So you’re clicking along on your PC and everything is working great. Suddenly USB devices that have previously given you no grief are no longer recognized by Windows. You try all the usual stuff and continue to get a “USB Device Not Recognized” error:

  • Unplug / reconnect the USB device
  • Plug the device into a different port
  • Reinstall the driver for the device
  • Reinstall the driver for the USB port
  • Bypass the USB hub
  • Wiggle it
  • Swear at it

Of course none of these methods work and you start to fear that perhaps a massive power surge wiped out all your USB devices at once.

Dead USB

 

Fear not, for there is a simple solution to your problem: Unplug your computer. That’s right, completely unplug the power supply.

New-fangled computers don’t turn completely off when you shut them down. Sure, they’re dark and quiet, but some of the circuitry remains powered up. This can include the USB chips, presumably so features like “wake on space bar” will work. Sometimes they get a little confused and need to be reset, but just shutting the machine down doesn’t do it. If you completely remove power from the system for several seconds then fire everything back up it should fix your problem.

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