"Device driver not found" with ANY (new) USB 3.0 device

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
It wasn't just the card reader y'all...

My Reddit posts keep getting buried and forgotten about so I am just going to copy and paste my most recent one below. Any help is appreciated, thank you!

I'm about to throw this ******* computer out of my window if I cannot find a solution for this.

So I have a new external hard drive, flash drive, and card reader for school things. All of them are USB 3.0.

When I plug any of them into any port on my PC it goes "dundundun" and says the device driver software is not found or cannot be found.

I tried disabling and reenabling the devices in hardware manager but it didn't work.

Looking further my windows update has been turned off since 2015 (idek why) but I turned it back on and let it download the ~2GB of updates I had and install them all but it still isn't working.

On the other hand, my older usb 3 devices such as my backup drive and other flash drive, and all usb 2 devices such as my keyboard dongle or phone dock all work fine. It's just if I try to plug in any USB 3 device that hasn't been used with my computer before that this happens. I even tried my friends flash drive and it happened with that too.

Also before anyone says it, a clean reinstall of Windows is not an option for me. My family also uses this PC and between all of our data and programs it'll take a week to restore the PC if I wipe it and redo it.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
When was the last time you ran Ccleaner? Usually when I come across a system that has trouble with usb devices, I run ccleaner and then malwareware programs and it usually cleans it right up and allows usb to work right away. You could also try removing all usb entries in device manager and reboot. But run ccleaner, malwarebytes, adwcleaner first and let me know how much data was removed by cleaner and what was found by the other 2.
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
When was the last time you ran Ccleaner? Usually when I come across a system that has trouble with usb devices, I run ccleaner and then malwareware programs and it usually cleans it right up and allows usb to work right away. You could also try removing all usb entries in device manager and reboot. But run ccleaner, malwarebytes, adwcleaner first and let me know how much data was removed by cleaner and what was found by the other 2.
I have never ran CCleaner before but I will download it and give it a try and let you know what happens. I do have Malwarebytes, I ran it 2 days ago overnight and it didn't hit anything.

I really hope this starts heading in the right direction, because this is quite possibly the most annoying "minor inconvenience" I have had to deal with lol.
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
CCleaner removed 11 things, Adwcleaner removed 21 things, and I am now running Malwarebytes and I'll get back to you on what happens with that.

Also somewhere during all of this my computer lost the ability to open ZIP files and I had to use 7Zip to open the zips for the programs.
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
Malwarebytes caught 2 things and here is the report from that:
Malwarebytes
www.malwarebytes.com

-Log Details-
Scan Date: 9/8/18
Scan Time: 7:26 PM
Log File: 96dac7b0-b3be-11e8-bed9-6c626dc9e214.json

-Software Information-
Version: 3.5.1.2522
Components Version: 1.0.441
Update Package Version: 1.0.6721
License: Trial

-System Information-
OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1
CPU: x64
File System: NTFS
User: The-Blue-Beast\Calvin Williams

-Scan Summary-
Scan Type: Threat Scan
Scan Initiated By: Manual
Result: Completed
Objects Scanned: 272036
Threats Detected: 2
Threats Quarantined: 2
Time Elapsed: 5 min, 16 sec

-Scan Options-
Memory: Enabled
Startup: Enabled
Filesystem: Enabled
Archives: Enabled
Rootkits: Disabled
Heuristics: Enabled
PUP: Detect
PUM: Detect

-Scan Details-
Process: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Module: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Key: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Value: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Data Stream: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Folder: 0
(No malicious items detected)

File: 2
PUP.Optional.Spigot, C:\USERS\CALVIN WILLIAMS\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Sync Data\SyncData.sqlite3, Replaced, [170], [454814],1.0.6721
PUP.Optional.Spigot, C:\USERS\CALVIN WILLIAMS\APPDATA\LOCAL\GOOGLE\CHROME\USER DATA\Default\Web Data, Replaced, [170], [454814],1.0.6721

Physical Sector: 0
(No malicious items detected)

WMI: 0
(No malicious items detected)


(end)
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
I'm sure Ccleaner removed more then 11 things if you've never ran it. How many GB of data did it remove? If you are having problems with file associations there could be something else going on.
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
It said it removed 11 things. I ran the portable version of it and I do not have the log but it was not a lot of data. I just remember they were all PUPS in my appdata folder.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
I don't think you ran ccleaner as it don't remove PUPS. This is what ccleaner looks like.

ccleaner.jpg
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
Sorry my memory isn't that great. Still CCleaner removed 11 things from my appdata folder but I cannot recall what or how much and since I ran portable I cannot get the log now.
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
I will try to reinstall the actual Renesas USB 3.0 drivers and if that does not fix it I will do a clean reinstall after I make a ton of backups.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Your motherboard only has 2 usb 3.0 ports. Are you trying the usb 2.0 ports as well? If so, then the usb 3.0 driver isn't to blame. Do you have a usb 3.0 hub?
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Then its something with your pc, not the usb 3.0 driver. I have a feeling the only way to solve is a fresh install of windows. In order to remove all usb entries in device manager, you would have to use a ps/2 type mouse not usb.
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
Then its something with your pc, not the usb 3.0 driver. I have a feeling the only way to solve is a fresh install of windows. In order to remove all usb entries in device manager, you would have to use a ps/2 type mouse not usb.
I'll do a fresh reinstall on one of my off days then.

Out of pure curiosity do you know what could even cause this to happen, like what would make my computer suddenly unable to use USB 3.0 devices or open zips?
 

The VCR King

Well-Known Member
Open zips would be a file association issue. Still running windows 7? if so then do then follow the guide here.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

The usb issue is most likely just a corrupt usb driver. Like I said, i've seen this in other machines and usually Ccleaner and a malware scan is all that is needed to fix it. Have you reboot the pc yet?
I have rebooted the PC and I can use the flash drive and hard drive now, the only thing I still cannot use is the card reader. Not a huge problem because my printer has one but its slow as hell (I'm talking less than 1mb/sec transfer on it) but anyway I am just going to limp it this way in the meantime.
 
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