Last night I was fascinating USB Device Not Recognized error on my Windows PC. The error occurs when I plug in my pen drive in USB port. So I am trying to find information about this error and trying to do many things to solve this problem. The Error says,
“The last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it.”
Or
“One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message.”
First I have checked my USB drivers, but there is no problem with my USB device drivers. After that, I checked USB port but no problem with the USB ports because other devices are working correctly like my keyboard, wireless mouse, headphones, data cables, etc. The error occurs when I plug in my pen drive only. Also, I checked my pen drive in another PC and laptops, but it’s working correctly. After that, the next question on my mind is “motherboard,” but there is no problem with my motherboard. I also uninstalled USB device drivers, but it’s not working. But there are miracles when I removed the Power Supply plug, and my USB port is working. I’m shocked because I was trying many fixes, but it doesn’t work.
USB Device Not Recognized Solution 1: Remove Power Supply
Step 1:
Take off your Power Supply plug from PC.
Step 2:
Now Restart your PC.
Step 3:
Now connect your USB device to the USB ports. That’s it.
Step 4:
After the USB device connected to your PC, then plug in Power Supply to PC.
Also, works for many users: External Hard Drive(USB 3.0) Not Recognized In Windows 8.1
Solution 2: Uninstall Unknown USB device
If the above method is not working, then use below steps to solve this issue.
Step 1:
Open RUN (Windows Logo + R) and type “devmgmt.msc” and click OK.
Step 2:
Now expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Step 3:
Attach your device which is not recognized.
Step 4:
You will see an Unknown USB device (Port reset failed) with a yellow sign in Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Step 5:
Now right-click on it and click Uninstall to remove them.
Step 6:
Now restart your PC, the drivers are reinstalled automatically after the reboot. That’s it.
Step 7:
If not working, then follow below Solution.
Solution 3: Reinstall USB Drivers
If USB Device Not Recognized because of corrupt USB drivers, then below steps are solve the corrupt USB drivers and also solve USB not recognized the problem.
Step 1:
Open Device Manager (Right Click on Windows Logo and Click Device Manager).
Step 2:
Now find and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers. Now right click on USB drivers and click Uninstall. Do for all USB drivers one by one.
Step 3:
Now Restart your PC. The USB drivers are automatically re-install and solve the corrupted USB devices.
Solution 4: Working for me
I have recently found a new and working solution for USB Device Not Recognized, Unknown USB device (Port reset failed) and Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed) Error Code 43. So watch the video tutorial to solve this issue. Working For Most of Windows Users.
Solution 5: Change the USB Selective Suspend Settings
Step 1:
Right-click on the battery icon and click Power Options.
Step 2:
Click Change plan settings.
Step 3:
Now click Change advanced power settings.
Step 4:
Find and expand USB settings.
Step 5:
Expand USB selective suspend settings and Disable both On battery and Plugged in settings.
Then Click Apply and OK to save the settings. That’s it.
Watch Video Tutorial of Solution 5.
The above solutions of USB Device Not Recognized error are working for Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.
Conclusion
USB Device Not Recognized is related to your PC motherboard. The power supply connected to your USB devices and that’s the reason why this trick is working. If above solution is not working, then please comment below.
Fran says
Solution 5 worked a treat. Many thanks for sharing 🙂
Anantha says
I tried all 5 options, but it is still not working?
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Anantha,
Please tell me in brief, which type of USB device do you used?
Thank You.
Natalie says
I have just got a acer V5-122P laptop from my mum, and I put my LG USB Drive stick into my laptop, and at first it was working, but half way through when I was transferring my music to my iPhone, the laptop come up with an error message saying, the last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned and windows does not recognise it. I have tried all of the ideas you have said and it is still coming up with the message of USB device not recognised. I don’t understand how it was working then just stopped, and the USB stick is in good condition, I don’t know what else to try, and I really want to get this music of the USB stick, what would be the best move for me to make next, I would really appreciate it if you could help me solve this problem. Thank you
Jay Bokhiria says
Hello Natalie,
Have you tried restarting your laptop and then using the USB drive?
Adam says
I had the issue with a Fujitsu FI-6130 USB scanner connected to a Lenovo Yoga 12 Windows 10 laptop.
