USB drive not "seen" by PC.

[TC42]

When I insert a USB drive in my PC it is sometimes not listed in file explorer devices and drives. When I look to eject the USB, it is not present in the list.

When I look at the Device Manager for that USB Mass Storage Device it has the following message:

     Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)

Once this condition arises no USB drives are then recognised. A reset of Windows solves the problem.

This is a new situation.

Can anyone suggest a remedy.

Regards

Tony

[BeemerBiker]

The following should help

https://bitrebels.com/technology/solved-windows-10-usb-error-code-38-device-manager/

for method 4 use the HP Support Assistant instead (or in addition)

Make sure always use the USB eject feature when removing a USB device. Not sure if this applies in your case, but some devices, such as iPhone,  do no  show up in the USB eject app.  Use the iTunes eject feature for iPhones even if you never use iTunes for anything else.

You should be able to uninstall the device and then 'scan for new hardware"  and not have to reboot.  Obviously, problem needs to be fixed too.

[StefWils]

Similar issue on EliteBook 850 G4 and ProBook 650 G8.

I insert a D-Link DWM-222 that shoud behave like a memory stick.

I works until I remove the stick (even if I use eject device). Then when I re-insert the stick, I face the error 38 .

To recover, I have to reboot the computer. Then it works fine, until I remove the stick and re-insert. Then I reboot to make it working again.

Updated all HP drivers/bios. Windows 10 20H2.

Note that on another laptop (Menovo ThinkPad), it works perfectly. Note the thinkpad was not installed using the same methos as the HP ones (HP via SCCM, Lenovo via manual install)

Any clue ?

[TC42]

Sorry for the late response to suggestions. Strangely this problem has been healed. Perhaps a Windows update corrected the problem.

Again, thanks for people taking the time to respond.

Regards

Tony