How To Fix that USB Device Not Recognized Error in Windows Vista
I’ve had the dreaded Windows Vista for exactly a year now and I just had my first real “issue” with the OS. It was the dreaded Windows Vista “USB Device Not Recognized” error that seemed to appear after a quick power blip in my home.
For those of you not familiar with the famous Windows Vista USB Device Not Recognized error, I’ll give you a quick synopsis: you are using Windows Vista and minding your own business when suddenly a little pop-up message appears and tell you, surprise! you have a “USB Device Not Recognized!” There’s an annoying little bell that rings and you click on the stupid pop-up bubble and get.. well… nothing.
At least for me I saw nothing. And here’s the problem: you can’t find anything wrong so you can’t actually fix anything. Windows Vista doesn’t tell you which USB device is not recognized, which USB port has the problem or what it thinks is happening. The error message “USB Device Not Recognized” is just about completely meaningless. But every 30 seconds the bubble pops up again with that annoying little bell.
So I did what I do whenever I hear a discouraging sound coming from my car engine: I turned up the volume on my iTunes and promptly forgot about the message. Eventually I got smart and just turned the Windows Alert sound off.
After a few days the error was still popping up and though I couldn’t hear the bell, the bubble was troubling me. Other people have spent hours searching through documentation and reloading Windows Vista from scratch and downloading USB drivers. I am far too lazy to do that anymore, so I just went searching on the internet for the stupidest most implausibly easy solution I could find.
And it worked.
The solution is simple:
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1. Unplug (not just turn off) you PC.
2. Unplug all your USB devices from your PC (and, heck, any power supplies as well)
3. Wait 30 minutes or more.
4. Plug in your essential USB devices (keyboard, mouse).
5. Plug in your PC, turn it on.
6. Pop in the rest of your USB devices.
Ta-da, your Windows Vista USB Device Not Recognized Error is solved. This worked for me. I actually did it once without unplugging the USB devices and the problem went away for about three days and then appeared again. I did it again, taking out all my USB devices and I’ve been going for a couple weeks now with no problem.
I thought about trying to sell some sort of wacky device that would help you pull the plug out of your computer, much like my iPad invention for fixing that dreaded sad iPod icon. But then I realized: I’m too lazy for that, too.
Instead you can just thank me with large unmarked bills.
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Comment by Timothy Roller
You almost made me cry. I had this exact same problem with a brand new Vista 64 Sony laptop. I was sure it was a fried controller chip, but after talking to 4 techs, nobody could come up with a solution. I searched the web but somehow didn’t type the exact search string needed to get this answer. A month of hell with Sony support later (never buy a Sony, I won’t again), I got a new laptop. This one ran for a week, then the same problem. Found your solution, tried it out, voila, fixed. I went through all that for nothing, but at least I didn’t have to go through it again thanks to you.
Comment by mr.borko
you are the king
Comment by Lex Talionis
Oh my gosh, I didn’t think it would work but I tried it…It worked! You rock!
Comment by irtaza
well i guess i can try cuz i need my usb back
Comment by Mark
Hey, I’ve had this problem with my Sharp Laptop for AGES. For me, ANY usb device will not work with windows vista basic (e.g. mouse, keyboard, flash drive, printer…) I’ve read about the same method in so many different places but none of the solutions has worked for me =(
Comment by Bill
Sheer genius! 2 weeks of madness resolved in 30 minutes! THANK YOU, THANK YOU SAM I AM!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Kate
I’ve tried that several times, to no avail. It’s weird because the device gets enough power to be recognized, and light up, but will not work or show up under a new drive name. I’ve read so many threads about this, but no help appears.
Comment by robi
does’t work for me – tried 10 times
no usb device is working
so far-
reinstalled vista
bios set up
updated/reinstalled drivers
all for frustation.
any help will be highly appreciated
Comment by Scot Anderson
It never ceases to amaze me what we all, myself included, come to accept as permissable reality from a manufacturer of software. Vista, and Microsoft, is suddenly denying access to external devices. So we fix this by turning things off and letting them settle. Ah, ok, so sorry. Forgive me for thinking that computer science is a finite quantity. Thank you for Unix and for MAC. At least there’s an alternative for those of us who wish it.
Comment by Cellar Dweller
Well I know this is all over the net about fixing this but I’ve come to realize what is causing it. It is a Disk Drive under Device Manager called ASAP USB Device.
I’ve found that without even rebooting, changing anything, or even shutting down. For some people shutting down and leaving off may not be an option.
Try this. Go to \Windows\inf folder and search or highlight something and type disk.inf – once you find this file right click on it and pick install, it should load up your missing or unknown device.