The USB issue would reappear once the scanner was disconnected and then reconnected.
Solution:
Power the device down and then power the device back on after plugging the device in – this has to be done every time the scanner is reconnected to USB.
Adam says
Edit: Power the scanner down and then power back on while the plugged into the laptop.
Leonardo Sergeev says
thanks method 3 worked a doozy!!
yash says
not worked
Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)
The USB set address request failed.
Device USB\VID_0000&PID_0004\6&29cf3a8f&0&4 was configured.
Driver Name: usb.inf
Class Guid: {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}
Driver Date: 06/21/2006
Psul says
Outstanding. Solution 5 worked for me. Thanks x 100000000000000000000.
anonymous says
Thank You so so much
Method 2 works well for me like a magic.
Maria says
Method 1 worked! Thanks so much.
Glenn says
Many thanks for this. I used Method 5.
Patric says
Thank You so so much
Method 1 works well for me like a magic.
Jack H says
Solution 5. 100% works!
You, Jay, are a gentleman and a scholar.
Rachel says
Solution 1 worked for me!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! My Garmin Forerunner 15 was on the fritz…I’d been searching for a solution for days!
Jan says
Solution/Method #1 worked for me. Thanks!!
Eugene Ufuoma says
solutiion 1, worked perfectly well
Gaura Metkar says
You rock mannnn…. solution 1 worked for me..!!!!
bob clarke says
solution 3 worked for me with windows 10 – many thinks
Jen says
Solution 3 worked – thanks!
shima says
Thanks. Method 5 did work!!!I strongly recomment it.
Mark says
Solution 5 worked for me. Thanks so much.
CAM says
Method 3 worked for me
Jann says
Wow… Method 1 worked! Thanks a lot! What kind of wizardry is this? Unplug power cable and voila?!?! Its like good old days you punced your tv a few times and problems got fixed.. Ty ty ty!
Connie says
Thank you! This was making me crazy. The power cord trick worked.
S Hemanth Kumar says
Thank you alot my friend it was very much helpful with simple explanation ..
Dawar says
Guess what, removing power from my scanner and connecting it again solved my problem.
Louis says
The first method has solved my problem, Thank you!
olrailbird says
I got this error when my USB keyboard slipped halfway out of the socket when I bumped it and then pushed it back into place. I moved the keyboard to another USB 2.0 socket, but it was still unrecognized. So I moved it to a USB 3.0 socket and it worked fine. Finally, I moved it back to the 2.0 socket and it worked normally. I am typing on it now.
Andrew Corum says
hi, i have a windows 10 computer and my gamidas hepastus headset no longer works as it is doing error 43. none of your methods have worked for me so far. im trying the windows update thing and ill reply if it works. but thank you for pointing me in the right direction to do this
Vassily Poupkine says
The first method has solved my problem.
Romasius says
Helped, nice.
1. Uninstall from device manager.
2. Turn off USB cabel.
3. Shutdown pc.
4. Unplug from power supply about 20 seconds.
5. Start pc and I can see my device (Nexus 5) and copy/get files from phone.
Hilary Smith says
Thank You! so much, both usb ports on my new laptop running Windows 8.1 malfunctioned I followed your first step switched off laptop etc and it WORKED… I cannot thank you enough as I have hardly any hair left after pulling it out trying to figure out what went wrong….. Cheers!
John Angelo Trogo says
Method 3 worked miracles for me, my memory card reader problem was solved.
sladjana says
Thank you for sharing. Method 1 helped me with Acer laptop, Logitech mouse and Windows 7.
Again, thank you so much.
Mahfuz Raqeev says
thanks for your sharing, but I have different sort of problems. when I installed windows 7, all of my usb device worked successfully. after 2 days, new usb device were not working. it says usb device not successfully installed one of the usb device malfunctioned. then i go to device management at universal serial bus controler there is no unknown device. & in the disk managemnt there is no usb device drive showne. I installed windows 7 savaral times but the problems remains same. please tell me how to fix it?
Gabriel Epp says
Hi, it didn´t work for my laptop either. The USB port with the problem, says the following; “Unknown USB Device (Devicce Descriptor Request Failed)”. Do you have any idea of which could be the problem?
