Unrecognized USB device in Window 7

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I have an issue with two laptops regarding USB. One is a brand new Dell (Win7 Home Premium 64bit factory installed) and the other is a Sony Vaio (factory Vista, but I wiped out and installed Win7 Ultimate 32bit) I have the same issue on both: I will get “unrecognized USB device” errors on occasion. Usually, unplugging everything including AC power, removing the battery and allowing it to sit for several minutes will reset everything, but I have had to actually boot in safe mode and remove the unrecognized devices, then reboot to get them to work again as well.

Has anyone else seen this or found a fix?

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I’ve seen this in XP, but not in Win 7 (yet). The fix for XP is very much what you are already doing, with the addition of removing the system board battery. Are you having trouble with specific devices? Or anything you plug in? Since its happening to 2 different computers, you may also have a bad cable. Sometimes the pins get distorted ever so slightly and don’t always make a clean connection.

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I’ve seen this in XP, but not in Win 7 (yet). The fix for XP is very much what you are already doing, with the addition of removing the system board battery. Are you having trouble with specific devices? Or anything you plug in? Since its happening to 2 different computers, you may also have a bad cable. Sometimes the pins get distorted ever so slightly and don’t always make a clean connection.

No specific devices that I can tell. However, I generally run 2-3 external, (with power supplies) HDD’s and an external KB/mouse. I do notice that it MIGHT be more common when using a hub. With limited USB ports built in, it’s not an option unfortunately. It’s not always with the same hub either. On the Vaio I have a cheap USB and an expensive Belkin and it has occurred with both. On the Dell (my wife’s system) she rarely uses a hub at all but it still happens.

I have never removed the mainboard battery (and don’t plan on it) but once I pull the main battery out and reset it that way, all is well for a while. No funky devices and everything works. Since it happens with disparate systems of different brands and both OEM and manual installs of Win7, I was chalking it up to being a Win7 problem. If nobody else is having it, perhaps it’s something else.

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No specific devices that I can tell. However, I generally run 2-3 external, (with power supplies) HDD’s and an external KB/mouse. I do notice that it MIGHT be more common when using a hub. With limited USB ports built in, it’s not an option unfortunately. It’s not always with the same hub either. On the Vaio I have a cheap USB and an expensive Belkin and it has occurred with both. On the Dell (my wife’s system) she rarely uses a hub at all but it still happens.

I have never removed the mainboard battery (and don’t plan on it) but once I pull the main battery out and reset it that way, all is well for a while. No funky devices and everything works. Since it happens with disparate systems of different brands and both OEM and manual installs of Win7, I was chalking it up to being a Win7 problem. If nobody else is having it, perhaps it’s something else.

Sounds like the power being supplied by the USB port might not be proper.

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Sounds like the power being supplied by the USB port might not be proper.

Of course that is technically possible, but it happens even when there are no USB powered devices plugged in. Everything uses external power supplies and it is happening on two different machines with different, powered devices and with and without the use of USB hubs.

Very bizarre.

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Of course that is technically possible, but it happens even when there are no USB powered devices plugged in. Everything uses external power supplies and it is happening on two different machines with different, powered devices and with and without the use of USB hubs.

Very bizarre.

Ah, you need power for the USB data signal too you know.

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Hi steve and welcome

Is there driver working properly in device manger? does USB have a yellow warning triangle on it?

Ken

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Hi steve and welcome

Is there driver working properly in device manger? does USB have a yellow warning triangle on it?

Ken

Thanks for the welcome!

There is the dreaded triangle in the device manager under USB devices when this occurs, but not usually.

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I have an issue with two laptops regarding USB. One is a brand new Dell (Win7 Home Premium 64bit factory installed) and the other is a Sony Vaio (factory Vista, but I wiped out and installed Win7 Ultimate 32bit) I have the same issue on both: I will get “unrecognized USB device” errors on occasion. Usually, unplugging everything including AC power, removing the battery and allowing it to sit for several minutes will reset everything, but I have had to actually boot in safe mode and remove the unrecognized devices, then reboot to get them to work again as well.

Has anyone else seen this or found a fix?

That is not the problem I had with my Kindle. If you’re getting an unrecognized device, then that’s telling you the truth. For whatever reason Windows isn’t matching your device with its list of devices. What device is unrecognized? You’re probably having a hardware or peripheral device BIOS error.

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Hi Steve,

Try checking the USB setting in Power Options. The USB selective suspend setting is enabled by default in High Performance and Balanced power plans (and probably so in all power plans). If it is enabled, set it to disabled to see if that helps. Sometimes Power settings do not behave correctly.

Once you set it to disabled, go to Device Manager and uninstall the USB devices and reboot.

Maybe this will help.

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I have the exact same problem. I use Windows 7. I get that warning. But all the usb peripherals work as usual. I have just uninstalled the usb mentioned in device manager and it goes away. But it comes back at its’ own pleasure. Totally unpredictable. I have learned to just ignore it. I sure wish there was a solution. I have the same hardware setup as I had in XP and never had that problem on XP.

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After having the same problem with Sony VAIO notebooks after they were upgraded to Win 7, I used Driver Max to locate and install current driivers. Problem solved.

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