[alynur]

Hi all, I have an old Compac Armada m300 laptop that the usb port has stopped working. I had been able to transfer files from a Kingston 8gb memory stick into the laptop, but for some reason the memory stick is no longer identified. I reinstalled the memory stick driver as before but it still is not recognized. Could this be a usb port problem and if so, how do I fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[alynur]

I forgot to mention, this is a windows 98 system.

[Ed999]

DEVICE FAULT (USB Device)

Open the Device Manager -

START > SETTINGS > CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM > DEVICE MANAGER

In Device Manager -
1. Click on the "+" sign next to 'Universal Serial Bus Controllers'.
2. Click on each entry under that heading (to highlight it), then delete the entry by clicking "Remove".

There will be several entries to delete. You will have to click on the "+" sign to re-open the section after deleting each one.

If there are any entries with a yellow exclamation mark (which indicates a fault) or a yellow question mark (which indicates an unrecognised device) against them, remove those entries also.

Then reboot. Windows will automatically re-install the correct drivers in the course of the reboot. If you are asked to point the install wizard to the location of the proper driver file, it is probably in one of these folders -

C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\INF
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
C:\WINDOWS\IOSUBSYS
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS

Alternatively, this type of fault can be caused by a conflict with a driver for a device that's not in use. Such drivers only show up in Safe Mode, which shows all installed drivers (only those for the devices currently attached to the system are shown while in normal mode).

So if the solution above doesn't cure the fault, reboot into SAFE mode (press F5 or F8 on startup). Then open the Device Manager again, and (using the same procedure as explained above) delete all "ghost" entries seen there, i.e. those entries that ONLY show up in Safe Mode.

My tip here is that if you find any USB "ghost" entries, delete ALL of the USB devices listed in Device Manager (even those which are not faulty), while in Safe Mode, to give Windows the best chance of doing a clean reinstall of the device.

Then shutdown the computer, and unplug all USB devices - this increases the chances of success. Then reboot again, into normal mode. Windows will automatically re-install the correct USB controller drivers in the course of the reboot.

Do NOT plug the problem USB device into the computer's USB port until Windows has finished loading, following this restart. Also, remember to switch ON that USB device's power AFTER connecting the USB cable to *both* the USB device and the computer.


USB DEVICE IN WINDOWS 98

If the above suggestions don't solve the problem -

Windows ME has built-in drivers for USB 1.1, but Windows 98 does not. To use any type of USB device with Windows 98 you must obtain driver files from an external source (i.e. not from the Windows installation CD).

1. You can try reinstalling the original USB drivers from the original third party (i.e. non-Microsoft) installation floppy disks or CDs that came with the computer.

2. Or you can try using the generic mass storage drivers for Windows 98 that are available on the internet; but there is no guarantee that they will work with your device.

Also, you will need a different type of generic driver depending on which version of Windows 98 you have. One type will ONLY work with Windows 98 Second Edition. The other type will only work with the original release of Windows 98 (the so-called "first edition", a.k.a. "Windows 98 Gold"). Look here: http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/usbmsd98.php

3. Or you might find a compatible Windows 98 driver at http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm#NUS


MSConfig (the 'System Configuration Utility') cannot help. A device driver fault can only be cured by using the Device Manager.

Going through a diagnostic start-up with MSConfig, disabling one start-up option at a time, and then rebooting, will not do anything to cure errors shown by Device Manager. A diagnostic start-up only enables you to detect problems in the configuration of real mode (i.e. MS-DOS) device drivers (i.e. those loaded by your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files), not protected mode Windows devices loaded by your Windows Registry files.

[alynur]

Hi Ed999, thanks so much for the responce. I went down the list of potential repairs you posted to no avail. There were a few devices listed that I no longer use and I deleted all as you suggested(started up in safe mode). I also found the memory stick driver I had previousely downloaded in Windows Temp file and reinstalled it per it's instructions with no satisfactory results. With the stick plugged in I went back to Device Manager and found the device listed as unknown and a message that it was not functioning properly due to lack of driver or driver files, so I updated the driver to the reinstalled memory stick driver, then removed the stick and rebooted the computer. When i reinstalled the stick, still not recognized, I checked Device Manager again and the unknown device did have the memory stick driver installed. I also noticed that this new driver doesn't show up on the list of programs when going to add/remove programs, is that normal? I was thinking of uninstalling the driver and redownloading it from the stick manufacturer's support page.

