"Unknown USB device" without any device plugged

A

antoniovl

New Member
Greetings,

I'm running Home Premium 64 on a Sony Vaio Laptop (CS170F). I'm having a curious problem: Yesterday I plugged into the machine the dongle of my wireless logitech mouse, and for some reason the machine said "Your unknown device is ready to use" (my OS is in spanish, the messages may not be accurately translated). Since then, an annoying message pops every few seconds warning about an "unrecognized USB device", that "didn't work as expected". The best part is this, if I click on the tray icon, sometimes the informative dialog window is emply, an other times shows all the USB ports in the system plus one extra with a "unknown UBS device", even without any device plugged into the system. I've tryed removing the unknown device from the device manager, but it shows up again.

I'll really appreciate any pointer, link or suggestion.

Thanks in advance, and best regards.
Antonio.
 

My Computer

System One

Hi antonio and Welcome to the forums.
Connect the wireless dongle and then update windows to see if there's any generic driver available from Microsoft.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Build
    CPU
    Intel Dual Core 3 GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel 945 GCL desktop motherboard
    Memory
    3 GB DDR 2 667 Mhz
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI X1550 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 19"
    Hard Drives
    80 GB IDE Samsung.
    Mouse
    iBall
    Keyboard
    iBall
    Internet Speed
    2mbps
I would uninstall all the usb ports, restart and let Vista sorted it out again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Q9650 w/CM V8 Cooler...
    Motherboard
    EVGA 780i SLI FTW... Latest Bios & Drivers
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator 8GB (4 x 2GB) PC2-8500C5D
    Graphics card(s)
    EVGA GTX260
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Def Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22" LCD Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Velociraptor 160GB Samsung Sata 750GB Maxtor External 160GB
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling 750w Silencer
    Case
    Thermaltake Speedo Advance
    Cooling
    Air Cooled... See CPU
    Mouse
    Logitech G7
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
    Internet Speed
    Comcast 6MB Broadband
    Other Info
    Linksys WRT54G router
On the very first place, thank you guys for your answers. Unfortunately, neither advice worked. Now, I don't see any unknown device in the device manager list, but the annoying popup keeps coming and coming and the informative dialog window shows an empty list.

Maybe it's worth to mention:
1) that the wireless mouse was working properly before the problem arised,
2) now it's useless when connected to (any of) the laptop's built-in usb ports
3) it works fine when connected to a usb mini-hub (I was able to use the mouse with or without the usb mini-hub).

Is there a way to reset the device list?

[...20 more popups and I will reformat the machine... :confused: ]

Thank you again.
Best regards,
Antonio.
 

My Computer

System One

It seems to be solved. Not a very technical solution, but removing the battery allowed the machine to recongize the unknown device, who turned out to be the built in camera (who was working fine, at least it did a couple of weeks ago).

Still trying to figure out if the problem was really related to the mouse.

Thank you very much, and best regards.
Antonio.
 

My Computer

System One

Antonio, how exactly did you uninstall the USB ports? I have had that issue many a times and what I told you to do works for me every time.

I am not saying that you didn't wrong, just wondering what you did.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Q9650 w/CM V8 Cooler...
    Motherboard
    EVGA 780i SLI FTW... Latest Bios & Drivers
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator 8GB (4 x 2GB) PC2-8500C5D
    Graphics card(s)
    EVGA GTX260
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Def Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22" LCD Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Velociraptor 160GB Samsung Sata 750GB Maxtor External 160GB
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling 750w Silencer
    Case
    Thermaltake Speedo Advance
    Cooling
    Air Cooled... See CPU
    Mouse
    Logitech G7
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
    Internet Speed
    Comcast 6MB Broadband
    Other Info
    Linksys WRT54G router
Antonio, your advise saved my day! I spent the whole night trying to figure out what the hell was going on with my Sony Vaio... The last thing I did was unplug a mp4 device without doing the "Remove hardware safely" procedure. My bad, I know, but since then, the computer kept saying "Unknown device detected" or "A device is not working properly", etc.. My mouse was dead, no matter which USB port I connected it to.

I tried a lot of things, also a system restore. But I started suspecting it was a hardware-related issue when I plugged the MP4 device again and Windows could read it without any problems. So I came up with your post. I turned off the comp, went to take a bath, and when I came back an connected everything, voila! The "unknown device detected" messege didn't appear and when I connected the mouse it worked like a charm!

Thanks for your "not-so-technical" solution, but in the end it was what saved my day.

PS: I registered to this site just to post this note and say thanks!
Regards from Buenos Aires.
Alekz
 

My Computer

System One

antoniovl, you also saved my day!
I turned off the computer, removed the battery, turned on the computer again and it worked like a magic!

PS: I'm on Windows 7 Home Premium x64, but I was exactly with the same problem. Not surprisingly, the solution was the same!

Thanks for your "not-so-technical" solution! [2]

Greetings from Brasil,
Roger Assunção
 

My Computer

System One

antoniovl said:
It seems to be solved. Not a very technical solution, but removing the battery allowed the machine to recongize the unknown device, who turned out to be the built in camera (who was working fine, at least it did a couple of weeks ago).

Still trying to figure out if the problem was really related to the mouse.

Thank you very much, and best regards.
Antonio.
Click to expand...

Thx alot for this good useful advice. (also registered here to thank you)
I also fixed my vista laptop with this trick.
my technical explanation(theory)
because of the corrupted usb driver. windows thinks the device is still connected.
and sends pulse(power) to that usb port. so if you completely go off.(battery and also power) the system stops sending pulse to that port.

my english sucks :O
 

My Computer

System One

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