All USB flash drives inoperative on Win7 Home premium 64-bit

[yrralrellim]

I am pulling out what little hair I have left! On May 5th my USB flash drives worked properly. I installed no new hardware, no updates and no software. I have no flash drive operation today on either USB port (1xv2.0, 1xv3.0). My wireless USB mouse works properly in either port. The flash drives work fine on other machines (I tried each one on a Vista laptop and on a Win7 Ultimate 32-bit desktop). The problem occurs with ALL flash drives on this laptop only as of May 6th.

There are no error codes or messages when I insert any flash drive and each time I insert and or remove any flash drive, I hear the normal Windows sound (that the drive has been recognized?) Under disk management, the device shows up as a generic drive with no drive letter. I get the same error message after “refresh” and after restarting the laptop.

Other indications:
Hardware changes might not have been detected

I have moderate experience with troubleshooting but this one is driving me up the walls. I have been chasing solutions all day to no avail and no doubt I need a regimented step-by-step methodical approach.

I ran these four Microsoft Fixit’s without success:
MicrosoftFixit.Devices.LB.132291220673358863.1.1; MicrosoftFixit.Devices.RNP.132291220673358863.3.2;
MicrosoftFixit.Devices.RNP.132291220673358863.6.1;
MicrosoftFixit.Devices.RNP.133291194914675503.2.1

When trying to configure a device, I get "Generic volume is not working properly".

When I attempt to change\assign a drive letter: "The operation failed to complete because Disk Management console view is not up-to-date.

A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)

In Device Manager, the named device shows up and there is no disabled drive under the label for the drive in “Disk drives” but there is a yellow exclamation mark on “Generic volume” icon

Update driver attempt: “best driver software for your device is already installed” (Driver version: 6.1.7601.17567)

Can anyone provide help to me? I prefer not to restore to a previous time if at all possible since I have just unloaded quite a few personal photos after my most recent restore.

Thanks much!

 

[kenrivers]

Have you tried uninstalling the USB ports from Device Manager? Doing this and then restarting the computer will sometimes help solve the problem. The ports will be reinstalled when you reboot your computer.

 

[yrralrellim]

Have you tried uninstalling the USB ports from Device Manager? Doing this and then restarting the computer will sometimes help solve the problem. The ports will be reinstalled when you reboot your computer.

Thank you. Yes, I did try uninstalling every USB related item listed on the device manager including both controllers but I will try that again and then repost my results.

 

[yrralrellim]

Via Device Manager I uninstalled every single "Universal Serial Bus controller" (ALL entries) and deleted the drivers. Via Device Manager I uninstalled every single "Human Interface Device" (All entries) and deleted the drivers as well. Everything appears to be exactly the same as it has been. The "Generic volume" icon still has the yellow exclamation point and I get "A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)". The Thumb drive shows up as before under "Disk Management" as "Disk 1" and I still cannot assign a drive letter. In "Windows Explorer" the thumb drive is still not visible.

 

[kenrivers]

This might be worth a look:

"Manually change the driver's start type in the registry. This is the most direct solution to the Code 32 error and should fix the problem if the previous three troubleshooting steps didn't work.

Note: This will likely be the fix if you find the driver's start type in the registry as 0x00000004 which means that it's disabled. The correct start type depends on the driver. For example, cdrom should have a start type of 0x00000001."

Source: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/errorc/a/code-32-error.htm

You can also enable services via Administrative Tools in Control Panel.
Once in Control Panel, open Administrative Tools and then go to Services.
Please let me know if none of this helps.

 

[yrralrellim]

Thank you all for the help. Problem solved. Instead of a restore, I performed a Windows 7 no-reformat, nondestructive reinstallation which kept my programs, files and folders intact – a much better way to go than a destructive reinstallation.

 

[kenrivers]

Thank you all for the help. Problem solved. Instead of a restore, I performed a Windows 7 no-reformat, nondestructive reinstallation which kept my programs, files and folders intact – a much better way to go than a destructive reinstallation.

Glad to hear that you got it fixed. Thank you for letting me know.