Your laptop is not recognizing the USB device? Fix it in with a few simple steps!

Windows users may have often faced the problem that the USB flash drive, data cards or external hard drives are not recognized by Windows upon plugging in. On such occasions, the operating system usually pops up a message saying that the ‘USB Device Not Recognized'. This kind of an error occurs mainly when a USB driver or some other function related to it is not working.

It is not difficult to solve this error, but the causes could be different for different computers and USB devices. This article gives you an elementary level solution which you can adopt to fix the USB problems on your computer.

Remove the Power Supply

If you are having a Windows laptop, try plugging it out from the power socket while having the USB inserted. Thereafter your USB drive may be recognized and you can plug the power adapter back into the socket. Alternatively, you can also try shutting down your system and then restart it after waiting for a couple of minutes. Plug in your USB drive after that and it should be recognized by the system now.

Uninstall the USB device driver and re-insert the device

Your USB drive not being recognized may also be due to an outdated or corrupted driver. Follow the steps mentioned below to fix this problem:

1. From the Start menu go to Device Manager.
2. Find ‘Disk Drives' under Device Manager to get the list of hardware.
3. Uninstall the USB device drive by right-clicking on it.
4. Unplug the USB device and wait for a minute. Then re-insert the device and the driver should install automatically.
5. Log on to Windows Explorer to check if the USB is working.

These steps mentioned above should resolve the USB related problem. Besides these, you may also try the following procedure.

Install the latest drivers from Windows Updates

If the USB drivers are out of date, you may get the latest ones from the Windows Updates. This can be done as follows:

1. You can find the Windows Update pane from the Start menu. Click on it and the page will open up.
2. On the Windows Update page, click on ‘Check for Updates' button. This will scan your system for the devices that require an update.
3. Click on ‘Review Optional Updates' followed by ‘Install Updates' so that the updates start loading.
4. Once the updates get installed, restart your machine for the changes to take effect. You might also be intercepted by a message asking you to restart the machine.

Reinstall USB controllers

This is another method which helps resolve problems with USB. It does a reinstallation of the USB controllers when they become dysfunctional. The process is as follows:

1. Once again find the Device Manager from the Start menu and expand the ‘Universal Serial Bus Controllers'.
2. Right click on each device and uninstall them one after the other.
3. Restart your system when all the devices get uninstalled. The reinstallation will begin automatically.

It many happen sometimes that your USB devices is not functioning. As discussed earlier, this is mostly caused by drivers going corrupt or out of date, though the actual reason may be difficult to discern. Try the procedures mentioned above to get it fixed. These steps have been able to solve the concerned problems on most of the occasions. You are advised to keep a track on the latest drivers and have them installed as soon as they are out.