USB Driver

I let my brother borrow my laptop the other day to put music on his iPod touch, but there seems to be some kind of issue with his iPod touch where it's not being recognized by any computer. I have my own ipod touch and my laptop recognizes it fine as well as other devices that I connect to my laptop via USB (my camera, phone, external hard drive etc). After I left my brother at home with my laptop for a few hours I returned to find none of my devices are recognized by my laptop anymore. I checked in the device manager and now all of my USB ports need to have the drivers re-installed, but I have no clue which drivers I need to install. I thought I might need to re-install the chipset driver for my model of laptop but that did nothing. I have a Gateway MX7515 Notebook (Running Windows XP). Does anybody know which files I need to install? This is the list Gateway gives me as far as drivers for my model, but I don't see any of them helping with my problem.

Code:

My Media Reader Download 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	9533125.exe - Gateway Memory Card Reader Driver Revision: 1.02
Supports:  Windows XP 	11/8/2005
4,286 KB

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		My Modem Downloads 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	D00324-001-001.exe - Gateway Notebook Conexant V.92 Modem Driver Version: 7.20.00.50
Supports:  Windows XP 	2/6/2006
1,469 KB

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		My Motherboard Downloads 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	9533116.exe - Gateway AMD Chipset Driver Version: 5.10.1000.4
Supports:  Windows XP, Windows 2000 	11/2/2005
3,721 KB

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		My Network Downloads 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	BCM40100.exe - Broadcom Wireless Driver Version 4.100.15.5
Supports:  Windows XP 	11/28/2006
77,858 KB

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	D00464-001-001.exe - Gateway Broadcom Wireless Network Drivers Version: 3.100.64.1
Supports:  Windows XP, Windows 2000 	8/1/2006
7,007 KB

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	9533119.exe - Gateway Marvell Yukon NIC Driver Version: 8.24.3.3
Supports:  Windows XP 	10/13/2005
4,580 KB

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		My Processor Downloads 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	9533114.exe - Gateway AMD CPU Power Now Driver Version: 1.1.0.18
Supports:  Windows XP 	11/2/2005
4,387 KB

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		My Sound Downloads 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	9533121.exe - Gateway Conexant Audio Driver Version: 6.14.10.0585
Supports:  Windows XP 	10/12/2005
1,390 KB

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		My Touchpad Downloads 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	D00243-001-002.exe - Gateway Notebook Touchpad Driver Version: 7.12.3.0
Supports:  Windows XP 	3/2/2006
5,296 KB

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		My Video Downloads 		
		
	Description 	File Info
		
				
		
	9533362.exe - Gateway ATI Video Drivers and ATI Control Panel Revision: 6.14.10.6553
Supports:  Windows XP 	11/8/2005
42,730 KB

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PS (I already tried allowing the device manager to upgrade it automatically but it can't find the drivers.)

 

You want the AMD Chipset driver. It should contain the correct USB descriptors, but if you had that version installed it might not get that far. Also, before installing the AMD chipset driver, rightclick MyComputer->Properties->Hardware->DeviceManager and untwist Universal Serial Bus Controllers... what shows up there? What is there after you reinstall the AMD chipset driver?

Oh, and ask your brother what he did, and then smack him around some. And don't ever let him borrow your laptop again.

 

Just checking before I **** up any further, but by untwist you mean uninstall?

 

By "untwist" I mean click on the "+" in the box next to "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" It is sometimes referred to as a "twistie". It will show you all the USB ports and hubs and what it thinks they are.

 

I already installed the chipset drivers again, but that didn't work. I used the version listed which was recommended by the gateway support site. Should I be installing another version? This is what it looks like when I untwist the USB controllers in the device manager.

 

The exclamation points mean that there is a problem with the device. Did your brother say what he did?

What usually works for me... Go into each one and delete all three USB controllers and reboot. If Windows does not find new devices, then go into control panel and use the Add hardware wizard. That usually works for me.

 

No he's just being really stupid and pretending he hasn't done anything. I'll try your suggestion. This sucks. Thanks so much for your help, I'll let you know if it works.

 

Did what you said but I get this prompt: "The Hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software. Click Back if you have a CD-ROM or if you know the location of the software."

 

You may also want to try here -> http://driver-pro.com/related/engli...mCg5cCFRKAxgodawt1dA&hit=1&sofl=9&adurl=12036 to find the latest driver for your motherboard. Your MB uses ATI RX480M. ATI got bought out by AMD a few years ago, so it also shows up as AMD RX480M. That's why it shows up as AMD in the Gateway web site.

 

And now that the USB devices are gone it may be the time to reinstal the motherboard driver.

 

Will this make me lose anything?

 

If you are talking about driver detective, then I don't know. My experience has been largely with VIA, nvidia and Intel based motherboards. But now that you've deleted the USB controllers in Device manager, I'd try reinstalling the Gateway drivers first.

 

I don't suppose you have a recent restore point to fall back on?

 

i back up all of my stuff on my external hard drive which i connect with to via USB. If this process will allow me to use my external hard drive i'll be fine. Heck, even if it doesn't restore to a very recent point I'll be okay as long as I can access the data on the my external hard drive. The only thing is I've already tried installing the chipset drivers for my laptop (the ones recommended by gateway) and nothing changes.

 

This driver? http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=20347&uid=106242846. I think that is the inital driver. But I found it recommended here -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=32371

Another option is to allow Windows to search the web for your drivers. Sometimes it actually works and it will ask you before it installs a driver.

 

yes that's the driver i've tried to install several times without any luck. in the hardware update wizard i've also chosen the option to install the software automatically several times but that never works (i don't know if this is what you meant by allowing windows to search the web for my drivers).

 

I just found some weird **** in my computer....
No clue what this means or what to do with these files.

 

The other thing to try is to install new hardware via the Add hardware wizard. If it detects the USB controller, tell it you want to select the drivers from a list, and look for your drivers in the list that comes up. If it doesn't detect the USB controller, tel it you've already installed the hardware. It will come up with a list. If you don't see your USB controllers in the list, scroll down to the bottom and click "add a new hardware device" and click next. On the next screen select the option to install drivers from a list (Advanced) and look for your USB controllers there.

But BEFORE you try the above. Go into BIOS and disable your USB controller and reboot and let windows come up and run for a little bit. Reboot again just to make sure. Reboot a third time and go into BIOS and reenable USB. Windows should recognise the "new" USB hardware on the next reboot. If that still doesn't work, try the above.

 

Oh? Do tell... Inquiring minds, you know

 

just found these backup driver files from a few days ago (the day i left my laptop with my brother) that I hadn't noticed before. I really don't know how they got there or what he did to get them there but I'm assuming they have something to do with the current issue. Thanks for the help again, I'm about to try your two suggestions.

 

If that doesn't work, I'm out of ideas that don't require reinstalling windows. You can install windows over windows so that it keeps all your installed applications and setting, kind of like up an upgrade, but that can sometimes introduce as many problems as it fixes. Good luck.

 

Ha, Ha I just solved the problem myself. Restored my laptop to 2 days before this entire fiasco and now it's working fine. Way more simple than I would have figured. Thanks so much again.

 

haha that's great!

 

Ah yes, restore point... reccomended in post #13. Glad you got it worked out.

 

Must've overlooked that. Thanks so much again.

 

I don't know if I have exactly the same problem, but when i install an usb device, my laptop recognizes the device, but when i click to install the drivers automatically it won't find them. When i plug them into my other PC they install just fine. My laptop worked just fine before I reformatted the hard drive. Does anyone know what could be wrong?