Hope this helps and it will keep you from rebooting or changing anything. This is used when everything works fine for months then upon a reboot out of nowhere you get the error, it may also fix issues for those that have other issues with USB devices not being recognized.
Comment by Henry
Sigh… its been 11 minutes noW. I hope your method works. ATTENTION!! If you have a laptop, you should take out the battery or else this method WON’T work..
Comment by Karina
Well I tried what Cellar Dweller said and that said The INF file you selected does not support this method of installation. So yeah, I guess I’ll try taking the battery out of my laptop.
Comment by Bill Bock
I tried this on a Sony laptop with Vista 32 bit Home Edition and it worked great. Tks
Comment by Karin
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have a security device I use for my software for work, and my computer quit recognizing the device (because the USB port was messed up and kept popping up with the bubble message). I’ve tried everything. I even ordered a new device thinking maybe it was messed up. Once I tried your solution, it worked!
Thanks so much!!!
Comment by toko
do you turn of your computer first and then unplug everything or do it while th ecomputer is on ?
Comment by Gustavo
Unbelievable!!! Unbelievable!!!
It worked! It really worked! Man, thank you so much!
I’ve been looking for it for many days! And nobody had the awnser!
The problem was in my laptop. Just one thing that I want to point out is that you have to make sure that you took off the battery after you do step 2.
Thank you again!
And I hope that it will help other people with the same problem.
(excuse my english, I’m from Brazil)
Comment by Edith
thank you so much!!!!
Comment by Caragh Heenan
Hey, I’ve tried to reset my computer multiple times, I’ve tried deleting/uninstalling drivers etc, I’ve tried everything that I’ve seen on the many.. many… forums.. and nothing works. With your problem, is it just that the bubble is popping up but you can still use all the devices? For me, all my usb devices work except one that doesnt seem to be “recognized”… I get the bubble AND it doesn’t show up in my removable devices list. But it works fine on another computer. It’s just my laptop that has troubles with it.
Comment by Jan B
Unfortunately, it does not work for me. The bubble keeps appearing, sometimes once every three seconds. And this despite the fact that I have done what you said, that the computer has been disconnected from the mains for a day, that I first deleted the INFCACHE.1 file, etc.
What I think particularly bothersome, is that the message even keeps appearing in SAFE MODE, with no drivers loaded and not a single USB device connected, including mouse, keyboard and USB routers!
I have a HP Pavilion 9380 with Windows Vista 64 Home Premium. As far as I can deduce from other postings in the Netherlands, HP could not solve the problem when another guy sent in his portable.
Got another idea?
Comment by Jan B
My problem has been solved! In my HP Pavilion, I have a removable extra HP Media Drive of 500 GB. That drive seems to be malfunctioning! It is internally connected to a USB port, so when I thought all USB devices were disconnected, this one wasn’t! Just connecting the faulty disk drive to my notebook, transferred the error to that computer. The drive is still under garantee, so I guess I’ll just go to the store for a hardware exchange. Thanks to everyone!
Comment by Mike T
Thanks Tom for an unbelievably easy fix! I had the dreaded “USB device not recognized” error on my server and could not run my external HDD back- up as a result – a very worrying situation as can be imagined. Tried some reg fix software with no solution then did as you suggested – unplugged for 60secs, restarted and re-connected my external HDD – all going like a Boeing! Thanks again!
Comment by RoBert
It happened to me this afternoon. Several thunderstorms rolled through, Power to the house never went out, The UPS beeped once but never kicked on. Buuuuuuuuut I got this nag. I have three USB plugged in, only the mouse was turned on(Scanner and EBU were the others) Started getting the nag at (I swear) 1.5 second intervals. It was for a USB port that had nothing plugged in. Reboot, reboot, re-installed drivers, reboot, Poop. Turned the noise off and went searching. Here I came. Turned the machine off, Unplugged the machine, went for dinner. Felt guilty, joined a health club, came home and turned everything back on. GREAT! ten minutes running and the world is normal, at least for now, again. Thanks for your simple fix. Rob’t
Win Vista 64bit and a bunch of other high end toys.
Comment by Elaine A
I have the same problem – tried everything above, and nothing worked. Just spent 3 hrs on the phone with the tech support guys from Dell and they couldn’t fix it either without reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling Vista. I’m about to lose my mind because I don’t have any way to back stuff up without a USB hookup!
