Devices Not Showing in "Safely Remove Hardware"

[laylos]

Hello,
Hi All

First post!

Just got windows 7 32-bit...having a few problems.....

One I'm stuck on is that no devices are being shown in the Safely Remove Hardware Dialogue box. I know I have a device in..it's my MP3 player which I have just copied songs over too and I can play them.

There is no icon in the systems tray either. I then looked around the web and found a page showing how to create a shortcut on the desktop to activate the dialogue box. Point target to ":C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll"

Created it, got the box up but no devices showing in it when the mp3 player was plugged in. Pulled out the mp3 player without removing safely first as didn't know how....not ideal.

Any help please? Think i may be a few times with windows 7.....

Cheers
Steve

 

[nukemaster]

If your mp3 player is non running in usb mass storage(UMS) mode, it will not need to be safe removed.

Creative Zen for instance runs in PMP(portable Media Player) mode and does not have a safe remove option. It does not even play files off the player in the normal sense, but instead copies to a temp folder on the computer(or in some apps it can buffer off the player it self) to play files. It plays them off the player when you use the player.

You should not have to worry about this.

Some players have an option to set UMS. If not just copy to it and disconnect.

If you buy some from some music sites, you may need to keep the player in PMP mode for the songs to work anyway.

 

[jhtoms]

Im having the same exact issue. Difference is my Flash Drive and my external HDD wont show up in the "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog box. I've searched and searched the net for an answer but no one seems to have one. This is really frustrating. I've uninstalled and re-installed the driver per instruction by one site, I've removed the PastIconStream file in TrayNotify in Regedt in accordance with another site, I've also change the Policies of each to "Optimize for Performance", and I've tried a few other things IAW other sites but in the end I've just pulled my hair out because nothing seems to provide me with a solution to why my HDD or my Flash Drive are not showing up in the "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog box. Please I beg someone to help...... 🙁

 

[jhtoms]

On a side note which I forgot to put into my reply...since the drives do not show in dialog box, the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon is also not present on the task bar notification area. I can Eject the drive from My Computer, and I can Read/Write to each of the drives without issue so I know that it's recognizing them as drives but Windows simply will not show them in the Safely Remove area....??

 

[nukemaster]

I have used this on a system that does not have the safe remove option(for some reason, Intel H55 drivers take away safe remove on sata ports) for its e-sata ports. works with usb as well.

http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm

 

[jhtoms]

Thank you but my issue is not that i cannot safely remove the drives, it's that there is no drive listed in the SRH dialog box, nor is there an icon for it on the Task Bar either. I'm a man of perfectionism and I can't stand this one thing not working like it should on my pc. I have Windows XP 32bit SP3 btw if that helps...

 

[nukemaster]

I am not sure what it is to be honest. I have never had that with USB devices(With exception to my Zen as it is PMP not UMS)

Hotswap! should let you do what windows is not. It is a stand alone program that can just placed in a programs file folder and it will run with the system.

 

[Tjekken]

I had the same problem with USB devices not showing up in the safely remove hardware interface!
I only encountered this problem with the two USB 2.0 ports at the front of my PC case.
When I plugged in a USB device in a port on the motherboard or in a USB 3.0 port in front of the case the device did show up normal.

I connected the cable of the front USB 2.0 port to another USB header on the motherboard, now these port are working fine too!
Maybe this helps!

 

[Techonestop]

Windows Vista/7 does not need clicking on the 'Safely Remove hardware and Eject Media' anymore, every time you unplug the device, unless you have changed the default setting. Before removing the device, make sure all windows related to USB are closed, wait for some time and unplug it. For more information, visit ' http://www.techonestop.com/2014/02/safely-remove-hardware-not-working-showing.html' --- www.techonestop.com

 

[libor_k]

Hi,
I found this discussion when my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon disappeared, while my USB flash drives was visible for system and worked fine.
As for many others, the list
RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
was empty and that is probably why any tricks I have found on the Internet did not help.

It happened when I installed Alcor Chip vendor format tool 2013
(this one: http://www.mediafire.com/download/u234mfavb41qvkb/Alcor_AU6981%2C_AU6982%2C_AU6983%2C_AU6984%2C_AU6986%2C_AU6987%2C_AU7640%2C_AU3150B51%2C_Au3150C53.rar )
which I hoped should help me to rescue my dead USB flash drive. The attempt was not successful, so I deleted the tool, but then I found that "Safely Remove Hardware"
icon dismissed.

My solution probably is not useful for others, I just want to show that there really could be situation, when no usual tricks works.

I found that the Alcor tool add to system file C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\mpfilt.sys , and in Registry was reference to it
under "Universal Serial Bus controllers". (I forgot the exact key and value name, but it was something like
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000} containing the value "Universal Serial Bus controllers" )

When I deleted the mpfilt.sys file, after reboot USB did not work at all, including keyboard and mouse! Even in Safe mode! I had to boot another system from CD and restore
the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\mpfilt.sys back.

At last I restored the Alcor tool and run the LoadDriver.exe and use its button "Uninstall". After reboot, the reference to mpfilt.sys in Registry dismissed
and all works like before. (All help for the Alcor tool is in Chinese, so the work with it is just trial-and-error)

If I did not find this solution, I would probably had to reinstall the whole USB support or what... Maybe something from this page?
https://www.wintips.org/how-to-fix-usb-device-not-recognized-not-installed/

 

[gerry.magpie]

Thanks Nukemaster for your excellent answer. It solved my USB safely remove usb device problem on an HP pro 3500 pc!!! The rear ports ejected fine, but the front panel ones just would not give me a safe remove or eject option. Sometimes not even right-clicking the flash drive in Windows Explorer to eject wouldn't work.
Installing this 'Hotswap' program gave me that option, but one must know that you have to configure the program for removables by right-clicking the red removal arrow, then click' device-type' and tick 'removable devices'. (Roughly as I remember it). Hopefully someone else can make good use of this as well.

 

[gerry.magpie]

Oops, I was repeating myself...