External drives: Driver error,or Setup incomplete, but load on restart

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  1. Posts : 11
    Windows 10
       #1

    External drives: Driver error,or Setup incomplete, but load on restart


    Hi folks. I've got an issue that's been driving me nuts recently. I think it started after the last major Windows 10 update a few months ago. Whenever I plug in any of my external hard drives, memory sticks or my external DVD writer into any of my 4 USB sockets, they light up for a few seconds and then go off. They don't show up in file managers. They do appear in Bluetooth & Other Devices, where it says either just 'Driver error' or 'Setup incomplete. Connect to the internet'. Needless to say I am already connected to the internet, and attempting to reinstall or delete and reinstall the drivers leads only to 'Windows has determined that the best driver etc. etc.'. The thing is, if I plug the drives in and then restart, or shutdown and restart, they then appear in the file manager as normal and can be used as normal. Obviously, this means that every time I want to use any of my external drives I have to close everything I'm doing and restart, which is a real pain. I don't want to do a complete reinstall of Windows because for some of the programs I have I no longer have the installation disks. Bluetooth and wired mice/keyboards work fine, and also, strangely, my phone and my partner's phone plug in and show up without a problem. Any thoughts?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 4,752
    Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit 22H2
       #2

    With a USB device plugged in that is not recognized, Press the Windows key+X and choose Device Manager. Expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Right click Each of the USB Root Hubs/Properties/Power Management. Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Click OK. If there is a device that has a yellow flag, right click it and Uninstall it. Now Right click Any device and choose to Scan For Hardware Changes, this should bring back the device with no yellow mark.
    You also can Right click Each USB Root Hub/Update Drivers/Browse My Computer/Let Me Pick../Select the USB Root Hub driver and click Next. If you do this to all the USB Root Hubs, you shouldn't have this problem any longer.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 11
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for that spunk. Seems to be working so far.

    - - - Updated - - -

    spunk said:
    With a USB device plugged in that is not recognized, Press the Windows key+X and choose Device Manager. Expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Right click Each of the USB Root Hubs/Properties/Power Management. Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Click OK. If there is a device that has a yellow flag, right click it and Uninstall it. Now Right click Any device and choose to Scan For Hardware Changes, this should bring back the device with no yellow mark.
    You also can Right click Each USB Root Hub/Update Drivers/Browse My Computer/Let Me Pick../Select the USB Root Hub driver and click Next. If you do this to all the USB Root Hubs, you shouldn't have this problem any longer.
    I spoke too soon - that hasn't fixed it. I followed all the steps, but 'Scan for hardware changes' brings the devices back, but still with the yellow triangles. This is what it says under the Events tab on the Properties window for the devices:
    External drives: Driver error,or Setup incomplete, but load on restart-shot-01.png

    And I've just noticed that it says this on the General tab of Properties:
    "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)
    The driver could not be loaded because a previous version of the driver is still in memory."

    Any other ideas?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 11,618
    Windows11 Home 64bit v:23H2 b:22631.3374
       #4

    While you wait for spunk or anyone else better endowed, try this simple process.

    Hold the Shift button while pressing the Power Off option in the Start Menu or the physical Power Off button on the laptop. Wait for a minute or two for it to drain/dissipate all the residue it may hold. Reboot your laptop and check to see if it resolves the problem.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 4,752
    Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit 22H2
       #5

    Right click Each USB Root Hub/Update Drivers/Browse My Computer/Let Me Pick../Select the USB Root Hub driver and click Next.
    Did you do this?
    Press the Windows key+S in the Search box type CMD, right click the CMD results and Run As Administrator. In the Elevated Command Prompt type SFC /scannow and press enter.This will replace any missing system files
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 11
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #6

    jumanji said:
    While you wait for spunk or anyone else better endowed, try this simple process.

    Hold the Shift button while pressing the Power Off option in the Start Menu or the physical Power Off button on the laptop. Wait for a minute or two for it to drain/dissipate all the residue it may hold. Reboot your laptop and check to see if it resolves the problem.
    Hi jumanji. Yes I did try that, but no joy.

