When ever I plug in a previousy unknown thumbdrive or USB hard drive
(different IDE drive, but same shell and controller) into my USB port
(logged in as administrator), I need to go to device manager, right
click on the yellow question mark, and install the default driver.
Apparently Windows plug and play doesn't know to do this every time a
new device is plugged in. If the same device is subsequently plugged in
again into the same port, it works fine. I have XP Pro, SP2, and nearly
all of our computers in our orginization are experiencing the same
thing. Windows always finds its own drivers and does not need to go to
the Internet for extra drivers, but a trip to device manager is always
required. No user has rights to device manager, so we have to go to each
one and install manually. Even when logged into Administrator, a trip
to DM is required to get the job done. How do you turn on the feature
that tells Plug and play to attempt to install default drivers  when
previously unknown storage hardware is plugged in?

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Clarification of Question by n7okn-ga on 12 Jan 2006 19:54 PST

Well wouldn't the built in drivers in XP that came with Windows be
already signed? I will check the setting tomorrow when I get into
work, but I think
it's already set for warn. I'll let you know.

Have you checked your Driver Signing options in Device Manager? I
mean, I'd have thought it wouldn't actually matter, but if it's set to
"Block" try setting it to "Warn" and see what happens.

OK, I checked my settings and the driver signing option is set for
warn. I kinda thought it was but I wanted to make sure.

Are any of the services in msconfig disabled?

Something is wrong with your configuration. Does this happen
repeatedly while running, or only after bootup?
I have XP XP2 on one system using a monitor with USB ports and slots
for all the various media cards, as well as a WD MediaCenter USB
external hard drive with media card slots and I have no trouble
plug-n-play works with anything I connect.

I can post a link for a tool that helps diagnose driver problems as an
answer if that helps.

Well, I checked MSConfig, and re-enabled everything I had taken out,
reboted, and tried again. Same behavior. It is very consistant. I can
duplicate the problem any time. Upon reboot, it decides not to try,
just put the device into unknown status. If I delete the item and let
DM redetect it, it's just happy to find new hardware, and plop it back
into the unknown devices area. It does say what the device is however,
just with a yellow "?". When I right click on it and "update driver",
it's happy to install the default Windows driver, and it is forever
working as long as it's plugged in to the same USB port. Hope this
helps.

I have exactly the same problem.  Windows either doesn't search for a
driver for a  new device or it looks in the wrong place, I don't know
which.  I've searched everywhere for answers but although a lot of
people have this problem there doesn't seem to be an answer!  Is there
any way of amended plug and play settings so you can tell it which
folder it needs to search for the drivers?

The issue is with the driver signing on XP Pro. 

Direct from Microsoft:
Windows XP Professional checks for a digital signature whenever a
driver is installed and issues a message if the driver is not signed.
In addition, drivers that are known to cause problems in Windows are
blocked from loading or installing, because Windows XP Professional
checks a database of known problem drivers when the computer is
started or when a device driver is loaded. If the driver is located in
the database of known problem drivers, it cannot be installed or used
on your computer.

The Windows Catalog at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/catalog
replaces the older Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). Replacing the
catalog would update the database with newer signed drivers.

The following three driver-signing policy settings in the operating
system enforce signature verification and determine what the operating
system does with an unsigned driver:

? Warn Checks the signature on the driver before installation, and
displays a warning if the signature verification fails. The driver can
still be installed, although installation is not recommended.
 
? Block Checks the signature on the driver before installation, and
blocks installation of the driver if the signature verification fails.
 
? Ignore Silently checks the signature on the driver, logs any
unsigned driver files to a log file, and allows the installation of
the driver.

Note The computer displays the Warn dialog box if you try to replace a
signed driver with an unsigned driver, even if the policy is set to
Ignore.
 

?Warn? is the default setting. You can change the driver-signing
policy for a user without administrator permissions, but you must have
administrator permissions to change the driver-signing policy setting
for a computer.

