How to fix “USB Device Not Recognized” problem on Windows?

Today, we are going to be showing you the solution for a very common USB device issue on the Windows operating system. When you connect your USB device to your PC, getting the “USB device not recognized” message can be very frustrating, especially when you have important data on the drive. This error message is common to the Windows operating system, and many users have reported about it. Also, you will not be able to use your USB webcam and other devices which connect to your computer via the USB port. For users who rely heavily on USB devices, this problem can seriously limit the function of their computer.

Sometimes, you will get the code 43 errors. Most of the time, users think that is a hard drive problem because the errors occur when they want to transfer files to or from their hard drives. So, let’s see how to fix the USB device not recognized error on Windows 10.

There are many ways to go about it. Hopefully, you’ll find the method that will resolve your problem.

Solution 1. Troubleshooting hardware devices

This solution involves troubleshooting your USB device:

• So, go to Start Menu and type Run or press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialogue box.
• Click on Run and then type “Control” in the search area and hit OK. This will open the Control Panel. Then in the Search of the Control Panel, type “Troubleshooter”. You will see different options. Click on “Troubleshooting”.
• There, click Configure a device under the Hardware and Sound option, then Click Next.
• Now the hardware and devices in your system are being scanned. If you have a USB device problem, it will recognize it and will try to fix it automatically.
• If the scan finds a problem, click on “Apply this fix” to resolve the problem. If your problem is not fixed, let’s move to the next solution.

Solution 2. Uninstall your USB drivers

The next solution is to uninstall USB drivers:

• Press the Windows logo key + R to open up the Run dialogue box.
• Type “devmgmt.msc”, and click OK. This opens up the Device Manager window.
• In the Device Manager, look for “Universal Serial Bus Controllers” and expand it.
• There, you can see your issue (a USB device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it); right-click on it and select Uninstall.
• After uninstalling, restart your PC, and the drivers will get automatically installed.
• Check to verify if your problem is fixed or not. If the problem is not fixed, don’t worry! There are other solutions.

Solution 3. Change the USB selective settings.

The next solution is to change the USB Selective Settings:

• Go to the Startup Menu and type “Run” or press the Windows key + R to open up the Run dialogue box.
• Type “Control” and hit Enter. This opens up the Control Panel. In the search box, type “Power Options”. Click on “Power Options” from the results, and you can see “Change Plan Settings”.
• Click on it and then go to “Advanced Power Settings.” In “Advanced Power Settings,” you can see the option “USB settings”.
• Expand it, then find “Selective Suspend Settings” and expand it. You can see both “On battery” and “Plugged in” are enabled.
• Disable both of them and click Apply, then OK to confirm.
• Now reboot your PC and see whether the problem appears  again or not. If the problem is still not fixed, then we move to the next solution.

Update your Generic USB Hub drivers

This solution is one of the most effective. Here, you will have to update Generic USB Hub driver, and there are three methods to do it.

Method 1. Update the USB device via Device Manager

• Go to the Startup Menu and type “Run” or press Windows key + R to open up the Run dialogue box.
• Select Run and type “devmgmt.msc” to open up the Device Manager. Find and expand “Universal serial bus controller”.
• There you can see “Generic USB Hub”. Right-click on it and click on “Update driver software”.
• In this window, you select the option to download the drivers from the internet. It takes some seconds to update the driver software.
• If you updated the Generic USB hub driver and the problem is not fixed, you need to update all the drivers that are labeled “Universal Serial Bus controllers”.
• Update one driver after the other. When you complete updating all the drivers, your problem will be definitely fixed. You need to reboot your PC after updating your driver.

Method 2. Download and install Auslogics Driver Updater

This is a tool that will download and install all the drivers in your computer with just one click. It is very fast and reliable. Most often, you have corrupted and outdated drivers which you do not even know of. These outdated drivers can later cause different issues with your computer. The Auslogics Driver Updater will scan all the drivers on your PC and update the outdated or missing drivers. It is very important for all your drivers to be updated because they make your PC perform at optimum efficiency.

Other solutions

You can remove the power supply. What you need to do is to remove your power supply plugs from PC and restart it. Then connect your USB device to the USB ports, and that’s it. It will fix your problem.

Also, if you are using a USB hub, we suggest that you disconnect it and connect your USB device directly to your PC. This is to eliminate the chances of the HUB being bad.

Try connecting your USB device to the USB port 3.0. Sometimes the device you are using may be able to be read only by the 3.0 port. Connecting it to the 2.0 port may cause the error message.

You also need to check the possibility that your USB device is not bad. To do this, you need to connect the device to another computer and check if it works. If it does, this means your USB port is not working. Also, you can change the USB cable. The USB not recognized problem arises most often because users ignore to eject their USB devices properly.

If the problem is not yet fixed, then the last method is to update your BIOS. Sometimes updating your system BIOS can fix this error. To update your BIOS, go to your motherboard manufacturer website and download the latest version of BIOS and install it.

We hope that his article has shown you how to get rid of the USB device not recognized error message. Share it with others who experience similar issues.

We appreciate your ideas and comments, and we are ready to answer all your questions regarding the above topic.