USB appearing under 'Other Devices' and no restore/refresh/reinstall

Hi all, I hope someone can help.

I have been receiving a lot of assitance from chaslang cleaning up my sons laptop from a ton of malware, which has now been resolved.

There were some other errors, at least one of which is still present.

I was not able to 'Restore', 'Refresh' or 'Clean Install' (sometimes missing partitions, sometimes other errors).

Also, the USB would not show up when plugged in.

I have not tried restore or refresh since the malware problem seems to have been resolved, but the USB is still not working!

I plug in the USB and the sound plays to acknowledge it has been plugged in, but the USB appears under 'Other Devices'. My older USB's (all working), come up as 'Unknown Device', a new Cruzer USB displays 'Cruzer Edge', but still an 'Unknown Device'.

Any advice please (I would also like to have the option to be able to restore and refresh, but don't actually need to do it now)?

 

Thanks, now that Firefox and IE are working again I have uninstalled Dregol.

Once I get any final unstructions on my Malware thread I will give IoBot a go.

 

Dowloaded IoBit Driver Booster; about a dozen out of date drivers (including a couple of USB).
Updated all of them (apart from the network drivers), still not luck.

The USB stick still appears under 'Other Devices'.

If I 'uninstall' and then do a search, it shows back up in 'Other Devices', attempts to install driver, which ends with no message, and the USB device remains in 'Other Devices'.

I have tried three different USB sticks, they all make the 'windows tone' when plugged in, but all appear under 'Other Devices'!

Any other ideas?

 

Restart your PC and enter the BIOS. On the last tab (usually) select Default Settings. Then Save and Exit. If it doesn't work, completely turn of the PC - unplug it from the electric socket outlet. Remove the CMOS battery, wait 10 minutes and replace it.

 

It's an asus laptop. I'll try the manual reset, not sure if I'll be able to get to the battery though?

 

Reset BIOS to defaults, no change.
Haven't tried to get to the laptop battery.
I have tried deleting/re-installing all USB Host Controllers in Device Manager aswell.

Any other suggestions (images attached when I insert USB stick)?

 

A few weeks ago all my USB devices were not working. I tried all 6 USB ports - 4 onboard & 2 connected to a header on the motherboard. Even tried a bootable Ubuntu CD and the mouse didn't show. I got to Device Manager using the Tab and arrow keys and the mouse didn't even show as an Unknown Device but, all the USB controllers were fine. Like you, I also got the connect sound.
Resetting the BIOS didn't help. That's when I removed the CMOS battery and after 10 minutes replaced it. Everything was back to normal.
It's worth a try.

 

musksnipe - Drive does not show up in Disk Management. When I unplug it, and plug it back in, there is no change to what drive memory is available.

Eldon - replacing the battery will be my last choice - I'm hoping there is a s/w solution to this.

As I am more than happy to wipe this laptop if I have to, I have tried to do a rest again and after a few minutes and menus it comes up with the following error:

'Unable to reset your PC, a required drive partition is missing'.

 

Battery is internal, so need to open up to get to it (Asus Laptop F551C)

I have attached a couple of images a couple of posts down of how this appears in Device Manager (it appears under 'Other Devices', as 'Cruzer Edge' with an exclamation mark).

USB is working, as are several others which also appear in 'Other Devices'.

I'm convinvced the hardware is fine.

It is running Windows 8.1 - my son can't remember if he updated to 8.1, or how he did it.

 

I'm referring to the CMOS battery. The little battery on the motherboard.

 

I know, don't want to have to open the laptop unless I can help it...but it looks like it may be going that way.

Just plugged in a USB mouse, found it fine and put it in the 'Mice' in Device Manager.

 

Thanks for everyone's help.

I decided to try and fix the re-install problem instead, and through browsing various sites found that there is a known problem when upgrading to Windows 8.1 on Asus laptops which corrupts/removes the restore partition (or something)!

Did a live chat session with an Asus rep and they sent me a link to download a partition file.

I have run this, and it allowed me to (I think), do a complete re-install - it took about 4 hours so I think it was more than a re-fresh.

Anyway, I now have a factory defaulted laptop...with working USB ports!!!

Thanks again!