Ok I'm starting to lose the will to live here!!

I'm trying to connect my sony ericcson K750i to my pc and everything is working fine apart from the one thing that should be working without any issues; the SE memory stick duo. Having used copious amounts of memory stick hardware in the past I know there was not an issue with my o/s config and that it recognised OEM plug and play devices and installed without problem. However, now it will not install any new USB Mass storage devices whatsoever. If they had been previously installed then they are identified and will work.

When the Hardware Wizard does it's thing it recognises that it's a Sony Erics Memory Stick but continually returns a message saying that it cannot be installed as the software cannot be found. The memory stick itself does not require additional driver software and should be recognised as a removable storage device.

I've been through various posts and have completed the following
> Installed patch in registry to prevent USB hibernation.
> Checked key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor to make sure USB storage devices are permitted; set to 3.
> Done a complete clean install of all USB devices.
> Switched PC off and unplugged to allow residual current to escape from motherboard.
> Updated usbstor.inf
> System restored.

I don't know what else to do. Personal opinion is that I must have a corrupt file somewhere which is impacting the Wizard's ability to associate the correct software to the memory stick. I believe this because the wizard knows it's a memory stick but never finds any corresponding software. Also whenever I try to update ANY driver for existing pre-installed devices it never finds software, I would normally expect it to say that the driver used is most up to date.

Any suggestions???

O/S XP SP2

I have had similar problems with a WD MyBook USB Hard Drive.

Go to
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
and clear all the USB devices and boot again.
Make a backup of your device drivers prior to that for any eventuality.

Hopefully, this will resolve the problem.
Please post back your results.

Have the same problem. a work around is to tell the wizard not to search the Internet, specify a location and then put in c:\windows\inf or c:\winnt\inf depending on system root install location. It will then find the drivers and install. I am still trying to figure out how to get the auto search of this locations working again though.

DavB,

I believe this is a problem with the operating system, not the motherboard. If you look at your usb devices under Device Manager, they probably will say "driver not loaded." Weird, as pretty much everybody's computer was running fine, then >poof< usb problems. Someone on here stated the usb problems might be related to the usb port "going to sleep (saving power)," which is starting to make more and more sense to me.

BTW, my Acer Aspire 1804 has an Intel 915G series motherboard and the bios does not have an option to disengage USB 2.0. So, like many, I have to rely on quick fixes to get by. I also have Linux Mandriva to fall back on, as well.

It's sad that even people with Windows Vista are experiencing this problem. WTF Microsoft???