'USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned' Error

I had connected a Western Digital 120GB Passport drive to my system. It has a usb interface. When I connect that to my dell laptop I am getting a error that the usb drive is malfunctioned. It is detected at start. I am having a Windows XP system. At the first time it was connected the drive was installed properly. I had copied some file. But this problem started appearing later on. It does not allow me to move heavy files from folder to other. Is there a way to fix it.

There might be some problem with the usb port in your system. Try to change the port and see. It happened on my system while using a usb port. It looses connection sometime while copying files. So I removed that and connected the usb directly to computer and it works well. It looks the usb port where you had connected the drive is loosing connection. Just check that on other port.

Try to re-install all the usb ports once again. Go in Device Manager and right click on the usb ports. Click on Uninstall. Do that for all the ports and then reboot your system. On reboot the ports will be detected again and XP will install them. Then try to copy back. Do not move large size of data at a single time. Use a small chunks. This will work properly. Also if you want you can go with a usb pci card that is available for reasonable amount. It offers a much transfer rate compared to what we have on the motherboard.

The issue appears when there is a some kind of power issue with the usb port. Usb drive malfunctioned means it is failed to connect. Either the usb drive that you are using is loosing power connection or the port. I am sure you had connected the same to the front side of your cpu. Connect it on the backside and then see. Also do not move the drive while using it. A loose connection might be cause of the problem.

I am having the same kind of issue with my usb Western Digital hard drive also. I am still not able to find the right solution for it. It looks the mass storage drive that is installed in my system failed to work with the usb drive. The same drive on my laptop works very well with no issue. My XP desktop looses the connection in every 30 minutes.

It is a usb power issue. You are not aware about every usb port has some kind of power limit. This is imposted by the bios itself. I am not sure about the way to remove this restriction. But somehow the usb looses power at the time of usage. Better get a usb pci card. It is one of the best way to deal with the issue.

Yes, I am laughing on my self.. I tried suggestions of all of you but you know what was the real issue.. It was not connected properly from the another side, yeah i mean the cable was slightly got out of my usb scanner although it was showing power on... strange. as soon as i pushed the cable in, it detected the scanner... so next time anybody what we say ANARI here in urdu came to this problem here, try this solution also ...

Another annoying, worse-than-useless error message from Microcrap! The problem is not with your computer or USB port, or with any externals you may have connected, but with Microcrap's error message. Here's how to shut it off for good:

Run >> devmgmt.msc >> [expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers] >> Right-click Standard Enhanced PCI, select "Properties" >> Select "Advanced" tab >> Check "Don't tell me about USB errors"

Then repeat this procedure with the other controller: Standard Open HCD.

Hi

I have overcome an identical problem albeit for a short while. The process is:

1. Open Control Panel
2. System
3. Device Manager
4. USB Devices
5. Right click on the highlighted Port
6. Uninstall

Then:
1. Shut down machine
2. Make sure USB device is plugged in
3. Turn machine back on
4. Log on to Internet

Your device should now be recognised and available.
This worked on W7

I has problem with external hard drive and this solved it but during a recovery scan of the drive it failed. Hopefully it'll get you some joy.

Keg

If all the above suggestions fail then try and change the USB cable. i had a similar issue where a hard drive which i knew was working perfectly was not being detected on my laptop. I initially thought that the driver for the USB mass storage was not loaded correctly. A few weeks later, I tried to use one of our DRP drives to backup a server using the same USB cable and the same message occurred on the server. I plugged the DRP drive to my laptop and it detected it and so I decided to format the drive which immediately failed as soon as i moved the USB cable. One of my work colleagues suggested that it might be a faulty USB cable so when we changed it, it immediately worked without any issues.

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Originally Posted by ShaneLeeFJ

If all the above suggestions fail then try and change the USB cable.

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Thank you ShaneLeeFJ! I tried your suggestion after all the other attempts failed. I was having the same problem with my HDD and now it solved. Yay! Thanks a million! (Just registered to show my appreciation)

Hi guys My name is Rathish. I am from India and recently I purchased a Toshiba Canvio 3.0 1TB external Hard drive. By the way I am using HP G61 with Win 7 profesional with 4GB RAM and my processor is Pentium Dual Core. I used my external HD to store my data. I used to transfer all data to my external hdd after it is not used any more in laptop. By that time it worked like a charm in all PC's and in Laptops, but one day when i tried plugging into my computer it says that "USB not recorgnized and the USB has been malfunctioned"... I am very sick of getting that message again and again. As it was mentioned before I tried uninstalling all USB Serial Bus devices and rebooted the computer and when i plugged in it shows the same error and the driver is not at all getting installed for the extrenal HDD oly. But when i plugged in the USB device in my computer i can see the light glowing in my HDD, so in tat case would there be any problem in USB cable as it was mentioned before by 2 guys.. It works When i plugged in my other devices such as iPhone 4 and Pen drive's... Wat is d problem in this scenario ??

Try changing the ports where you are connecting the drive rightnow. Right click on My Computer > Properties and click on Device Manager. Check that there are appropriate drivers installed for the usb devices. Second I will advice you to check the drive in another working. If still this is not detected or saying the same error and then drive is corrupted. If it is under warranty ask for a replacement as soon as you can.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShaneLeeFJ

If all the above suggestions fail then try and change the USB cable. i had a similar issue where a hard drive which i knew was working perfectly was not being detected on my laptop. I initially thought that the driver for the USB mass storage was not loaded correctly. A few weeks later, I tried to use one of our DRP drives to backup a server using the same USB cable and the same message occurred on the server. I plugged the DRP drive to my laptop and it detected it and so I decided to format the drive which immediately failed as soon as i moved the USB cable. One of my work colleagues suggested that it might be a faulty USB cable so when we changed it, it immediately worked without any issues.

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Thank you very much for this post because I changed my USB cable and it works great. Thank a Mill!