Portable USB Device Cannot Start (Code 10 Error)

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In trying to recover after the disastrous feature update to 1809 (17763.1), I have one Device Manager error I have been unable to rectify, despite a lot of effort (all the others were solved by installing new downloaded drivers).

It relates to “Portable Devices”, when a USB flash drive is inserted, it recognises it, including the brand/type, and it functions properly, but there is a warning in Device Manager, with an error code, indicating the device cannot be started.

I have tried to reinstall the driver (WPDfs.inf), but I keep getting told the best driver is already installed (there is no over-ride possibility). Windows Update is unable to find a suitable driver (yes, I got that desperate!).

There are no errors in the USB list, only in the Portable Devices list that appears when a USB is plugged in. I noted that this only occurred for 2 flash drives, but not for an external hard drive, which showed correctly.

I note that the wpdfs.inf is dated 2006 – it appears to be the latest. catalog.update.microsoft.com does not have a Win10 WPD driver.

Any suggestions for resolving this issue? Thanks 🙂

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No driver rollback available?

What are the full Properties for these USB drives, drivers used, partition info, ReadyBoost info. etc?

Have you tried all USB slots available?

As the external drives don’t trigger errors, is it that the current WPDfs driver expects something like an MBR… or triggered by a specific filesystem?

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I don’t have the machine turned on at the moment, but…

ReadyBoost isn’t turned on
Power Management has had the ability to power down turned off
No partitions (have been warned off them…)
Yes, I’ve tried the other USB slots – same issue; no problem with the tested drives on a different machine
It does have a drive letter, is visible in File Explorer and Disk Management, can be used without problem
These are both USB 3.0/3.1 devices, of 16gb, of different brands
Rollback not effective, as the OS has only just been installed

The only other issue found was that in Safely Remove Hardware systray, their only indication is an ellipsis, instead of being listed (I did find reference to changes in -1809 around safely removing drives, but this doesn’t appear related at first glance)

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Feels like an incorrect hardware detection, on the other devices you’ve tested these on, do they also appear as WPD?

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To my checking, it doesn’t “look” like a hardware mis-detection, in that it is showing as a USB device, and is listing as Portable…?

In the Device Manager (Device, Properties, Details) Problem Status, it says “Access is denied”. In the Event Viewer, there are several Event ID 51 warning instances for HardDrive devices related to those USBs.

What is really frustrating is that it appears to work correctly, with the exception of not listed in the Safely Remove Hardware systray icon, and the Device Manager error. Being a clean install, I really would like to remove these niggly errors 😉

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Well, what is there in a simple USB storage device that requires ‘starting’? Nothing.

But – they’re now also called WPDs – somehow implying that they’re more than simple USB storage devices (like an MP3 player, digital camera, ‘phone, etc.).

Off-hand, I can only think of two alt. modifications that might classify your devices that way, an MBR or an Autoplay.inf. Security patching/software often disables autoplay, so might that be the issue/difference on this PC?

Do you have details of the Event ID 51’s?

There’s obviously some disparity between the machines you’ve tested the USB sticks on, I’d be tempted just to disable the WPD in DevMan as a test and only enable it when connecting a more complex USB device.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kirsty

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Sorry, the Event ID 51’s have disappeared (been a busy week, sorry). There remains a few errors on these drives:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR**
Disk - EventID 11 [ Qualifiers] 49156 Level 2

It’s highly frustrating! I agree it appears to want to turn these plain storage devices into media players or similar, which is of no interest in this situation. And the drives themselves continue to function, while Device Manager continues to report the Code 10 error.

(I’m also extremely frustrating finding that drivers have been updated in the background, but Windows Update hasn’t installed the Flash update!)

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Setting the affected USB drives for quick removal should prevent further ID 51’s:

the computer may log this event message when it loads images from a storage device, reads and writes to locally mapped files or to any file (as long as it is buffered I/O). The computer does not log this event message when it performs nonbuffered I/O.

“The driver detected a controller error on DeviceHarddisk1DR**”:- try to track down which drive is being referred to, check connections and/or swap cables, connect the drive to an unused port.

See if you can access further details via a Health Report (don’t go down the Fresh Start route): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012986/windows-security-track-device-performance-health

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kirsty

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The DR** applies to any USB drive that has been inserted since the rebuild of the laptop, into any of the ports.

Thanks for your patience, it’s much appreciated – I’ll try those suggestions when I get a moment free to 🙂

(In the meantime, I now need to track down why the disabling of sounds, after a background driver update – while set not to download drivers from WU, and on metered connection – caused the functioning sounds to stop. If you hear a distant screaming sound, that will be me!)

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Kirsty wrote:

I have tried to reinstall the driver (WPDfs.inf), but I keep getting told the best driver is already installed (there is no over-ride possibility). Windows Update is unable to find a suitable driver (yes, I got that desperate!).

Try some solutions here :

Have you tried running sfc /scannow that may fix WPDfs.inf ?

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/d88813a7-7d96-4418-a402-ec8b5f592c5a/microsoft-wpd-filesystem-volume-driver-are-certain-usb-devices-no-longer-compatible-with-windows?forum=win10itprogeneral

Here you can find WPDfs.inf downloads (don’t know how secure/clean they are) :

https://www.exefiles.com/en/inf/wpdfs-inf/

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I tried SFC /SCANNOW before attempting to reinstall the driver. Nothing found…

I also tried that TechNet link you supplied, along with a dozen others (which is how I located the link I posted).

I tried to reinstall WPDfs.inf that I had successfully extracted from the mounted system image backup, which is how I discovered “the best driver is already installed (there is no over-ride possibility)”. It was working fine prior to the upgrade debacle. I trust the backup file far more than a download site (as you infer)!

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[Alex5723]

Kirsty wrote:

It was working fine prior to the upgrade debacle. I trust the backup file far more than a download site (as you infer)!

It may be the driver is not compatible anymore.
Does the OEM of the device has any data regarding Windows 10 ?

Since 1809 some OEM (Intel, Nvidia..) moved from .inf (not supported anymore) to DCH drivers.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Alex5723.

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I have installed all the OEM latest Win10 drivers…

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