Lost USB Drives in ME

Hello to all from the latest newbie. I have a problem with WinME that I know you're all dying to discuss, and it's been driving me mad for about 6 months.
Whenever I plug in a removable USB storage device, the comp recognizes it in device manager, but I can't use it 'cos it doesn't appear in windows explorer. It used to work just fine, then one day it just stopped displaying the drive icon. What's up guys?

I've noticed on other postings that lots of people have trouble with Windows allocating too many things to a single IRQ. I've had a look at mine and sure enough, the USB controllers are on IRQ5, along with 2 sound drivers and a bunch of other stuff. If I try to alter the IRQ's for any of these things I get an error message from Windows telling me I can't do that. Could this overcrowding though, be the root of my problem?

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard OK
IRQ 2 Programmable interrupt controller OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 5 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 5 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 5 Creative Sound Blaster PCI128 (WDM) OK
IRQ 5 Creatix WDM Modem Driver OK
IRQ 5 Creative SB Live! series(WDM) OK
IRQ 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller OK
IRQ 7 EPSON Printer Port (LPT1) OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus OK
IRQ 10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 10 VIA Rhine III Fast Ethernet Adapter OK
IRQ 11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 11 NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 OK
IRQ 12 Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse (IntelliPoint) OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo) OK
IRQ 15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo) OK

 

HA! So that got you. Nobody knows then?

 

does it show in disk management?

 

Ah! A response! Thank you. Let me explain; If I boot up the PC with a USB memory stick or SD card camera plugged into a USB port, everything is fine and as it should be. I can see the drive icon in My Computer and in Windoze Explorer, and copy/drag/delete files etc. as I should be able to. If I remove one such device after booting with it in, and then insert a different one, it is instantly recognized by Windoze, a drive letter allocated and I can use it normally - fine!

However, if I boot the PC without such a device in the slot, when I do plug one in subsequently, no drive letter appears and I cannot use the device without re-booting. Looking beyond "My Comp" & "Explorer", if I open Device Manager, I can see the USB drive has been added to the list of USB Controllers and appears in the list of drives! So Windoze knows it's there, but doesn't allocate a drive letter to allow me to use it.

Does that explain?

 

are you sure your USB drivers are installed? try the add hardware wizard

again does it show your device in Disk Management? control panel>admin tools>computer mangement>disk management ... same place the device manager is

is plug and play service running?(not the same as universal plug and play)

 

S'ok Pyrate the good news is I've fixed it now. I don't have "Admin Tools" in my control panel, aslo don't have "Disk Management" - you sure you are talking ME here and not XP?
Anyway, BIOS plug n' play, correct drivers etc etc - everything was there that was needed to make these USB devices work, but to fix the problem, I found I had to remove something. Round about the time these problems started my daughter loaded some camera software for her new Kodak, and guess what? I've just removed every trace of the bugger I could find - registry entries - the lot. Then I booted into safe mode & removed any trace of both the Kodak camera and any USB drives & controllers. Re-booted and re-installed the drivers for the devices that Windoze had lost it's way to (it couldn't find USBSTOR.INF although it was there when I pointed it to it), the rest it seemed to find ok, and basically that sorted it! I re-booted once more for luck, stuck in my Dell key-fob USB stick & presto - there it was! Then stuck in my DV3300 minicam and wham! - up came the drive letter! So, those dozy prats at Kodak have developed a driver for their device that works perfectly well at the expense of every other USB Removable Storage Device that you own!