PC won't recognize USB devices.

An hour ago, I plugged in my pendrive to work on my essay. It worked, I opened the file and saved it a few times. After I while it asked me to "save as" and directed me to the My Documents folder. I checked K: (the drive I plugged my usb in) and it was empty. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. I got an error; it doesn't recognize the device. I tried all 6 ports, none work. It says it can't find the driver. And I can't install any drivers because XP won't let me.
It isn't a problem with the pendrive itself since it works on the computer of my parents. I restarted my PC 3 times, nothing changes.

Anyone knows what to do?

USB could have blown, happened to one of my computers a while back. They normally blow due to plugging and unplugging USB devices while the computers turned on.

If it has blown, then you could try plugging it in a different USB port (if you have more then one) and if that doesn’t work, then you'll need to get new USB ports installed (doesn’t cost too much)

This post has been edited by SMG on Nov 15 2005, 05:34 PM

Yeah but none of the 6 ports seem to work all of the sudden.

Yeah it could be a driver problem

I don't know how you had the drivers there in the first place if XP won't let you install them, though

They are already supported by Windows XP. XP installs these drivers automatically when installing the OS itself. That's why the driver disk won't let me install the drivers when it detects XP.

So yeah, I might want to reinstall windows. >_>

You may have to restore your computer to the state it was at an earlier point in time, using System Restore, which can be found in Control Panel under the maintence category. I would suggest then restoring your computer to the most recent date in which your USB still worked. System Restore usually makes one restore point every week or so, you you may end up having to set your comp back one week, but don't worry; your files will not be erased, but program installations/uninstallations that happened in the past week will be reversed, and hopefully the drivers for your USB ports will be restored as well. If it doesn't work, then your only option left may be to get your USB reports replaced.

Thanks for the suggestion. It didn't work though. :E

So you can't just download the drivers from somewhere?

Hmm, however, in the system restore list of the 15th, I see "software distribution service 2.0" on 23:31 and 23:01. This might be the cause, even though the device stopped working an hour before that.

God forbid you don't have Windows Service Pack 1 or 2 on there because the service packs disable USB connectivity for whatever unholy reason.

what

I have SP2 and USB stuff works fine

I have both SPs since ever. USB never caused any problems.
But yeah, the latest windows auto update most likely ****ed up everything. Way to go, Microsoft. =(