Vista Kills USB

Once again I am forced to call upon the God's Of Geek'ism as I am truly at a dead end.

I am one of the victims of the 'Vista USB Killer' I have been through Acer + Microsoft + Epson customer services and no one knows what I am going on about 'plausible deny-ability' But if I google the subject it's all over the web ?
The problem is I cant find a solution, I re-installed all USB devices, changed and checked all connections, following Microsoft's instructions I deleted files in the registry editor, un-installed Vista updates and even did a system restore.
But still a number of USB devices are unable to communicate with the PC, but work on all XP machines ?

Error messages are as follows
USB Device Not Recognized
USB Device Failure
Communication Error
When I force a device to work, such as a printer it simply comes up Error In the 'printers' window ?

So without babbling on any further and probably not giving the right information, my question is........ Has anyone heard of this problem and is there a hot fix, or any fix for that matter...

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.......

 

Have you checked that you have vista drivers for the hardware you are trying to install.
I have a HP photosmart C4180 all in one but the disk that came with it is only for XP, i had to download the drivers for Vista from the web.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/69/000200727506263jo4.gif

 

Everything was running fine until a Vista update five days ago, then suddenly one morning, the printer plus usb storage devices were no longer recognized, I have been diving through drivers for days now.... my head is beginning to hurt....lol

The odd thing is the usb mouse still works in all ports ?

 

Windows makes a sound when an USB device is plugged or unplugged. Do you hear this sound? Does the USB device show up under the device manager with a yellow exclamation point indicating a missing driver?
The device manager is located at control panel -> system and maintainance -> device manager

 

Ye... I get the noise and and instant message saying usb device not recognized or has malfunctioned.

In the device manager ' I get unknown device, no drivers for this device installed'
But I have re-installed thr printer drivers and the latest driver ?

It's truly a quandary.....

 

In the device manager did you ask it to 'update driver?

 

All I get after doing that is
windows has determined the driver software for your device is up to date

Still an unknown device..... ?

 

What is the printer you are trying to install?

You could download this from MGs (its safe and free) run it and see what it can find?

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Driver_Collector_d3982.html

 

I had the problem with external storage (i have 2X500gb hard drives and 7 flash drives) not being recognized but i just re-assigned new letters and it did the trick but this thing with the printer has got me stumped.

i will have search around and see what i can find.

Our resident Microsoft VIP is Halo but he has a heavy work load with his job so be a little patient and i am sure he will pick up on this.

 

Epson DX9200F all in one.

Thank you for the link, I will give it a go BILLMCC66,

I got to dash for today, Your time and input is much appreciated Thanks again.

Be back a.s.a.p

 

Woops...... Okay guys and girls I figured it out, please don't laugh too much.

The on board USB ports had broken.

Fitted new PCI USB card...... Wooot Now working.....

Thanks for the help..... I still cant figure out why the mouse still worked ?