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Gabriel Epp,
Don’t worry. I will find the solution and it’s working 100%. I will add a Video Tutorial in few days, to fix this issue and it’s Working 100%. So please keep visiting.
Thank You.
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Gabriel Epp,
Here is your solutions, How To Fix USB Device Not Recognized – Error Code 43.
Thank You.
S Sen says
Changing USB cable did the trick. Thank you.
Katumba says
it really worked for me.
Thank you
shivansh says
usb device not recognised error: the given solution does not work. when i apply method 2 universal serial bus controllers doesnot show any unknown usb device with yellow icon. please help in solving this issue
Emron says
Hey I uninstall all USB devise how can I re install them please help me
Kurtimus says
1st option worked for me on a Dell XPS 18 touchscreen. Thanks!
T.SATHISH KUMAR says
how to reinstall the universal serial Bus controllers
Jack Doe says
Hi, I was confused on how your PC would start up if your Power Supply Unit was not connected. I am referring to method one.
tarun says
how to reinstall usb drivers
Umesh says
I tried method 2 and the issue was resolved on my windows 8 laptop. Thank you!
Utkaarsh Jathar says
My laptop is not reading my pendrive with O.S. windows 8.1
Utkaarsh Jathar says
what can i do when my lappy is not getting my pendrive
Don says
I did each and every fix and came up with nothing… Then I changed my USB cord… It worked….
Alan Ceey says
This solution worked fine for me I Just removed the power supply deleted the malfunctioning driver connected my iPhone Back and here we go it was been recognized by the PC thanks a million…..Chao:)
Sunil says
I had the same problem on my PC with window XP. The device manager showed all USB ports as working normal. Finally, I used the QuickHeal antivirus tool to remove all adwares and malwares and bingo, all the USB ports started working normally. Apparently, these were blocking access. Thought I should share this. Thanks.
JJ says
This worked for me, solution #1 disconnecting the power supply etc. on a Toshiba Laptop.
Thanks!
aliensperm says
Hi my Nokia lumia 1020 wont connect via usb (yes I’m using the original cable) to my computer. It keeps saying the same message about how the device has malfunctioned, I tried it on another computer it didn’t work. I have uninstalled all devices, followed all your steps, everything is up to date etc its still not working. It registers for about 10 second before cutting out which makes it very hard to uninstall the specific usb but I followed your directions and uninstalled all and its still not working. Please help
Frank Watson says
What I did was use a four port hub.
1. plugged in the four port hub and waited for the computer
2. plug in the usb device to the four port hub.
3. safely disconnect the device (it should have been recognized).
4 plug the device into the computer without the 4 port hub.
I do not know why but it worked for me and my wife both on a win 8.1 and a win 7 machine.
kunal says
it is not working for my pc plese help me.
han says
thank you so much for this! the second method worked for me with windows 8
Rakesh says
I had recently bought a Sandisk cruser blade USB 16 GB. It’s driver is not installing on my Laptop when I am trying to update that automatically as u suggested above its getting an error “Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it” and “Access is denied”.
Could you please help me to sought out this.
Nick says
Hi all, I tried all the steps again and the mouse cursor appeared but would not move. So i reset again and lo and behold it works again. A very interesting and highly irritating problem. Think I’ll backup and bin this buggy old machine before it plays up again.
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Nick,
In Method 2 follow steps after Step 4:
Step 5:
Right click on it and click Update Driver Software.
Step 6:
Now click Browse my computer for driver software.
Step 7:
Click Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
Step 8:
Now select drivers and click Next.
That’s it.
khuram shezad says
thanks port is working fine thanks again
Nick says
Nope. Tried all the steps above. Spent 2 days on it. Yellow triangle every time. Complete mystery this. All the USB ports work with all other devices. Mouse works fine on another pc. No mouse works on mine. Will get a PS/2 mouse and try that.
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Nick,
Use Windows Update. Windows automatically find latest USB drivers.
1. Go to Search and type “Windows Update”.
2. Click Windows Update and then click Check for updates.
3. After complete process of checking then Install it.
Thank You.
Md. Masum Billah says
Dear experts,
I am using ACER Espire 5742 core i5 laptop. I have 3 usb ports one is in left side which is working properly and another 2 ports are in right side which used to work properly but now says usb device not recognized. Even I plug a usb card reader or usb pendrive still it says usb device not recognized. I am facing too much problem. I tried al tricks includes microsoft fix it tool. but it has still the same issue.
