WIndows Vista and non-functioning USB sticks

tbloxham

I am using windows vista home premium and have a USB memory stick, and an iPod. When I plug them in a pop up appears saying that it is searching for drivers, and eventually it fails to find them and asks me to insert a CD with them on. Clearly this is nonsense, usb sticks should be plug and play.

Having searched it seems there is some kind of problem with usbstor.inf in the windows/inf file and the drivers do not install directly. All the fixes seem complex, requiring me to edit system files and move driver details. This error seems quite crippling, and widespread, does anyone know if there is a patch out to fix it?

wunderbar

tbloxham wrote: »

I am using windows vista home premium and have a USB memory stick, and an iPod. When I plug them in a pop up appears saying that it is searching for drivers, and eventually it fails to find them and asks me to insert a CD with them on. Clearly this is nonsense, usb sticks should be plug and play.

Having searched it seems there is some kind of problem with usbstor.inf in the windows/inf file and the drivers do not install directly. All the fixes seem complex, requiring me to edit system files and move driver details. This error seems quite crippling, and widespread, does anyone know if there is a patch out to fix it?

if the error is that cirppling, spend the 30 minutes to follow the "complex" fixes.

tbloxham

Err, well the reason I didn't carry out the described fixes I did find was because the fact that a seemingly well reported error was stopping a large number of Vista users using any form of USB memory that wasnt built into something that had a processor seemed like the sort of thing which would have a proper patch to fix it.

Considering the eventual fix required me to download new .inf files, edit my registry, and delete items from driver directories on the deletion of which windows informed me that deleting them would be be bad for my system and reinstall drivers for my motherboard (in the end it was editing the registry and getting the new inf which worked) I was perhaps a little dubious that these steps would be required by many users to do something as simple as use a USB stick. Windows does have its "strangely hidden not quite ready patches" website, and often someone more informed than I has pointed me to a beta version of a patch which has addressed the issue.

fogeyman

Is this really that widespread? I've used a number of USB sticks with my Vista PCs with no issues. They all just work.

squirly

fogeyman wrote: »

Is this really that widespread? I've used a number of USB sticks with my Vista PCs with no issues. They all just work.

Yeah, I haven't heard of this before and considering the most minute flaws in Vista are pushed on most major tech sites all the time I'm surprised it hasn't been widely reported.