Scooby-kid

Hi everyone,


I have not long purchased a Freecom 4GB USB Memory stick from ebuyer @ £21 inc P&P. I can use it in my laptop fine - it is picked up straight away. but when using it with a desktop, running Vista, it picks it up, and asks for drivers, it goes for about 3-4 minutes, then says that no drivers can be found. Is this a problem with the memory stick, computer or user?

"OS SUPPORT Windows 2000/XP/Vista, MAC OS 10.x" < taken from website.

Also, another Vista problem at the moment:
probably sbout once every two or three days, the monitor all of a suden goes of for about 4 seconds and then comes bcak on, with a message from the task bar saying something along the lines of "display drivers stopped working, but were recovered" is this a fault, as the machine is under waranty sp can be sorted, and is there anything that I could do?

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any help,m

Scott.

Scooby-kid

any help with the driver issues?
had another search tonight with no look.

Scott.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

It's USB it should just work out of the box. I bought a sandisk one recently, plug it in, job done. Do any other USB type devices work on your vista? Check device manager, and make sure all your USB hubs/ports are functioning to.

Vampire

It's possible it's not appearing as it's called the same as another drive (e.g. both it and CD drive trying to assign themselves to E: ).

When it's plugged in, right click on 'My Computer', then click 'Manage', then select 'Disk Management' under the Storage tree - and see if it's appearing there.

If it is, right click on it and give it another drive letter - for example R:.

Scooby-kid

sorry to drag this on, I Have been on the Freecom website, and located my Stick in the drivers section, however, only drivers for Win98/Se are showing, obviously, my stick works on XP though, shall i just download them and see what happens?

Edit: not appearing under disk management, it is showing DVD drives Etc.

Thanks,
Scott.

bob269

If drive letters are conflicting i'm not sure if it shows up at all in management, just try renaming all extra hard drives and dvd/cdroms to x,y,z etc, then reboot and plug the stick in. Also any built in card readers tend to use 4 or 5 drive letters.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Has any other USB memory stick/storage device worked on your Vista machine? Try some others if you don't know the answer to that question.

At this point I think I am going for the chipset drivers for your motherboard under Vista need to be updated. Its your chipset that hosts the USB memory controller. The USB memory controller's drivers should also be part of the chipset driver package.

As Bioforger suggests, hop into Device Manager from the Control Panel. See if there are any strange symbols like exclamation marks or stop signs. If there are, tell us about those.

There are no drivers for your stick that will ever make it work in Vista. If the stick works in XP then it should work in Vista. The problem could be the actual port on your computer being broken, your BIOS not being setup correctly, or a driver issue in Vista. As said above, my money is on a driver issue for Vista.

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Thanks that fixed a problem I've had which has been bugging me for ages

Sorrry for going off topic Scott. Anybody know why when I format an SD card in the camera, the PC won't read it unless I format it again in the PC.

Allan

Scooby-kid

hi, guys, thanks for all help but:

Phone dfreecom, tech guy said it does not support vista. so I then phoned Ebuyer ot complain about it being advertaised as vista compatable. Basicly after an hour on teh pone, they are sending me a more expensive sony one, which is pretty cool (retractable!!) because i need the storgae to take away with me and i need it soon! they wanted to give me one in the same price range, but i Said i have paid for a stick that is 4GB, styligh, and Vista Compatable, so I want another one which is 4GB, styligh, and Vista Compatable. I told them which other one met these criteria, they went to speak to the manager - they are sending me one next day delivery, and i can keep this one which only works in XP!

Scott.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

What about formatting it on the pc, n seeing if it works in the camera?

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

lol, I'm glad you got another FOC, but basically what they are telling you is horsesh1te! I will be surprised if your replacement works in Vista to be honest, let us know.

Vampire

What are they sending you?

Tbh I've tried loads of USB sticks in Vista and they've all worked just fine. I haven't needed any additional drivers for any of them either...

I've also heard people complaining that their USB sticks are 'too slow' to use for Readyboost, and I haven't seen that one either! Maybe I've just been lucky so far...

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Tried that, it makes a 2GB card a 1GB.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Gay, maybe its borked then.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I too would be surprised to find a stick that can work in XP but not Vista. I guess there may be some funky feature they included in the sticks firmware that is not Vista compatible.....clutching at straws there.

As for the card in a camera v PC thing (should really have started a new thread so we don't all get confused ) I think that is most likely down to the partition type that is being used, along with the ability of the camera to recognise it. Old devices have trouble recognising large new media.

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Yes was a bit worried about confusing the thread

Scooby-kid

the stick they are sending is the one i chose, it is a 4GB Sony Microvault:
Link for pic it has a slide function to reveal USB 'thing'.

Scott.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Should be nice

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

If it works

Scooby-kid

got it today, it works, a little bit of a rattle when usb bit is hidden, i spose the outside bit is just a sliding case tohugh. all in all- 8GB for £17 can't complain!!

Scott.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Good stuff SK.

Interesting, you must of been on the right line then Luminous. Looks like manufacturers are breaking rules governing USB standards

scoobynewbie72

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to jump on the thread but my mrs has vista on her laptop and it wont find any usb mass storage device I connect yet they all work ok on my XP pro can anyone suggest anything?

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like you have the exact same issue as SK then. Try the manufacturers website for advice.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Afaik there are two different types of USB stick. Those that just act as storage devices, and those that attempt to run programs when you plug them in.

The second type often has password programs, finger print recognition, and the ability to run programs directly from the stick itself (some special autorun feature). I did not spend that much time reading up on this.

I suppose if the stick he had was this second type then there is always the possibility that it will be OS dependent in some way. I did think they would make sure they avoided issues like this though

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I think this is a different issue here.

You say it won't find ANY device. That means you have tried several devices, that all work under XP, yet none work under Vista. Either you are really unlucky, or you have an issue with the USB controller under Vista.

Normally the USB controller drives are included with the motherboard drivers for your machine. Try and update those to the most recent Vista compatible items. Also double check with the manufacturer that your motherboard really is Vista compatible.

Scooby-kid

yes, my first stick had password protection and syncronysation software on it, am keeping that one also though!!

Scott.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

My Sandisk Cruzer has all that security n app guff on it thou n works without any drivers in Vista just fine Unless of course its a fairly new model, and therefore compatible? Who knows.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I guess thats the key, they wrote that software with Vista in mind as it was a newer stick

scoobynewbie72

iTrader: (1)

Quick update,
Uninstalled adobe reader 8 and all seems ok now(I have no idea why it would affect USB`s)