[Ed999]

Programs will typically add an entry to the Add/Remove programs list, since that is good "etiquette". But failing to do so is not fatal, provided the program correctly places its uninstaller program in the same folder with the .EXE file for the application.

The Add/Remove programs entry is only a shortcut to that uninstaller program.

But failing to do so is not significant in this case, because you haven't installed a program. You are trying to install a hardware driver, not a program.

Hardware devices are managed solely by the Device Manager, in the Windows Control Panel.


Perhaps you could give me some additional information. For instance, did your computer come with USB ports, or have you added them by attaching (for example) a PCMCIA device?

I don't fully understand your reference to a "memory stick driver". If the laptop came with Windows 98, but you have used USB ports with it, I would expect the relevent driver to be that for the USB port(s).

The driver does not come with the USB pen drive. It comes with the USB port(s) on the PCMCIA plug-in device. If you have installed the correct software drivers for the ports, you should not be adding further software that came with the pen drive ("memory stick").

I am perplexed. Can you clarify?


Incidentally, could you please avoid using the term "memory stick". A memory stick is a DIMM or SODIMM card providing RAM memory for the machine, and is not a form of USB device.

[alynur]

Hi Ed999, sorry about the confusion, I'm trying to use an 8GB flash drive. The computer does have it's own usb port and in order to use the flash drive I had to download the device driver from the manufacturer's website.

[Ed999]

Fair enough. But as I said, if the laptop uses Windows 98, and originally you successfully used a USB port with it, I would expect the relevent driver to be that for the USB port. The USB driver does not come with the USB pen drive, it comes with the USB port.

Therefore if you have installed a driver from the pen drive's manufacturer, that is a possible cause of the problem. The USB port driver for Win98 which the laptop came with should have been enough to make the USB port work. So by adding a second driver you would have caused a driver conflict.

Make sure you're only using one USB driver. The first thing to do is to carefully check in Device Manager to see if there are two USB devices detected. If there are, go to Safe mode, open Device Manager, and delete both entries. Then plug the USB pen drive in and reboot. Windows will install the correct driver during the reboot.

Another possible cause of the problem is that you might be using the WRONG version of the Win98 driver. Win98 "first edition" and Win98 Second Edition require different drivers. The generic drivers are very stubborn on this point! And the pen drive ("flash drive") manufacturers make themselves a pain in the *** by only supplying Win98SE drivers: they don't supply drivers that work with the "first edition". So you need to clarify which of the two types of Win98 the laptop is using. And then make sure you're using a driver designed to work with that edition.

A typical cause of the problem you've reported is installing Win98 "first edition", then trying to add a pen drive manufacturer's device driver which (although they don't tell you this!) is designed to only work with Win98 Second Edition.

If so, the only solution is to delete the Win98SE driver file supplied by the manufacturer of the pen drive, and reinstall the Win98 "first edition" driver that came with the laptop, from the original disks that came with the laptop.

I suppose you might upgrade the laptop to Win98 Second Edition, with an upgrade-only CD (a full install CD is a bad choice, as it will wipe the hard disk drive), but that's a bit drastic.

These symptoms are also typical of pluging a USB 2.0 pen drive into a machine that only supports USB 1.1 devices. Because Win98/Win98SE can only run a USB 1.1 device.

[Ed999]

I forgot to mention that the traditional way to detect whether a Windows 98/98SE computer is running USB 2.0 (if it has any USB ports at all) is to open the case - with the computer switched off of course!

In order to run USB 2.0 the computer will have to be fitted with a PCI Card (an "Expansion" card in one of the PCI slots) containing USB ports. A pre-2001 motherboard/mainboard is only capable of running USB 1.1, therefore if no such PCI Card is present the computer cannot be using USB 2.0.

If such a card *is* fitted in one of the PCI slots, only the USB ports on the Card itself will be using USB 2.0 (so any others, i.e. any on the motherboard, will only be running at the USB 1.1 slow speed).

[DoubleHelix]

Does the flash drive work in another computer? Do other USB devices work on the old laptop?

[alynur]

Ed999, after trying everything that has been suggested, and by the way it is a 98 SE, I think the problem is that the usb is a 1.1 and the flash drive is a 2.0. Since it is an old laptop, I think I'll just forget about trying to use the flash drive. Thanks DoubleHelix for joining in, the flash drive does work in my desktop pc and I don't have any of the devices I used to plug into the usb port previously. But device manager says the usb hub is working properly.