How do I install a USB Mass Storage Device driver

[davegthomas]

My PC ignores my Gizmo which was working as my Readyboost memory and
my external HD is also ignored.
How do I get the USB working again - this is a fresh install which I
mistakenly thought would fix everything.

[AlexB]

You can try to reinstall USB controller drivers. Are you talking about
onboard USB ports?

"

[Phillips]

Depends what USB chipset you have. Intel, for ex, has a Chipset
Identification Utility and the you can download the appropriate Cipset.inf
from Intel. It will not install if it's the wrong one.

If you have an OEM PC, check the CD's that came w/ the PC or look for
drivers on the PC manufacturer website.

If it's a home brew, the motherboard manufacturer should have the drivers.

You might also try the Add Hardware wizard in Control Panel.

[davegthomas]

I have a Foxconn 661FX7MI MB which has an SiS964 southbridge which
apparently supports 8 USB2.0 ports running a Phoenix- AwardBIOS.

Currently Device Manager is showing:

3 x SiS7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controllers
1 x Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
4 x USB Root Hubs

I forced the Enhanced Controller but obviously it is not seeing my
Mass Storage Device(Gizmo)

After a few more hours I discovered that if I turn off USB2.0 support
in the BIOS then XP recognises my Gizmo etc. but tells me that it
would run faster if I had a high speed port! If I turn it on then XP
locks up conversly in Vista with it on Vista ignores the Gizmo and it
is identified as an Unknown USB Device.

Apparently SiS don't provide a USB2 driver Microsoft does but I can't
find it!

Should I try to install all the Enhanced USB drivers regadless of
brand untill hopefully I find one that works or what?

[AlexB]

Make sure there are such files in this folder:

Directory of C:\Windows\Inf
angelusb.inf angelusb.PNF
irstusb.inf irstusb.PNF
stusb2ir.inf stusb2ir.PNF
usb.inf usb.PNF
usbccid.inf usbccid.PNF
usbcir.inf usbcir.PNF
usbport.inf usbport.PNF
usbprint.inf usbprint.PNF
usbstor.inf usbstor.PNF
usbvideo.inf usbvideo.PNF
wceusbsh.inf wceusbsh.PNF
wdma_usb.inf wdma_usb.PNF
winusb.inf winusb.PNF
26 File(s) 1,113,306 bytes
3 Dir(s) 53,645,410,304 bytes free
[usbhub]

Make sure there are such drivers:
Directory Windows\System32\drivers\
usb8023.sys USBAUDIO.sys
USBCAMD.sys USBCAMD2.sys
usbccgp.sys usbcir.sys
usbd.sys usbehci.sys
usbhub.sys usbohci.sys
usbport.sys usbprint.sys
USBSTOR.SYS usbuhci.sys
14 File(s) 857,472 bytes

In one of my Vistas 6 files were missing in the first directory and one
driver in second.

Although I fixed that it did not resolve the story completely. I had this
problem for many years in XP and then in Vista.

What I ended up doing after a person from another forum suggested me to do
was to purchase a Belkin Internal 5-Port USB PCI card. He purchased
Belkin's.
I did not quite trust the maker but went for his pointer. It resolved the
eissue completely. I removed a firewire PCI card in the back that I never
used and plugged in Belkin. It isntalled itself and I've never had any
problems since.

This card and similar cards by other makers allow for the 5-th USB port to
be engaged. It is not exposed to the elements. It faces the internals of the
computer. However, if you have a floppy you do not need you can buy another
External USB card (not PCI) and mount it up front ripping off the floppy
drive. Thus you will have 8 fully functional USB ports and they will all
work.

I did it on 2 machines so far. I do not need to use the 5th, internal port.
I now have plenty.

[davegthomas]

Thank you AlexB for your detailed additional information I checked the
files and found I was missing one which I have now rectified.

Previously after much hair tearing I found that by telling the
Controllers not to tell me if my device can perform faster AND
disabling the BIOS option on USB 2.0, which is extremely badly worded,
everything 'appears' to back to normal. No more crashes and everything
recognised.

So another 2-3 days has passed by - it kept me occupied, bad tempered
and who said computers save time!!

[Ultralib]

i have the same problem - my USB harddisk used to work okay on my
vista, but someday, it cannot recognize the disk any more. there is no
USB MASS Storage driver in device manager.

I checked, and all the files are there... still cannot access the USB
harddisk... any help here?

[Rich T]

I have the same problem. If you have installed all the USB updates and still
have the problem, then you are stuck. I don't think Microsoft know how to
fix the Vista USB problems.

[NoStop]

This also plagued XP boxes. Microsoft has never gotten USB2 to work
dependably.