So if you don't want the exclamation point change your settings to ignore.

For more info on this issue, you can go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c09621675.mspx#EHAA

Well, the problem isn't with driver signing, it doesn't even get that
far. I DID put it on ignore, and still no change. Windows would have
to search for the driver first in order to reject it. My problem is
that it doesn't search until I tell it to. The decision step always
comes AFTER I click on update driver button, not before, and it
usually installs the default driver built into Windows XP. Incedently
I've never seen this problem with Windows 2000.

Hey,
    You mentioned that all the systems had this problem. My question
is does all the system have sp2 installed. Try uninstalling sp2 on one
of the computer. Becuase sp2 actually upgrades the usb files . Maybe
that could be the problem

devildriver

\m/

I carefully read the long comment above, and learned how to get to the
policy on driver updates. I thought I had found the answer, but after
setting the policy to not check floppy, not check Internet, but to
check CD and c:\windows\inf, the system still behaved the same. All
affected systems are HP/Compaq D51S and later units. I am going to
call HP again to see if they have developed an issue with this with
other customers. Also I will try un-installing SP2, but that isn't an
option for we need SP2 and the enhancments it has.

I also want to add that this problem is not limited to storage. Simply
plugging in a mouse of any brand wont work. I find the mouse listed in
"other" devices with a "?" beside it, double click and reinstall
driver. Tedious with only a keyboard. So often a client will plug in a
mouse into a different port from the one which was used when the
computer was staged. We have to go in with PCAnywhere and tell device
manager to install the driver. We use compaq mice, as they are generic
and windows drivers work fine. This problem is getting frustrating.

Having exactly the same consistent problem with a usb removable disk. 
Device manager reports "Windows cannot load the device driver for this
hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the
system. (Code 42)."  Solution from Bill is to reboot, which does not
always work.   Unplugging the usb hub and replugging usb hub seems to
work, but this it impractical on a daily basis.

This is happening on my new Gateway laptop.  Previous computer was
Toshiba laptop.  This problem did not occur on Toshiba. Both Windows
XP.  Suspect a registry entry needs changing, but cannot find which
one.

Your problem isn't at all like mine. I grow weary of re-explaining it.

Hello n7okn-ga,

I've had the same problem as you for a long time now and I'm finally
at the point where I can't stand it anymore. I've isolated down to
this: Like your issue, any new USB device I plug in (like a mouse,
keyboard, ram stick, etc) will showup in device manager as unknown
untill I right click on it and install the driver. As long as I plug
that same device in the same USB port it will be okay subsequent
times, but if I plug my mouse (or any other USB device) in a different
port I have to go through the same process again. This is a real pain
when someone is logged in as a "user" because I have visit the
computer and install the hardware for them. Anyway, I only get this
problem on Win XP Pro computers after I've goined them to my domain
(Windows 2000 - 2003 native domain controllers). I also only get this
problem on Windows XP machines that shipped with SP2 once they have
joined my domain. However, I have about 20 machines on my network that
once had SP1 and have been upgraded to SP2 and they are totally fine.
Their plug and play works perfect with USB devices weather they are
logged in as a user or administrator. I'm wondering if there is a
default security setting for plug and play USB for machines that
shipped with SP2 that my group policy is screwing up? Have any of you
fond out more info on this problem? I've tried the issue with driver
signing and that didn't help either... Any other ideas?

Wow, someone who actually understands. I didn't equate it with a
domain issue, but to tell you the truth, it's only on domain
computers. I DID check into the policy thing and verified that there
is no custom policy on the domain, and certainly no policy on the OU I
am in. When I get a chance, I will pull a new machine out of the box
and stage it separate from the domain and see its behavior. Then I'll
join it to the domain and log in as me and try it again.
Also have you noticed that from time to time, because all drivers are
installed manually, this problem is causing external hard drive issues
where you can only view the contents of a USB hard drive from drive
manager rather than from explorer or 'my computer' ? Apparently it's
difficult to get a drive letter to appear. I have to right click the
drive from disk manager and click open.