    - - - Updated - - -

    spunk said:
    Did you do this?
    Press the Windows key+S in the Search box type CMD, right click the CMD results and Run As Administrator. In the Elevated Command Prompt type SFC /scannow and press enter.This will replace any missing system files
    Hi spunk. Yes, I did do as you said. I will now try your latest suggestion...

    - - - Updated - - -

    spunk said:
    Did you do this?
    Press the Windows key+S in the Search box type CMD, right click the CMD results and Run As Administrator. In the Elevated Command Prompt type SFC /scannow and press enter.This will replace any missing system files
    Hi spunk. Just completed the scan, and it hasn't fixed the problem. The scan reported this:

    "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
    For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
    windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
    repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag."

    I can send that log file if it's of any use...?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 41,413
    windows 10 professional version 1607 build 14393.969 64 bit
       #7

    1) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
    2) sfc /scannow
    3) dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
    4) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
    5) sfc /scannow
    6) chkdsk /scan
    7) wmic recoveros set autoreboot = false
    8) bcdedit /enum {badmemory}

    9) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread


    See these links:
    How to Find Drivers for Unknown Devices in the Device Manager
    How to easily find drivers for Unknown Devices in Windows | PCWorld
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 11
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #8

    zbook said:
    1) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
    2) sfc /scannow
    3) dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
    4) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
    5) sfc /scannow
    6) chkdsk /scan
    7) wmic recoveros set autoreboot = false
    8) bcdedit /enum {badmemory}

    9) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread


    See these links:
    How to Find Drivers for Unknown Devices in the Device Manager
    How to easily find drivers for Unknown Devices in Windows | PCWorld
    Hi zbook. OK. That'll take some time. I'll report back later. Thanks.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Hi guys,

    OK, I've completed everything you suggested zbook - see the results below. From about 5pm till midnight last night - after I'd completed the 'restorehealth' stage - my laptop was back to normal, and I was chuffed. Today it's back to the same problem. Here are the scan results (I did do Step 1, but forgot to copy the results):

    C:\WINDOWS\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth

    Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
    Version: 10.0.18362.1

    Image Version: 10.0.18362.295

    [==========================100.0%==========================]

    C:\WINDOWS\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

    Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
    Version: 10.0.18362.1

    Image Version: 10.0.18362.295

    [==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
    The operation completed successfully.



    C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

    Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

    Beginning verification phase of system scan.
    Verification 100% complete.

    Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
    For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
    windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
    repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.


    C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

    Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

    Beginning verification phase of system scan.
    Verification 100% complete.

    Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.



    C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /scan
    The type of the file system is NTFS.
    Volume label is Windows.

    Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
    676864 file records processed.
    File verification completed.
    5705 large file records processed.
    0 bad file records processed.

    Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
    3571 reparse records processed.
    822028 index entries processed.
    Index verification completed.
    0 unindexed files scanned.
    0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
    3571 reparse records processed.

    Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
    Security descriptor verification completed.
    72583 data files processed.
    CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
    37644304 USN bytes processed.
    Usn Journal verification completed.

    Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
    No further action is required.

    242693148 KB total disk space.
    188025104 KB in 400652 files.
    171908 KB in 72584 indexes.
    0 KB in bad sectors.
    791232 KB in use by the system.
    65536 KB occupied by the log file.
    53704904 KB available on disk.

    4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
    60673287 total allocation units on disk.
    13426226 allocation units available on disk.


    C:\WINDOWS\system32>wmic recoveros set autoreboot = false
    Updating property(s) of '\\DESKTOP-5N5ATR9\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_OSRecoveryConfiguration.Name="Microsoft Windows 10 Pro|C:\\WINDOWS|\\Device\\Harddisk0\\Partition3"'
    Property(s) update successful.


    C:\WINDOWS\system32>bcdedit /enum {badmemory}

    RAM Defects
    -----------
    identifier {badmemory}
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 11
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Still having the problem. Can anybody make sense of these results?
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 41,413
    windows 10 professional version 1607 build 14393.969 64 bit
       #10

    There are log collectors used in another forum room.
    Please run each V2 and DM and upload results into this thread:
    BSOD - Posting Instructions
      My Computer


 

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