Comment by Jeff vw
Absolutely brilliant! Granted, a shitty deal to have the problem at all, and apparently a common one at that, but you definitely just saved me some serious cash. I found the problem was from plugging in my iPod and have read that this is a common occurrence among iPod/Vista owners. I’m a bit skeptical now to plug it in again, but I suppose the solution if it doesn’t work is as easy as 1,2,3. Cheers!
Comment by raj
Hey, I’ve tried to reset my computer multiple times, I’ve tried deleting/uninstalling drivers etc, I’ve tried everything that I’ve seen on the many.. many… forums.. and nothing works. With your problem, is it just that the bubble is popping up but you can still use all the devices? For me, all my usb devices work except one that doesnt seem to be “recognizedâ€â€¦ I get the bubble AND it doesn’t show up in my removable devices list. But it works fine on another computer. It’s just my laptop that has troubles with it.
Comment by Tinkertailor
Thank you thank you! It worked.
During the process I did pick up some Win Vista anomolies though – selected “Shut Down” and then the computer promptly restarted on its own – weird!
Second time round it actually shut down – I removed the battery – rebooted and it picked up the usb’s again.
Comment by Ravi
If you are facing the problem connecting one specific device, replacing the USB cord might help – sometimes.
Comment by kcclubkirby
Oh my, this worked perfectly for me! Thank you!
Comment by Mike
Thanks Jan B!! My problem was also my 500GB HP Personal Media Drive.
Jan B says:
My problem has been solved! In my HP Pavilion, I have a removable extra HP Media Drive of 500 GB. That drive seems to be malfunctioning! It is internally connected to a USB port, so when I thought all USB devices were disconnected, this one wasn’t!
Comment by Khan
You are really the king. Your solution worked perfecly well for me. Thanks a lot.
Comment by kapil
This works like a charm.
Just power off everything.Remove all USB devices.
Let power be off for about 10 minutes.Before putting power on plug back all USB devices.Power on – Voila! – Everything gets recognized.
Works like a charm!
A possible cause is the cache that stores the error if it occurs once.Also putting your puter to sleep and then waking it up causes somes USB devices to not get recognized though they continue to work fine.
Comment by huggy_d1
As a long-time I.T. type, I was highly skeptical of the proposed solution, much for the same reasons as most folks.
Out of sheer frustration, combined with the simplicity of the offered solution, I tried it.
I’m extremely happy to report all my USB devices are happy as can be. I deleted the infcache.1 file, and followed the shutdown/battery removal steps (laptop), waited impatiently, installed battery, powered up, and magic happened.
My external mouse is working. My bluetooth magically started working too. WOW is that ever weird.
Thanks!!!!
Comment by rawashdeh
hehehe.. thank you mate. it really works easily.. once i had started looking how to fix this, i was so worried about how complicated this will be, but you made it easy.
Big thanks
Comment by Phil
I have new XPS Studio 435T computer. The installation tech used the front usb port to transfer my old data, via a thumb drive. That worked just fine. The next week, the front usb port no longer recognizes anything I put into it, even though settings says it is working properly. What to do? Dell cant figure it out either.
Comment by Fergie
Wow, many thanks — that worked great on my wife’s laptop. You da man.
- ferg
Comment by Peter
Great tip! Being somewhat computer savvy I to was skeptical but decided to try it anyway with an addition that does the same thing but cuts the time down to about two minutes (longer if your computer is slow to start-up & shutdown).
To summarize:
1)Unplug all devices from your computer (USB & non-USB).
2)Completely shutdown your computer (not sleep or standby).
3)Unplug the power cord and if your computer is a laptop detach the battery.
4)Hold the power button down for 15 to 45 seconds (this “zeros†the stray electric charges which would otherwise force you to wait 10 to 30 minutes for them to dissipate natural).
5)Power on and reattach all devices.
Comment by Manzur Ahmed
Simply amazing!!!
Comment by ilaria
thank you!unbelivable, it works!!!!
Comment by Michael Olsen
Ohhhh my God!!!! that worked out great!!!
Cant even believe it yet 
Best tip EVER!!
greets from Denmark
Comment by Joy
You are the best!!! I was frustrated for 3 days trying to fix it and you solved my problem in 30 mins =D Thanks so much!!!!
Comment by stella
tried this several times, and doesn’t work for me
I have this Maxtor external hard disk,I’ve plugged in other computer, it wasnt recognized either. and when i plug in another device on my laptop, other devices can work except for my Maxtor hard disk that always being not recognized.
Help.. please :’(
Comment by Gijs
Works like a charm!!
Not only is the annoying pop-up gone but I also had 30 minutes time to ride around on my bike. What a solution!
Comment by David
Unbelievable! Even the 45 second method worked. Thanks heaps.
