I received a Verbatim "Tuff & Tiny", 16GB flash drive yesterday to store photos off of my desktop computer. That computer is a home built unit approx 6 years old, running XP Home SP1. It's used primarily for running simulator programs with little to no internet browsing. The photos loaded on to the flash drive with no problems.
The computer assigns it the drive letter "H" and the drive is a FAT 32 file system.

Now the problem comes when I insert the flash drive into any of three USB ports on this HP ZV6000 laptop I'm on.....it doesn't see it.

This laptop runs XP Home SP2 and is approx 5 years old.

This laptop also fails to see my LG Octane phone that has an 8GB memory card.... BUT....the desktop sees it as a USB mass storage device.

This laptop sees my Nikon D40 when it's connected as well as it sees my Sansa Mp3 player so I know the USB ports work.
The desktop sees these also.

Any advice as to why the older desktop running an out of date OS, as far as updates and SPs are concerned, sees it, but yet this "newer" laptop doesn't?

The Windows services match on each computer, as far as what is running and disabled.
For the record, my wife's Toshiba laptop with Vista fails to see the flash drive as well.

Any ideas?

 

Answers.com - Why Windows xp does not recognize flash drive This may or may not help.

 

Thanks but that doesn't help as the flash drive is not even seen under Disk Management.
In that answer, "F" is not even used on this laptop...I have just a "C" drive and the DVD/CD as "E".

Now there is a "Digital Camera" shown under My Computer when you open it up.

I don't use that as this computer sees my Nikon camera. Is there a way to remove that "device"?
Also, would not the computer make that "tone" when something is connected via USB...like my camera and Mp3 player do?

 

A computer that is running Windows XP cannot detect a USB flash drive, an Apple iPod, or an external hard disk drive OK, give this a try.

 

Thanks again but to use that I need to update to SP3.

The desktop is running SP1 and will see the flash drive so I would "think" this version of XP SP2 would see it.

Oh well, thanks again.

 

I'm pulling this out of very vague memory somewhere, so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Somewhere in one of the XP service packs, support for USB 2.0 was put in. If the older computer had USB 1.1 ports only, it would recognize the flash drive in 1.1 mode. But if the newer computer only had USB 2.0 ports there might not be drivers for them without a later service pack.

Look in the Device Manager under Universal Serial Bus Controllers. So you see a USB2 Enhanced Controller there? With the drive plugged in, do you see a USB Mass Storage Device?

 

I'd start here. See if there is any error message in the device manager. You can also check your services to make sure the plug and play service is running.

For the record, I'm not really computer smart. I've just been trying to fix issues with my stupid laptop for the last several weeks so I've been playing around in these areas recently.

 

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I think that your basic problem may be the SP1 machine. SP2 was a huge change, and there may have been some goofy problem in SP1. Upping your desktop to SP2 or SP3 could fix your problem, or it could make it unreadable on your desktop as well.

The reason that I think that you have an SP1 problem is that it fails on 2 other machines. If you could find a third machine to test it on, it would be even more of a clue. Make sure that whatever other machine you run on has good antivirus just in case this is some goofy bug. ( I would doubt it, but you'd hate to cause anybody else a problem.)

As far as the drive letters, they don't mean anything. Computers assign letters to USB ports based on what other devices are already there. When I move drives between my laptop and my desktop the letters get switched.
(I think that they must have fixed that issue about conflicting drive letters, but I don't use any network drives)

You could also try reformatting the USB drive with your desktop. Then just put a few files on it, and see how it works.

Does your desktop report it as a 16GB device?

Do you properly eject the drive when you move it? (The little remove hardware gimmick seems to be the best for that).

I'm not offering a lot of help here, but I don't want to suggest anything that might make things worse .

Good Luck,

hj

 

Try going to the HP website and making sure you have the latest BIOS updates.

 

Sorry to be late in replying with Christmas and all...

The desktop pc with XP SP1 "sees" the flash drive. It shows up in "My Computer" as drive "H". This desktop also sees any device plugged into a USB port...from my Mp3 player to my Nikon camera. Even my LG Octane phone shows up as mass storage. I have 6 gigs of photos that I loaded onto the flash drive with the desktop pc. It is formatted as a Fat32 file system.

Now on this laptop..XP SP2....it sees my Mp3 player and Nikon camera.

It will not see the flash drive nor the LG phone.
The flash drive is also not seen under Vista nor under XP SP2 on an older Gateway machine.

All the services for disk management etc.....are "on" in Windows Services.

Thanks for the info everyone!

 

Why would you not upgrade to the latest Service Pack? Doing that will allow you to "see" the newer flash drives. If those flash drives are larger than 2 gig, you will need to buy a newer flash card reader. I too, run XP, but I did do the upgrades as they were released. My "in computer" card reader will NOT read Flash Cards larger than 2 gig. After spending $9.95 on a new USB multi-card reader, I can read anything that is sold today!

 

this is from the guy who fixes all my 'puters when I screw them upthanks Bud!!!!!!

 

Let me get this straight....if I upgrade the laptop to SP3...it will see the 16gb flash drive......is this what you are saying?

If so, why will a machine running XP Home...SP1 see it?

I'm confused! LOL!

 

Did you check for BIOS updates at HP yet?