PC (W7) Won't recognize Any USB Memory Stick. Thoughts On ?

Hi Folks,

Son not in area, so hard for me to help him out with this, but thought I'd
ask here for any suggestions.

He has an older Dell desktop pc running W7.
Seems to work fine.

But-

Plugging in USB Memory sticks into any slot on the case does not work.
Not recognized by pc.

He says that they also do not show up in File Manager, or Device mgr., or Desktop.

Tried several sticks.

Any thoughts as to what might be happening, and what to try net ?

Neither of us are too computer savvy, so any and all suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob

Robert11 said:

He says that they also do not show up in File Manager, or Device mgr...

General tips, equally applicable to both W10 and W7 when a usb isn't recognised.

First, restart the PC - this can often fix quite a number of 'oddities'.

Second, in Device Manager on the View menu click 'Show hidden devices'. Then under 'Disk drives' all previously connected USBs will be listed with a greyed 'disk' icon. Right-click on each and uninstall it. Then try a usb again.

Hi,

Thanks for help.

Yes, Mouse, etc. recognized and works.
USB Sticks do work on other pc.

Bob

First update chipset drivers. If this doesn't fix the problem, as a last resort replace any Intel (or whatever) USB driver with generic USB driver and it will work (assuming it is not a hardware problem)

1. Check whether automount is disabled and enable it if it is disabled.

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right click on Command Prompt and Run as administrator.
Then
diskpart [ENTER]
Against the DISKPART prompt
automount [ENTER]
Does it say "automatic mounting of new volumes disabled" ? Then
automount enable [ENTER]
"automatic mounting of new volumes enabled"

Close Command Window.

Done.

2. Instead of manually editing registry, use this tiny elegant drive utility "drivecleanup" to remove all registry entries and drive letters pertaining to non-present devices.

Download v 0.8.1 of the drivecleanup.zip from https://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html (Roll down on this page till you see DriveCleanup V 1.5 )

(Note: You can use the latest version V1.5.0 too. I have been using v 0.8.1 since long regularly)

Unzip it to a folder, say drivecleanup.

You will have two folders Win32 and x64 each containing DriveCleanup.exe for 32 bit and 64 bit respectively.

Remove all USB storage devices from your system (except your USBKeyboard / mouse) and reboot. Disconnect internet/network.

Right click on the DriveCleanup.exe and run as administrator. (Use the DriveCleanup.exe file appropriate for your bit version of Windows.).

After the clean up act, reboot and check whether the USB drives get their drive letter

( When you plug in your USB devices after this cleanup, these will be installed afresh. What you have done is to remove all non-present devices and drive letters associated with them and start with a clean slate. Hopefully that should resolve the problem.)