Can anybody tell me how can I get help on this issue??? I need your help.
thanks
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Md. Masum Billah,
Use Windows Update. Windows automatically find latest USB drivers.
1. Go to Search and type “Windows Update”.
2. Click Windows Update and then click Check for updates.
3. After complete process of checking then Install it.
Thank You.
Nick says
I can’t go to Search and click anything as my usb mouse is not recognised and therefore does not work.
Salman says
First of all you should know that Windows N versions (for example Windows 8.1 Enterprise N) doesn’t have Microsoft Windows Media Pack Feature.
This pack is necessary for windows to recognize your android phone.
You can search and download it from Microsoft website for free.
vincent says
When this problem came to my pc i started to feel insane.because all your fix solution did not work for me so i started looking at my motherboard noticed my usb port to the motherboard was inserted vertically so i put it on the original place then put a usb drive and worked properly no restart was done just looked at the usb port of your motherboard if it is properly inserted.
Xahshy says
My game controller was working on my laptop earlier, but recently it doesn’t work, and if i connect the controller and press the analog light it ons. And it even makes connectiong sound, but it doesn’t work. Any help please?
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Xahshy,
First check it on other laptop or PC and check your game controller working or not.
Thank You.
Matt says
I’m having a similar issue, my controller won’t work and gives 43 on my new computer, but worked fine on my old one. I tried these fixes and none of them worked.
Nathan says
(FIXED!) This problem nearly sent me insane. The fix for me finally, and I’m guessing for a lot of people is making sure you’re using a good micro USB cable. These things are everywhere at the moment and the cheap ones are rubbish, also even if you started with a good one there’s a chance you’ve traded with your friends (in my case several times I’m sure.) Hope I can save someone the torture I went through 😉
Victor says
I followed all the steps in 3 PCs. Issue is not fixed. What to do?
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Victor,
In Step 5:
right click on it and click Scan for hardware changes.
Thank You.
amit says
I had uninstall all the driver and install automatically they install but not successfully install and yellow marks showing continually.
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Amit,
Again Remove All drivers and find compatible drivers and MANUALLY Download drivers,
Thank You.
lalit says
I ALSO HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM ….
CHANGED THE USB CABLE IT STARTS WORKING…….
ITS NOT ABOUT THE DEVICE, IT WAS ABOUT THE MALFUNCTIONED CABLE……TRY IT FIRST……ND REPLACE CHEAP CABLES….
Digvijay says
Yeah man it works. thanks for giving idea of replacing cable. thanks
Arne says
This does not work for me on Dell Inspiron 5110. I haven’t got any USB connected to the computer and it still says “unknown device connected” …
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Arne,
Download and Install Microsoft Fix it.
Thank You.
Arne says
Microsoft Fix it did not work. Finding correct drivers is kind of hard when you don’t have anything connected…and still get the stupid message of unknown USB-device!
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Arne,
First check drivers are up to date or not. You can see list for Dell N5110 Here. Also try Diagnostics option available in link that I provide.
Thank You.
Vitto says
I’ve got the same issue. I tried the printer device on another PC and it still isn’t recognized. The diver is up to date. The above tricks done. but..
sajith says
ya it’s work. thank you
Hugh says
Neither fix (Removing Power cable & restarting or uninstalling finally ALL USB serial bus controllers) worked for me (AcerAspireOne with XP then Win7)
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Hugh,
Thanks for sharing this information.
Angus says
How would this work on a laptop that is on windows 8?
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Angus,
Try this: External Hard Drive(USB 3.0) Not Recognized In Windows 8.1
Thank You.
Dustin says
This dosnt work for me on my pc all the ports are not working but it sometimes reads the device and starts updating the driver but then fails and wont work.
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Dustin,
I will solve your problem soon, please keep patience and keep visiting.
Thank You.
Mie says
when i restart my laptop the device starts to install but after that it says unsuccessful 🙁 What should i do then? Help me please
Jay Bokhiria says
Hi Mie,
I’m working on this issue, if I found anything about your problem then I will tell you.
Thank You.