We figured out that Avast was not causing the problem. But you can still help me fix my flash drive if you want
I run Windows XP with avast version 4.6 home.
Anyway, I’ve had this problem for a while now. My flash drive seems to work on every computer except mine. Mine is the only computer with avast. The flash drive is not broken.
I have been able to run the flash drive on this computer before I installed avast.
But just to make sure I did a little playing around with the advanced information displays in avast and here is what I found. When I tell my standard shield to “show detailed information on performed action” and plug in my drive it scans a ton of files in my system32 folder. I assume this is normal, however after this the drive does not load as if windows recognized it as an external memory drive.
I’m not entirely sure if avast is blocking my flash drive, but as I stated above, I have several reasons to believe it is.
I have no other virus/scanning programs that actively run all the time.
I have no problems with USB flash drives using WIN98, but I would suggest you try one thing.
Before mentioning this I would suggest that other forum members more knowledgable than me may have a much better and possibly safer approach.
With that said if you were to take your flash drive and scan it on another computer with several Virus scanners including not only the local resident scanning engine for that specific computer, but also scan it with some other ONLINE scanning engines such as Kaspery online scan and a couple of others. (I say this because apparently you are able to access another computer to know that it is not a problem with your flash drive).
Once you are convinced that your flash drive is safe and virus free and without adding anything to your drive try using your computer and turn OFF your webshield and ONLY plug in your flash drive (do nothing else which could be a risk virus wise) and see if you still have the problem. This would safely eliminate Avast intervention.
Again some others may have better (safer) advice to try first. ;D
Why do you think you came to the wrong place? ;D
Here is the place for help
Have you already look if the manufacture site has the driver for XP?
Is your XP fully updated?
The website does have one exe file that installs the drivers for my flash drive. When you run them normally, it says “Only for windows 98.” When I run them in win98 combatibility mode, they appear to be installed, but the thing still does not work. I believe XP is supposed to automatically recognize flash drives without drivers. That’s how it works on every other computer I test the flash drive on.
I ran windows update earlier today and nothing was out of date. It downloaded a few security packs or whatever, but they did not affect the drive.
I did notice something. When I plug in the drive, the device manager does recognize it. Except, it only recognizes it as an unknown device with no drivers. That’s clearly the problem.
When I plug in my camera, it works. It reads the device as a mass storage usb device and opens as H:\
You should only need to add drivers if you are connecting to a WIN98SE OS. All other OS’s should not need additional drivers at all. As I have WIN98SE I always have to install drivers if for any NEW manufacturer I use for flash drives. Once the manufacturer has installed the drivers they are usually available at that time for any other flash drives I buy in the future for that same manufacturer.
Probably the reason you only see WIN98SE drivers on the web site is because additional drivers should not be necessary for OS’s after WIN98SE and so that is all they have available as a result.
Bottom line if your using XP OS, then the drivers should already be built in the device and installed when you plug the flash drive into your USP connection. ???
What I do like about WIN98 is I don’t have to remember to click the disconnect software button as it disconnect automatically when I unplug it.
Which is what brought me to believe avast was the culprit. I knew windows would automatically recognize the thing. It has done so in the past year just fine up until recently. But suddenly it has been completely unresponsive and avast has been going nuts on plug in. This is really frustrating.
I assume that when you have the Standard Sheild OFF, then the “Detailed Information” shows nothing happening and the Avast ball does not spin, correct ?
If all of this is true it would appear that Avast is not the problem.
Posted by Tech:
... Does it automatically recognize new hardware (is a Windows Service)?
If nothing happens and your Device Manager has the device lilsted as “Uknown Device with no Drivers” as you stated have you tried right clicking on that entry to fix it ?
You should get the option to fix this and update the drivers if necessary.
I assume that when you disconnect the Flash Drive then the Device Manager no longer has this entry ? If you are unable to fix the device in Device Manager you could try removing the device in Device Manager when it is plugged in the USB and then try unplugging and then plugging the Flash Drive back in to see if it will then correct the problem.
Yes, when the standard shield is off, nothing shows up. You guys were right. Not avast.
Here is what is happening. I plug in the drive and it recognizes it as the unknown thing. With XP there is no way to “fix” a device. You can update the drivers (in which case it goes looking for them on my hard drives and disk drives), you can roll back the drivers (in which case it goes looking for a backup of the old drivers, which do not exist), or you can uninstall the device.
I did what you said. I uninstalled, unplugged, and replugged it. I got the message at the bottom that says “new hardware found”
and “your hardware is ready to use”
followed by “this is an unknown device, in all my years as an operating system I have never seen a USB device like this and it bewilders me so I will label it as unknown and laugh at you when you sleep at night.”
So then I am left with the same thing I had before. An unknown device in my device manager list that refuses to become known.
“this is an unknown device, in all my years as an operating system I have never seen a USB device like this and it bewilders me so I will label it as unknown and laugh at you when you sleep at night.”
I have never seen any messages on my machine with a sense of humor. 8)
Well, when I bought it, I went by price and user comments (newegg). The one I picked just so happens to be an ADATA RB-1. ADATA, as I just recently found out, is a Taiwanese company. The drives they make are fine and just like most drives on the market. But it’s not one of the more common american friendly companies. I guess I’ll go ahead and give their tech support a try. Hopefully they speak english.
