USB Device Not Recognized - USB device attached has malfunctioned & Windows does not recognize it

[healetphew]

I have an HP Pavilion dv4 Notebook running Windows 7 Home Premium and the USB ports worked fine for an HP deskjet printer and an older Casio digital camera. Then one day, the laptop decided not to recognize the Casio digital camera and gave the error message "USB Device Not Recognized" and also indicated that the device attached to the computer has malfunctioned. This prompted me to buy a new Canon digital camera. Well, a new camera did not fix the problem. Now, anything connected to either of the 2 USB ports will not be recognized by my laptop. Help!  I'm at a loss to figure this out.  I've tried the suggested Microsoft help below: 

Suggestion 1: For the issue with USB devices, uninstall and re-install all the USB controllers. This lets the controllers recover the USB port from its unresponsive condition.
The USB controllers represent the USB ports in Device Manager.

a. Click Start, type device manager in the Start search box and hit Enter.
b. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Note: You might have to scroll down the list to find this item.
c. Right-click the first USB controller under Universal Serial Bus controllers, and then click Uninstall to remove it.
d. Repeat the above step for each USB controller that is listed under Universal Serial Bus controllers.
e. Restart the computer. After the computer starts, Windows will automatically scan for hardware changes and reinstall all the USB controllers that you uninstalled.
f. Check the USB device to see whether it is working.

This did not correct the problem.  Then from device manager, I tried updating drivers on all the USB controllers and root hubs. While some may have received downloaded software updates, it still did not correct the USB device not recognized problem after restarting the computer.  I'm hoping someone knows of the fix to this situation and can pass it along to me. Thanks for reading and posting any help.

[healetphew · Accepted solution]

Reading previous posts has revealed the solution to USB devices not recognized on my HP Pavilion as well as several other laptop computers models.  Shut down the computer and remove the battery and wait about 15 minutes. Reinstall battery and start computer again.  USB ports are working to download pictures from my Canon digital camera and charging a cell phone, etc..   Hope this helps others with this problem!

[CLTKiter]

Thank you so much.  My HP IPAQ 111 stopped communicating with Windows.  When I plugged it in, it charged, but there was no indication that Windows recognized it at all.  I was about to try it on an XP machine that I had when I ran across this article.  I took the battery out for 15 minutes, and voila!  It now syncs with my PC.

Thank you!!

Doug

[SYEDABDULKALEEM]

my computer malfunction, please salove

[655micha]

usb flash device is not work

[AxshunJaxun]

Hey 655micha, 

I'm sorry you're having an issue with a USB device. Do you get an error window that pops up? If so what does it say? Have you checked Device Manager? Is is just one device that isn't working? Has it ever worked before? Is it just one USB port in particular that isn't recognizing devices? 

What model do you have? Here are the steps to find your product number. FN + ESC is the easiest way to find that information. 

[Fadel914]

Hi,

I have been experiencing the same issue with my notebook HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC Product Number A7P81EA#A2N Serial Number {Personal Information Removed} and the message says " one of your usb's attached to your computer has malfunctioned" it always pups off once I log in and it's very annoying. Any solution for this problem?. Thanks

[655micha]

But not work the usb

[AxshunJaxun]

@Fadel914

I'm sorry you're running into this USB error. Thanks for providing your product number. Could you tell me what you see in Device Manager or even get a screen shot of your Device Manager. You're looking for any yellow caution triangles/symbols. 

[Fadel914]