What to do if your PC doesn't recognize USB devices?

Here you will find out:

why you might have such an error as “computer not recognizing USB”

how to fix it

how DiskInternals Partition Recovery can help you

Are you ready? Let's read!

What if your computer doesn't recognize USB devices?

USB drives/devices are typically plug-and-play, but sometimes your computer may not recognize the USB devices you connect to it. In such a scenario, what should you do?

Why might you have such an error?

You need to understand the reason why you see the error to know how you can possibly fix it. There are quite a lot of possible actions that may cause this problem, which includes:

Device conflicts

Damaged or corrupted USB drive

Software and driver issues

File system issues

Missing Windows hardware or software components

Motherboard issues

Method 1: Reboot your PC

By simply restarting the computer, you can possibly fix the issue of “computer not recognizing USB”. Don’t use the reboot option; you need to completely shut down the computer and its motherboard. Thus, remove the USB drive from the PC and disconnect the PC from power. Wait for some time, then boot back the computer and reconnect the power cable and USB drive.

Method 2: Use a Device Manager to reinstall USB drivers

Sometimes, re-installing USB drivers can help to fix this error. You can do this via the Device Manager on Windows.

Press Windows + X and select “Device Manager".

Scroll down to the bottom and select “Universal Serial Bus controllers”.

Individually right-click on as many drivers as possible, and uninstall them.

You can uninstall all the drivers you see there; they’ll automatically reinstall if you restart the computer.

Restart the computer and connect your USB drive again.

Method 3: Fix problem with Troubleshooter

You can troubleshoot to discover what caused this issue of “Windows won't recognize USB.” There are many ways to run Troubleshoot Windows drivers, but here is the commonest.

Open the “Control Panel" and search for "troubleshoot".

Click on the "Troubleshooting" option and select "Hardware and Sound".

Next, click on "Hardware and Devices".

Then follow the onscreen instructions.

Method 4: Change properties in USB Root Hub

Launch Windows “Device Manager” and double-click on “Universal Serial Bus controllers".

Right-click on “USB Root Hub”

Click on “Properties”.

Toggle to the “Power Management” tab.

Un-tick “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

Click “OK”.

Do this for all the USB Root Hub drivers you see on the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” dropdown menu. Restart the computer afterward.

Method 5: Restore data from the USB drive and format it

If you tried all those methods discussed above and it yielded nothing, then you should try to recover your files and data saved on the faulty USB using DiskInternals Partition Recovery, and then format the USB drive. This method is quite foolproof and will work if the others fail.

Using DiskInternals Partition Recovery, you can restore data from a faulty USB drive before repairing or formatting the drive.

Step One:

Connect the flash drive to your PC and launch DiskInternals Partition Recovery.

Step Two:

DiskInternals Partition Recovery will load the data Recovery Wizard automatically. Simply select the necessary parameters, and choose between fast scanning, full scanning, or reading mode.