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Nergol · Nov 13, 2008, 07:36 PM

So I installed XP SP3 with BootCamp on my first-gen MacBook, and I frequently, but intermittently get this error, in the form of a balloon popping up from the system tray:

"USB Device Not Recognized
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."

This happens whether or not there is anything plugged into my USB ports, and even when there is a device plugged into it that's working fine. When the message does pop up, it seems to in clusters - I'll click it away, and it'll keep coming up again and again. Then it won't for a while.

Any ideas on what's causing this, or how I can get it to stop?

ibook_steve · Nov 14, 2008, 01:06 PM

Did you install the boot camp drivers from the Leopard DVD after booting up into Windows for the first time?

Steve

Nergol · Nov 14, 2008, 02:59 PM

Yes, I did. Though it was during that install that this problem first occurred. I installed from an external USB DVD drive, and the system seems to be complaining about the USB port I was actually attached to while I was installing.

P.S. The reason I did such a damn fool thing is because my MacBook's internal DVD drive can't read double-layer discs, like my one and only Leopard install disc, but my external can.

ibook_steve · Nov 14, 2008, 03:38 PM

You need the original Apple drivers for everything to work correctly. If your internal drive can't read the disk, I'm not sure what you can do. I don't have my disk with me right now, but maybe you can copy the Apple driver installation onto the C drive or to a single layer CD.

Steve

Nergol · Nov 14, 2008, 08:18 PM

Well, I did everything from scratch again. I went back to MacOS, made a single-layer driver CD, had Boot Camp delete my Windows partition, made another Windows partition, did a clean install of XP SP3, installed the Boot Camp drivers, updated the Boot Camp drivers from 2.0 to 2.1 with an installer I d/led from Apple... and still the problem persists. I will note that when Windows first started up, I got a message that said:

Found New Hardware:
A problem occurred during hardware installation. Your new hardware might not work properly

Looking at some documentation, I wonder of the problem might be that I can only install XP SP2, then have to run the Boot Camp 2.1 updater, then can upgrade to SP3.

Maybe. Anyhow, for now I'd just be happy with a way to make the USB Device Not Recognized balloon stop popping up. Basically it just pops up nonstop now every couple of seconds, whether I click it away or not. So I'm stuck with what amounts to a flashing warning balloon and a nice little *bip*bip*bip*bip*bip* to listen to constantly.

Nergol · Nov 15, 2008, 09:01 PM

So I, uhm... found... an SP2 installation disc, reinstalled everything again, installed and updated Boot Camp again, and... same thing.

Is there any way just to tell Windows not to pop up that warning balloon? Like I said, the USB ports actually work fine. It's just that that incessant popping up and *bip*bip*bip*bip*bip* are driving me nuts.

seachanged · Sep 3, 2009, 08:16 PM

bootcamp 2.1, xp pro service pack 3, "usb device not recognized" about every 5
seconds. One way to make it stop is to click on the balloon before it disappears, and it brings
up a device manager, showing you that the probem is on a USB root hub that is has the
IR port on it. Once you have this window up, the bip-bip-bip stops. It's pathetic, but it works.

I've half a mind to open up my mac mini again, and to find out if I can see anything else on
the "USB root hub" that the IR port is on. But the other half of my mind doesn't like putty knives.

ghporter · Sep 4, 2009, 06:41 AM

This is a problem with Windows not properly installing the driver for the Mac's root hub. You probably need to force it to install the driver, and then check to see that it really did install properly.

Open Device Manager and select the device with the exclamation point warning. Now click on the "driver" tab and select "Upgrade" and select the option to find the driver yourself. Now you need the Leopard disc to be in the drive, because you're going to navigate to the correct driver through the Device Manager's interface. As long as the disc is readable and you select the right driver, it should work fine. You'll probably be prompted to reboot. DO IT. Gotta do this with Windows! As soon as it finishes booting, see whether that port now recognizes devices. It should.