USB pendrives no longer opening even if I get icon in the taskbar
Hi there. This is my first post.
Until recently my laptop was working perfectly, but as of this morning it will not open any of my USB pen-drives; when I insert a pen-drive the little icon with the green circle and white tick appears in the notification area of the task bar, but the disk does not open or appear in Explorer Resources (my pen-drives are however correctly identified in the Devices and Printers menu of the Control Panel).
Following advice I read elsewhere on internet, I installed and ran DriveCleanup.exe. Did a reboot, inserted a couple of USB pen-drives and my laptop began installing the necessary drivers. At that point I thought that my problem had been fixed, but basically nothing has changed.
A few additional things that are surely related: the other day I had to change my laptop battery (I read somewhere that the battery can have something to do with USB pen-drives not being recognised). Around the same time I also upgraded my BIOS for the first time since buying my laptop. And thirdly, just a short while ago I got a blue screen with a 'Driver_irql_not_less_or_equal' message. First time ever. I was so surprised I forgot to take down all the details.
Anyway, all advice willingly accepted!
Comments
Enny,
Are there any release notes for the BIOS update? There could potentially be a change that requires an updated driver for your PC or a BIOS settings change. Another potential is if any software changes were made in Windows itself, you could try using System Restore to try a Restore point from prior to the issue. If it is software related this should probably correct it. Yet another possibile issue is the USB controller on your computer may need a driver update after the BIOS update. Or the driver may simply need to be reinstalled. You can uninstall all USB drivers for hubs or controllers in the Device Manager, then let Windows reinstall them. Try a USB drive after that.