Comment by victor
will try to fix this but how in the hell did you turn off that annoying alert!? disabling windows alerts didn’t work. whomever thought of this thing going off every 30 seconds or so is just plain STUPID! “tadoo tadoo” every 30 seconds. i am going out my mind!
Comment by Tom Coffee
You can turn off the Windows Alert sound for Windows Vista in the Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Change System Sounds.
I forget what the exact name of that bell is, but I think it’s something like “Windows Alert” or “Program Error”…
Comment by David
Thank you so much good sir and a tip of the hat to you.
I have an Acer Aspire M1610 P.C. with several USB devices running off of a powered hub and from the P.C. itself. I was most dismayed when all of a sudden one day I had nothing expect for Microsoft branded peripherals which caused much vexation but alas thanks to you for the information that you take the time to post here I am glad to say I am up and running again with great relief and gratitude. I simply followed your instructions and tickitty~boo 15mins later all was well.
Many thanks ~ David
Comment by Chris McKay
THANK YOU!
This worked out perfectly!
Comment by Nick Grimshaw
Had lost my hard drive – Tried power data recovery, no success, was looking at the potential of losing 10 years worth of data.
Tried turning it off for 30 minutes ( left it for 45 mins to be safe lol )
Genius everything now working again.
You’re a legend – thanks ever so much.
Comment by rod sherwin
Didn’t work from me, but the problem started right after I got my new iPhone.
I cannot use any usb port on my gateway laptop. I am just a few hours away from ordering a pcmcia usb card.
Comment by Curtis
this works for desktops but I have a laptop (all laptops acually have two batteries) so in order to completely shut down the machine you have to unplug it, take out the battery, then wait for about 2 hours for the backup backup battery to run dry
Comment by RoundMan
All Laptops please invest in a powered hub.. Many laptops are using underpowered conections even today with so many USB devices out there (I personally love that). Even desktop machines will have power problems if the power supply is a bit underpowered (300 watt). I have a 450 watt powerr supply and I still added a 5 port powered usb hub and everything runs great (7 usb devices and adding more all the time).
Comment by Suman
cool bro this work like magic i think microsoft will now have to take cre about their products
Comment by Rod Sherwin
Just an update. I purchased a Syba 4 port usb express card to work around this problem. My computer give the same message regarding failing to recognize the device. So, this did NOT fix my problem. I still have no USB connectivity.
Comment by Mike Binder
Ok well first off I want to explain from experience why this is happening… really beleive it or not it is you the users fault. See mostly this happens with the mouse. Why the mouse and why is it your fault you ask.. Well its simple. Its because of static electricity. I found this out because the past week I have been dealing with this issue alot and well it is cold where i live so i wear a coat. Now when i take my coat off from taking an outside smoke break I noticed i have a static discharge to my mouse then the problem occurs.
How to fix it well simply let you computer do a power discharge.. if it is a desk top simply unplug it for 30 mins and then restart it should be solved if it is a laptop turn it off leave the power cable in and take the battery out then take out the power cable replace the battery then reboot.
Comment by Smurphalla
Amazing! I have a Vista 64 bit home version Toshiba and this worked where everything else I found on the net. Thank You!!!
Comment by Chauduyphanvu
OK, I tried what Tom said but it didn’t work at first, so I decided to read more of what others said and noticed the battery thing. So this is what I did, I unplugged all the USB devices connected and the power supplies then shut my laptop down. Then I took the battery out and put it back in within seconds, and allowed the computer to have power on with all the cables and devices reconnected. And that’s all, that bubble doesn’t appear any more.
Comment by tom
unbelievable!! it worked!
I spent so many hours, and still couldn’t figure out.
thank you so much!
Comment by tomas
not working for me is this because i have a laptop
Comment by HAPPY
Thank you so much for your article. I was having the same issue on my toshiba laptop and tried all suggestions with no success. Your solution worked!
Comment by Josh V
Ok.
So I tried this out, your cycling of the power and …
IT WORKED!
Oh my goodness, I was so relieved … it is a company laptop, and you have saved me hours of worry and troubleshooting time … much thanks …
So, if you encounter this in Vista 64 on a laptop …
1. Attach all your devices
2. Shut down the computer
3. Remove the devices
4. Remove the plug, then the battery
5. Wait 60 – 360 seconds
6. Turn back on and magic happens!
Cheers All!
Comment by Marc
Thanks!
I thought this was a joke but i tried it, and it worked. VAIO was turned off for 30 mins and now USB works again.
Wow.
