usbs shot?

[ionus]

my computer seems unwilling to recognize anything i put into a musb slot unless it comes with a driver obtained via internet or cd. for example it wont detect a game controller, usb mouse, usb keyboard, mp3 players, ipods, cell phones, etc. yet i can plug them into other computers and their automatically located right away. whats wrong?

[cauzomb]

Could be that your plug and play service is disabled..

[ionus]

umm how do i check?

[cauzomb]

In windows xp; ensure that you are logged on as administrator, then open control panel then administrative tools then services. Scroll down the list of services and find "Plug and Play Service" See if it is set to started/automatic. If it is not, you can double click on the plug and play service, another window will open up with the options to configure the service. Set it to automatic and start the service, then click on OK.

Be carefull when plugging in thumbdrives or other memory device as some might contain "auto-play" or "auto-run" data that sometimes can install unwanted or malicious software, same goes for removable media such as CD/DVD rom's.

To prevent the automatic loading of DVD's/CDROM, and possibly auto-play/auto-run data from memory devices, you can set the "shell hardware detection" service to disabled. If you play video disc's, with the shell hardware detection service set to disable, the CD/DVD will no longer automatically run when inserted into the drive.