slightly OT USB question

I'm helping a friend out with his Dell XPS running XP Pro and I've run into
a little problem with USB Card readers and memory sticks. It simply won't
recognize any mass memory device I plug into any of the USB ports. It
doesn't seem to have any problems with any other USB device, it just won't
recognize either of my two memory card readers or any of the 4 memory sticks
I've tried. It either gives me a "Unknown Device...No drivers are installed
for this device" or it will seem to work and then when I try to access the
drive, the whole thing disappears like it was never recognized in the first
place. It looks like all available Microsoft updates are installed, and when
I searched their support site I didn't have very much luck finding anything
(though I've never really had much luck searching their site for tech
support).

maybe you need a driver, xp doesn't have them all
"Matt" wrote in message
...
I'm helping a friend out with his Dell XPS running XP Pro and I've run
into a little problem with USB Card readers and memory sticks. It simply
won't recognize any mass memory device I plug into any of the USB ports.
It doesn't seem to have any problems with any other USB device, it just
won't recognize either of my two memory card readers or any of the 4
memory sticks I've tried. It either gives me a "Unknown Device...No
drivers are installed for this device" or it will seem to work and then
when I try to access the drive, the whole thing disappears like it was
never recognized in the first place. It looks like all available Microsoft
updates are installed, and when I searched their support site I didn't
have very much luck finding anything (though I've never really had much
luck searching their site for tech support).

well drivers aren't even available for a couple of the memory sticks... I've
already emailed the manufacturers and asked.

"BigJim" wrote in message
...
maybe you need a driver, xp doesn't have them all
"Matt" wrote in message
...
I'm helping a friend out with his Dell XPS running XP Pro and I've run
into a little problem with USB Card readers and memory sticks. It simply
won't recognize any mass memory device I plug into any of the USB ports.
It doesn't seem to have any problems with any other USB device, it just
won't recognize either of my two memory card readers or any of the 4
memory sticks I've tried. It either gives me a "Unknown Device...No
drivers are installed for this device" or it will seem to work and then
when I try to access the drive, the whole thing disappears like it was
never recognized in the first place. It looks like all available
Microsoft updates are installed, and when I searched their support site I
didn't have very much luck finding anything (though I've never really had
much luck searching their site for tech support).

Some USB devices do not work correctly in certain USB ports. It seems to be
a power through the cable issue. Why this happens, I don't know. My daughter
has a MuVo MP3 player that exhibits the same behavior you describe when
plugged into the front case USB ports, but works fine when plugged into the
rear, mainboard connected ports. Creative's website explains away this
behavior as "normal". You can also try a better, shorter USB cable.
Otherwise I suspect it would have something to do with the amount of power
being supplied by the mainboard through the cable, or the amount of power
generated by the device to the USB port (chep device).

"Matt" wrote in message
...
I'm helping a friend out with his Dell XPS running XP Pro and I've run
into a little problem with USB Card readers and memory sticks. It simply
won't recognize any mass memory device I plug into any of the USB ports.
It doesn't seem to have any problems with any other USB device, it just
won't recognize either of my two memory card readers or any of the 4
memory sticks I've tried. It either gives me a "Unknown Device...No
drivers are installed for this device" or it will seem to work and then
when I try to access the drive, the whole thing disappears like it was
never recognized in the first place. It looks like all available Microsoft
updates are installed, and when I searched their support site I didn't
have very much luck finding anything (though I've never really had much
luck searching their site for tech support).