Comment by Hema
Excellent. After all of the attempts I made to revive the mouse. Even ordered a new mouse. Your method is simply superb. A complete reset of the computer helped. Thanks a lot for your post.
Comment by U Balis
Removing the battery on my Sony VGN-SR93JS while the laptop was turned off worked! After reboot, my internally-connected fingerprint reader, which I was nearly certain was fried, came back to life!!!! No more “USB not recognized” pop-up boxes. Just brilliant! Many Thanks
Comment by Ricardo
Thanks a lot!
It really works and it saved my day.
Keep up with the good work.
Comment by Alan Grossmith
Sir, you are an absolute genius. Thank you so much. Had I gone back to the store we recently bought our laptop from they would have no doubt told us to restore it to factory settings (don’t you just love doing that!!!). If only all fixes were this easy life would be better.
Thanks again
Alan
Comment by Jacob
alright i have that problem but i am using a laptop
Comment by Peter
Such a simple solution and it works.
Thanks very much for posting this, completely sorted several bugs that were taking place and finally stopped the annoying pop up box that has been going on for a couple of weeks.
If your having problems like this then give it a try, you have nothing to loose but about 5 minutes.
Peter
Comment by Sjoy
Thank you so much..
It really WORKED for me.
Comment by Richard
I found that one day my Sony cyber shot stopped working with the USB not recognized problem on my HP Pavilion. Weird things is, we use mobile broadband which connects via USB, and if i unplug that, then the Sony device is recognized again. Same thing for my Web cam: only one USB device is recognized at a time, it doesn’t matter which one. I’ve tried all the options via MS website, I’ve done the unplug thing, I’ve restored XP a dozen times, I’ve uninstalled drivers and to no avail. It means i can’t Skype cos i need to connect via USB for both the broadband and the camera! Very frustrating
Comment by Zulkarnain
thanks man thank you very much
Comment by Linda
Thank you so much for posting. It really does the trick and it saved me for a nerve brake down for sure……!
Thanks mate
Comment by Toshiba
It is so unclear to me about the step 1.
Do you need to switch off your computer???
Please can somebody provide more informtion from A to Z the way you did guys??
Comment by Jim
Amazing. My Dell Laptop started displaying this message 3 days ago with nothing plugged into my USB ports. It wouldn’t recognize my Seagate Freeagent backup drive ( although it recognized and worked with a flash drive ). When I saw your website I thought this is a scam and he’ll want me to by some software. Took the battery out for 50 mins and vuwalla (sp) no more error messages and my Freeagent is backing up my hard drive right now. Thanks for saving me lots of time
Jim
Comment by xlilnaynay
What if the USB that cannot be recognized is your Wireless USB adapter?! ): It doesn’t work on my laptop either when I plug it in. I have the CD to download it and the popup just keeps popping up.
If anyone can help, please do so!
Thank you.
Comment by Don Lafferty
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Comment by mlajoie
Thanks for the tip, it worked perfectly! You made my day.
Regards
Comment by santosh
Thanks ….. it worked
Comment by Brian
Well this is the second time I have had this issue.. the last time… wow, jumped through hoops and made it work.. copied files.. downloaded files.. attempted reloading.. and in retrospect, probably what worked was having the machine powered off and battery out for several hours…
Thanks for the real answer.. what a B.S. issue and fix.. what is the Root Cause.. and How to avoid would be nice from our friends at MS…
Thanks..
B.
Comment by Josh
Wow, I can’t believe that worked! I was all out of ideas. Thanks!
Comment by Skuls
Thank you very much and I am adding to this list of growing endorsements. Unplugged everything including the battery from HP laptop for over 30 minutes and now all the ports/devices are functioning as per normal.
Comment by S Burnette
Well, it didn’t work for me.
I have a Seagate FreeAgent Desktop and I suspect the problem was caused by disconnecting the drive while the computer was running. I could not find a prompt to “safely remove the device,” so I just disconnected it. Possibly the problem could have been avoided if I would have shut down the computer before disconnecting. I have tried all of the Microsoft “fixes” as well as the one posted here. Any more ideas?
Comment by S Burnette
Just read more of the posts and see that my iPod Touch could also be a culprit. Could this be some sort of coercion to change to a MAC? This could be the “straw that breaks the back” of this almost 30-yr veteran of PCs to make the switch.
Comment by Tina
i accidently touched the cable of my hard drive whilst it was copying data, which made it loose and it stopped mid-way. after that, the whole entire hard drive doesn’t respond at all… the malfunction window pops-up when the hard drive is plugged in. im going to try out this method, but is there any other way to fix this problem?
thanks beforehand