Diagnose your USB problems

[shahid khan]

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USB keys that do not appear to be recognized?General malfunctioning USB ports?To understand precisely what is happening on your USB ports and what the system will recognize or not recognize there is a free tool handy: USBDeview ...

USBDeview is a small utility that displays a list of all USB devices currently connected or who have already been connected to your PC. For each device, the software displays useful information to help determine whether the device is well recognized, if fully recognized and its drivers are installed.The information it delivers also easier to find on the Internet drivers.

Download the software USBDeview by following this link.

Unpack the archive into a folder that you named "USBdeview"

The program requires no installation. It runs with a double-click. Under Vista, it is advisable to run the software by clicking the right button and selecting "Run as administrator".

From the start, the software displays a grid with multiple columns.Each row of the grid is a USB device currently connected or have already been connected to the PC.

The Options menu lets you specify if you want to see:

• Devices disconnected
  
  
• Devices without number ports
  
  
• Unmanned devices (a prior, these devices are in error)
  
  
• USB hubs

The columns give information on various USB devices to your computer.You must specifically monitor the following columns:

• Device name basically indicates the USB port on which the device is connected
  
  
• Description column is the most useful. It shows the detailed name of the device and in some case file. "INF" used in its recognition.
  
  
• Type of device used to check the level of recognition of the key by the system. A key or an external drive should display "mass storage".
  
  
• Disabled tells you if, for Windows, this device is enabled or disabled. A device marked as "Disabled = Yes" may be reactivated by clicking the right button and selecting "Enable Selected Devices"
  
  
• ID and ID supplier of the product are essential to find the drivers for the device through the Internet via search engines.
  
  
• Class USB can check what class is the USB device and control as has been recognized (3 = HID device / mouse / keyboard), 1 = audio, 2 = modems, 6 = scanner or camera , 7 = printer, 8 = storage device, 9 = hub). The value 0 indicates that the class should be recovered from the description field.

In case of trouble with USB devices, for example, which appears in error and does not call its driver, try the following:

Select the device from the list

• Click the right mouse button
  
  
• Click on "Disable Selected + Enable Device"

In the event of widespread problems on USB connections, if your PC no longer recognize any USB device, try the following:

• Unplug all your USB hubs and your USB devices (except keyboard / mouse)
  
  
• Under Options, select all options "Show ..."
  
  
• Then select all devices by pressing the combination [Ctrl] + [A]
  
  
• Go to the File menu and select the "Uninstall devices selected"
  
  
• Restart the PC
  
  
• Reconnect hubs and then one to one every USB device.

[shahid khan]

Connecting To Remote Computer

The following command-line options allows you to connect to remote computers. You must login to the remote computer with admin user in order to use these options

• /remote

Allows you to connect a single remote computer.
For Example:
USBDeview.exe /remote MyComp

• /remotefile

Allows you to connect multiple computers, and view all their USB activity in one window. The computers list file should be a simple Ascii text file with computer names separated by colon, semicolon, space, tab characters or CRLF.
For Example:
USBDeview.exe /remotefile "c:tempcomp.txt"

Stop/Disconnect Command-Line Options

• /stop {/showmsg} {RemoteComputer}

Stop/disconnect a USB device by specifying its name or description.
You don't have to specify the whole name or description. You can also specify only a part of the name or description string, and USBDeview will identify it. For example, If the device name is 'Kingston DataTraveler 2.0', you can simply put 'kingston' or 'DataTraveler' in the device name parameter, and USBDeview will disconnect the right device.
If you want that a message/balloon will be displayed after the device is disconnected, add the '/showmsg' parameter. (Windows 2000 displays a message-box, Windows XP displays a balloon)
If you want to disconnect a device in a remote computer, specify the remote computer name, with prefix. You must login to the remote computer with admin rights in order to do that.
Examples:
USBDeview.exe /stop /showmsg "DVD RW"
USBDeview.exe /stop "DataTraveler"
USBDeview.exe /stop comp01 "SanDisk Cruzer"

• /stop_by_serial {/showmsg} {RemoteComputer}

Similar to /stop command, but instead of specifying a device name, you should specify the serial number of the device. Works only with mass storage devices.
Examples:
USBDeview.exe /stop_by_serial ea051261
USBDeview.exe /stop_by_serial /showmsg 876534513

• /stop_by_drive {/showmsg} {RemoteComputer}

Stop/disconnect a USB device by specifying its drive letter. Works only with USB flash drives and CD/DVD devices.
Examples:
USBDeview.exe /stop_by_drive g:
USBDeview.exe /stop_by_drive /showmsg f:
USBDeview.exe /stop_by_drive /showmsg comp02 t:

• /stop_all {/showmsg} {RemoteComputer}

Stop/disconnect all USB devices currently connected to your computer.


Save Command-Line Options

/stext - Save the list of all USB devices into a regular text file.
/stab - Save the list of all USB devices into a tab-delimited text file.
/stabular - Save the list of all USB devices into a tabular text file.
/shtml - Save the list of all USB devices into HTML file (Horizontal).
/sverhtml - Save the list of all USB devices into HTML file (Vertical).
/sxml - Save the list of all USB devices to XML file.

Limitations:

• For all devices except 'Mass Storage' Devices: If you plug a device to one USB port, and then you plug the same device to another USB port, a new record of the same device will be created for each USB port that you plug. So if you see multiple lines for exactly the same device, it means that you plugged it to different USB ports. The USB ports that you plugged are specified in 'Hub/Port' column. However, for 'Mass Storage' device, only one record is created for each device, even if you plug it to different USB port.

• When a USB device is added/removed on your local computer, UDBDeview utility automatically updates the list of USB devices. But... If you UDBDeview is connected to a remote computer, the list won't refresh automatically when a device is added or removed. You must refresh it manually, by pressing F5 key.