Problem with USB drives

[abbase]

I'm running Windows Xp as my operating system. When I first plugged it into my usb port, Windows seemed to install it properly and said it was ready for use. Now the problem is that whenever I try to plug in any type of USB Mass Storage Device into my XP Home computer windows gives me a balloon saying that the device has malfunctioned. After clicking on the balloon yields a list of all used and unused USB ports with the device listed as Unrecognized. All other USB devices work fine, the WiFi card, a joystick, they all work. I've tried every port all with the same results. I had tried out each an every possible step to resolve the above issue, but unfortunately couldn't succeed. Any one knows why i'm having such problems with my USB drives? Does any body knows about it? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Hardwareman]

USB PCMCIA Adapter causes crashes, hangs computer, won't boot and/or will not run at high speed. Does Windows recognize the removable drive? Is the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray?

[Maxforu]

It could still be a driver problem. If you reinstalled windows over the old windows directory it does not erase all the files that were there. It is possible that you may be missing some updated drivers; or possibly have Windows corruption. Or even a faulty USB connection on your computer.Therefore it would be best to confirm trying another computer first. I don't believe the driver for USB mass storage devices is installed by default so the old driver is still probably there and windows is trying to access it when you connect the device. Try reinstalling the USB mass storage driver and see what happens.

[Killen]

A patch to resolve the following issue "USB Devices May Not Work After You Unplug a Downstream USB Hub from the Host Controller" is available from Microsoft. Windows detects it and remove safely icon also appears. but when clicking on the removable disc drive to open it, shows a message insert disc on drive. I recommend a clean install of all operating systems to a newly formatted hard drive. Although, upgrading is possible in accordance with the following information, a clean install is always best. Unplug ALL USB devices except for USB keyboard and/or mouse before installing or upgrading any operating system.