Can't find drivers for any (new) USB devices.

[cwilliamsws6]

This all began happening out of the blue about 4 months ago, and I'm about to throw this PC out the window if I can't figure this out. My computer is unable to find drivers for any (new) USB devices. My older devices such as my keyboard and mouse, backup drive, printer and phone dock all work fine, but devices I've purchased or acquired recently such as my flash drive for school, the plug for my dashcam, my new memory card reader, or iPod, when I plug them in it almost instantly pops up the thing saying it could not find the drivers for them.

Now, I tried plugging in each of these devices while running an Ubuntu LiveCD and they worked fine, so something is borked in Windows but I need help figuring out where to look first.

Windows Update is turned on and everything is installed and current.

Edit: I have a 3.5" internal card reader I bought today to try out and it can't find drivers for it either.

 

[lolnole]

What version of Windows do have installed?

 

[cwilliamsws6]

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

[lolnole]

The first thing is to check your Device installation settings. For steps on how to do this, follow this link:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/make-windows-7-automatically-find-new-device-drivers/

Have you attempted to manually install/update drivers from the Device Manager? I am assuming the devices appear in the Device Manager. To be clear, is Windows Update not finding the drivers for your devices?

 

[cwilliamsws6]

The first thing is to check your Device installation settings. For steps on how to do this, follow this link:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/make-windows-7-automatically-find-new-device-drivers/

Have you attempted to manually install/update drivers from the Device Manager? I am assuming the devices appear in the Device Manager. To be clear, is Windows Update not finding the drivers for your devices?

The devices appear in device manager. I cannot use that to install the drivers. Windows update is not finding the drivers either.

 

[lolnole]

How are the devices appearing in the Device Manager? Do they list as "Unknown device"? Before this problem started, did you do anything to the system?

I am thinking of two possibilities. The first will depend on your answers to my questions above. If Windows cannot identify the device, then it cannot know which driver to install. The second possibility is a problem with Windows Update.

Actually, there is one other possibility. Are you using any antivirus, anti-malware or any other security software? There were two programs that caused Windows Update driver issues. One software was made by Komodo. I don't remember the other one.

 

[cwilliamsws6]

How are the devices appearing in the Device Manager? Do they list as "Unknown device"? Before this problem started, did you do anything to the system?

I am thinking of two possibilities. The first will depend on your answers to my questions above. If Windows cannot identify the device, then it cannot know which driver to install. The second possibility is a problem with Windows Update.

Actually, there is one other possibility. Are you using any antivirus, anti-malware or any other security software? There were two programs that caused Windows Update driver issues. One software was made by Komodo. I don't remember the other one.

It does not show up as unknown device. It shows the name of the device or what it is. It just cannot find any drivers. Only antivirus I have is AVG and malwarebytes. Also adwcleaner

 

[cwilliamsws6]

I ran startup repair and the problem is fixed. No idea what caused it, but it's fixed. Thanks all!

 

[lolnole]

I was gathering different options of repairing Windows Update, which was most likely the problem. What you did was the first option. I am glad you got it to work.