USB ports not recognizing drives, thumbrives or GPSs (Garmin)

Win 10 is a new adventure for me. Relatively new Dell Inspiron 5555 that I have been running without issue since March. Plug and play two WD portable drives, several memory sticks/SD Cards and two different Garmin GPSs without issue., up until this afternoon.

This morning I installed a piece of software from Abbott Labs to track my diabetes numbers. It requires a simple USB cable with a mini-RCA plug that I don't have and am waiting on.

About an hour ago I started to do an update on one of my GPS units. I plugged in the GPS and fired up Garmin Express. Software open up and cannot find one of the GPSs. Tried plugging in the other unit and eventually it was recognized. Took almost an hour of plugging and unplugging. Troubleshot the system and plugged in two WD portable drives and a SD Card to check for issues with the ports. At first they were not recognized. Now, they have mysteriously been recognized by the computer and are operating.

However, the GPS that I want to do the updates on still isn't being recognized by the system.

As Windows has been updated over the years I am becoming more and more mysterious. I am coming to the conclusion that MS is either performing sorcery or it is just plain FM (Flippin' Magic). Any pointers would be appreciated.

I own a Garmin Oregon 650 GPS unit. One thing I've noticed about Windows 10 (on three PCs, one that came with Windows 10, one that I upgraded from Windows 7 and one that I upgraded from Windows 8.1) is that the new OS seems to be more sensitive to the quality of the USB signal (and thus the quality of the USB cable).

Whereas with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 I could use pretty much any USB cable to connect the GPS unit, that wasn't the case with Windows 10. The older PCs I upgraded to Windows 10 simply refused to recognize the Garmin when I plugged it in using a generic cable; with the new PC that came with Windows 10, sometimes the connection worked but most of the time it didn't.

I had a USB cable I'd purchased directly from Garmin lying around, and tried that cable instead. That Garmin-certified cable worked with all three PCs, every time.

This might not be the issue you're dealing with, but I would recommend that you try a different USB cable, preferably a "genuine" Garmin cable. Couldn't hurt to try!

--Larry

larryc43230 said:

I own a Garmin Oregon 650 GPS unit. One thing I've noticed about Windows 10 (on three PCs, one that came with Windows 10, one that I upgraded from Windows 7 and one that I upgraded from Windows 8.1) is that the new OS seems to be more sensitive to the quality of the USB signal (and thus the quality of the USB cable).

Whereas with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 I could use pretty much any USB cable to connect the GPS unit, that wasn't the case with Windows 10. The older PCs I upgraded to Windows 10 simply refused to recognize the Garmin when I plugged it in using a generic cable; with the new PC that came with Windows 10, sometimes the connection worked but most of the time it didn't.

I had a USB cable I'd purchased directly from Garmin lying around, and tried that cable instead. That Garmin-certified cable worked with all three PCs, every time.

This might not be the issue you're dealing with, but I would recommend that you try a different USB cable, preferably a "genuine" Garmin cable. Couldn't hurt to try!

--Larry

Thanks for the pointers. I finally got the Dezl 760 to be recognized. Had to use the Garmin cable pluged into the bottom port, not the port on the back of the unit. At least everything is working again. Yeh, quality cables help, I suppose. It's still FM to me.

Thanks,
John

pricejh61 said:

Thanks for the pointers. I finally got the Dezl 760 to be recognized. Had to use the Garmin cable pluged into the bottom port, not the port on the back of the unit. At least everything is working again. Yeh, quality cables help, I suppose. It's still FM to me. Thanks, John

I have a Surface Book and ran into the same issue with my Garmin. When I talked with local techs they told me that the USB ports on the Book use a lower voltage vrs laptops and sometimes the system will not recognize the USB connection. I had also purchased Optical Drive and it would not work. I purchased a 7 port powered hub and now everything works well when plugged into the hub. Just a thought you may not have the same issues.
John