 USB devices plugged into this Lenovo desktop. 3 of them are working just fine: wireless keyboard/mouse, webcam, and assorted thumb drives. 2 of them have not be functioning at all ever since I got the Lenovo: multi card reader, and external hard drive. BOTH of these devices worked on my previous Dell computer. And what makes this even more strange, if I plug these 2 devices into any other computer, they work just fine.

I have tried the different USB power management fixes, and have tried to uninstall the devices in device manager. There are no updated drivers for these devices as they use Windows default drivers for mass USB storage devices. Got any ideas? Is there a way to COMPLETELY remove old devices from my computer to make it seem like I'm starting from scratch with these 2 devices?

Jeremy

Posted 2016-10-20T18:16:53.603

Reputation: 1

1"wireless keyboard/mouse, webcam, and assorted thumb drives" - This means they all are using generic I/O USB devices or Mass Storage drivers. The only device that specifically needs a device driver is the webcam. USB 2 or USB 3 devices/. "I have tried the different USB power management fixes" - Which fixes and what makes you think this is a USB power problem? Unless you are being told by Windows, there are not enough resources, it isn't a power problem (unless the devices are simply not even being connected )then thats a power to the device problem which is a different type of problem. – Ramhound – 2016-10-20T18:23:27.530

Drive letter conflicts can prevent usb thumb drives from populating. If you have non-HDD/SDD drives attached with drive letters around e,f,g,h etc, try moving them to z,x,y etc. and then attach the drive that won't recognize. See also: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/315539 or http://superuser.com/questions/275728/remove-all-saved-usb-drive-letter-assignments

– Yorik – 2016-10-20T18:40:56.987

Use USBview.exe utility to see if these devices do show up in the USB tree, and what is the status of connection, if any. Also, it would be quite beneficial to spell out which particular "a Dell desktop" was replaced by which particular "a Lenovo desktop", and which OS was running before. – Ale..chenski – 2016-10-22T04:50:32.523

Regarding the multi-card reader, does it fail with only a particular card, or with any card? – Ale..chenski – 2016-10-22T05:04:38.540

Answers

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One thing I do try in these situations is to boot a mini Linux via USB or even CD-ROM, something like http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/

Then I insert the USB hardware in question and check whether they are recognized properly. Via dmesg you can see detailed kernel messages from which you can learn usb device class and id in case the hardware is recognised.

By doing this you can learn whether the fact that your device does not work in Windows is a Windows issue or an actual hardware issue on your particular laptop.

Eradian

Posted 2016-10-20T18:16:53.603

Reputation: 66

Asked: 2016-10-20T18:16:53.603

Viewed: 674 times

Active: 2019-09-17T09:22:05.813