I get the same problem with a USB RAM Stick... I end up adding the
drive letter through disk manager. That's a real drag when you have to
do that for endusers... What workstations are you running? The
workstations I get this problem on are: HP dc7100 and HP TC1100. One's
a desktop and one is a Tablet PC. That's about 30 machines all of
which shipped with XP SP2. On friday I ended up opening a Microsoft
support call on this issue. They haven't figured it out yet. They'll
be calling me back again today with a new action plan. So far they've
had me upgrade to the latest BIOS on my workstation and upgrade my
Intel chipset and latest USB 2.0 driver from Intel (not sure if your
problem is limited to Intel machines... mine is). Anyway, I've told
them about the posibility of a group policy setting screwing things up
and they might involve the Active Directory team... I'll let you know
how it goes.

Okay... I got an answer and a fix. Looks like we both ran sysprep on
our machines and it didn't finish properly. Go into regedit and
navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/Setup and find the
FactoryPreInstallInProgress REG_DWORD value. I bet your value is set
to 1... It should be set to 0 actually it shouldn't even exist because
sysprep should delete it after it finishes). They set mine to 0 and
had me reboot. It was like magic... I can plug in any USB device and
it will autoinstall just the way it's supposed to. ;-) So looks like
you and I had the same problem with sysprep. I bet your sysprep folder
didn't get deleted automatically from your machine after it ran just
like mine. I ended up manually deleting it so that the sysprep window
didn't keep coming up every time I logged in an an Administrator on
the machine... If this works for you one of us should post the answer
at the top of this post.

Oh my god, finally an answer! I have been looking for an answer to
this exact problem on the web for one month with no success. I tought
i was the only one with this issue.

Lately i have tried many fixes myself (even comparing registries
before and after and analzying their keys =S) and i also noted the
following:

1) This issue does not appear in freshly cloned machines.
2) This issue appears after joining the machine to a domain
3) It's not only pertinent to USB devices, it can't automatically add
ANY already known driver (delete any device manually and watch)
4) The machines have recent 9xx Intel chipsets

Other facts are, some of the computers are not affected, we have the
following batch not affected by this issue, but they are also cloned
and sysprep'ed: IBM 300PL (running Win 2K), Compaq EVO D500 and Lanix
2600.

And analyzing the registry after cloning, efectively the key mentioned
vertexto by existed in the HP dc7000s and the Lanix 3050s, but not in
the rest of the machines.

If sysprep couldn't finish properly on those machines, it makes me
think that sysprep itself has issues with newer hardware (i.e. 9xx
intel chipsets).

I'll try to search and investigate if there is anything about sysprep
and some hardware.

Thanks for the information.

Hello,

When I asked Microsoft why sysprep didn't finish they said that
sometimes (in exteamly rare cases) it won't clean up after itself when
you run it on an OEM box. He actually said "large OEM". I'm thinking
maybe because the large OEM's customize their setup environment
extensively... Anyway did this fix your problem on the effected
machines?

Yes, it did, thanks. The key you mentioned appears in every affected
machine, so once you edit the key, they start to work fine again,
adding automatically any device that has known drivers.

Once you edit the key and reboot, windows erases it. As i said, it
doesn't happen in older computers (they key doesn't even appear).

Maybe you are right about the OEMs, because affected computers are HP
and Lanix. But its strange that the rest, which are Compaqs and IBMs
(large OEMs), are not affected. Maybe it could be an issue with newer
hardware, as i supose.

By the way, how did you find the solution? I analyzed the registry
keys by comparison but obviously i didn't find anything since the key
existed from the first registry snapshot ;)

Yippy!!!!!!!!

That solved it. Now I wonder if there is something I can do to the images in my
Ghost server to force the change. Maybe a script forced at logon that
removes that key? I don't have a lot of time on my hands to deal with
this, but at least I know where to go.