How To Fix USB Device Not Recognized In Windows 10

One of the most common issues that I’ve seen in many versions of Windows is the error “USB Device Not Recognized”.

If you are one of them also then you are in the right place because many users reported me about this issue and today, I’m finally able to write some solutions for you.

Before going through let me tell you some important stuff about this error.

The error usually occurs in Windows when you try to plug in a USB device or an external device to a PC. It keeps on saying that this device is not recognizable and it will not show up the device on your computer.

The error shows different messages on different versions of Windows but still, the problem remains the same. Here are some examples of the error messages that usually pops up on your computer screen while plug-in a USB to the port.

“One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message.”

Or

“The last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it.”

Got it?

Let’s go towards the possible solutions that will help you to fix the problem.

How To Fix USB Device Not Recognized In Windows

Method 1- Update Generic USB Hub

One of the most effective solutions we found to solve this problem is by updating the Generic USB Hub.

There are two ways to update the Generic USB Hub.

A) Update Generic USB Hub Driver Manually:

1. Press the “Windows key + R” to open the Run box.
2. Now type “devmgmt.msc” and hit the “OK” button.
3. You will see the device manager window on your screen now. Double click on “Universal Serial Bus controllers” to expand.
4. Just Right-click on “Generic USB Hub device” and update the driver.
5. Next, you will see the window with the message “How do you want to search for drivers?” Choose the “Search automatically for updated driver software” option to get it started.
6. Wait for the process to complete and finish the updating process.

Some Info: The drivers are mostly available on the official website of Microsoft so it will download the drivers directly from the official website.

B) Update Generic USB Hub Driver Automatically:

If you are not confident to play around the manual process then, you can check the automatically solution. In order to update the Generic USB Hub drivers all you have to do is installing the “Driver Easy” software.

The software will automatically recognize the required drivers on your system and will update them without any worries.

1. Download and install it.
2. Run the software and click on the “Scan Now” option to start it.
3. It will now scan the all required drivers on your system and then, will give you the option to update them automatically.
4. You can update the required drivers one by one or click the “Update All” button to directly update all drivers for your system.
5. Now, restart your system to take effect.

Method 2- Uninstall Hidden Devices

There are some devices that you installed earlier but no longer use it now these devices won’t show because of the default settings. The device manager usually shows the ones that are currently connected.

In order to show them, we need to do some steps because certain hidden USB devices can cause conflicts with the current USB devices.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Press the “Windows key + R” to open the run box.
2. Enter “devmgmt.msc” in the box and click “OK”.
3. It will start the device manager on your screen. Once device manager loads, you need to click on View and then click on “Show Hidden Devices”

You need to check devices one by one by expanding them. Check any “Unknown Devices” or the ones that are greyed out, go ahead and “Uninstall” them.

Method 3- Change The Power Management Setting

1. Press “Windows key + R” to open the Run box.
2. Type “devmgmt.msc” and click “OK” to open the device manager.
3. In the “Device Manager” find the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” and click on the arrow down to expand it further.
4. Now Right-click “USB Root Hub” option and click “Properties”.
5. In the “Properties” screen you will see the “Power Management” tab just click on it and Uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” option.
6. Click “OK” and repeat this process a couple of times if you have more USB Root Hubs and press “OK”.

Method 4- Re-Scan Device In Device Manager

This step is very simple but sometimes simple things like this can help in solving this error.

1. This time again we are going to start the Run box by pressing the “Windows key + R”.
2. Type “devmgmt.msc” in the box and press “OK”. This will open the Device manager.
3. In the “Device Manager” screen click “Action” and choose the “Scan for hardware changes” option. Make sure you have connected the USB Device before doing this.

Method 5- Uninstall USB Devices

You can also try uninstalling the USB devices from your system and then restarting them to see if it works for you or not.

Before doing this, I will suggest you try other methods first and this one as your last resort. Because sometimes users reported us that after uninstalling the devices, they won’t be able to restart them again.

Even though there are fewer chances that this happens because nowadays Windows 10 is very responsive in recognizing the devices but yeah still a good piece of advice.

Here is how you can “Uninstall USB Devices”.

1. Open the run box by pressing the “Windows + R Key” on your keyboard. Type “devmgmt.msc” and press “OK” to open “Device Manager”.
2. From there select the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” option and click the arrow button to expand it.
3. Start “Uninstalling” the devices individually from that specific list. Also, uninstall the items with a yellow exclamation or the ones that are listed as “Unknown Device” first.

I hope so this will solve the “USB Device Not Recognized” error on your system.

Still having it?

Well, no worries here are some more methods.

Method 6- Updating The Device Drivers

Sometimes just by updating the USB port drivers doesn’t help you solve the problem. As we know USB devices are connected to the computer via USB port so we need to update the device drivers also.

Here is how to do:

1. Open the run box by pressing the “Windows + R key” on your keyboard and type “devmgmt.msc” in the box and press enter to open the “Device Manager”.
2. Browse and expand the “Universal Serial Bus Controllers” and update the devices that are tagged as “Unknown Devices”.
3. Right-click on each of the “Unknown Devices” and select “Properties” then click on the “Driver” tab and choose the “Update Driver” option.
4. Now choose “Search automatically for updated driver software” and start the process.

Tip: You can also download the drivers from the official manufacturer’s website if manually updating drivers doesn’t work and restart the PC.

Method 7- Disable Fast Startup

By disabling the “Fast Startup” you can solve this issue in no time. Well, let me tell you what “Fast startup” is all about.

Fast startup is a feature introduced in Windows 10 & Windows 8. The main purpose of this feature is to provide a faster boot time when starting the PC.

The feature not entirely shut down the computer when “Enabled” and it moves the shutting down process into a state between hibernation and shutdown. Thus, this helps you in providing a faster boot time when starting.

There are many users who reported that by disabling this feature they get rid of this error in no time.

I’m going to tell you the steps by using which you can disable this feature.

1. Press “Windows key + S” and type “Control Panel”.
2. Click on it to get it started.
3. In the control panel find the “Hardware and Sound” then “Power Options” and open it.
4. In the “Power Options” screen you will see the option “Choose what the power buttons do” click on it and open.
5. Now click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.
6. Uncheck “Turn on fast startup” below to shutdown settings and click on the “Save changes”.
7. In order to take effect, you need to restart your system first. After restarting, plug-in the USB device to the Port and check if it solves the error or not.

If nothing goes as planned you should go back again and change everything back to its initial state.

Method 8- Try A Different USB Port

Try to disconnect the USB device from that port which pops up the error and reconnect it via a different USB port.

The USB ports at the back of your system are more powerful as compared to the front ones because they are getting more power supply than the front ones.

Also, make sure that you are not connecting the USB device via a USB hub because sometimes the USB hubs are not compatible with your system.

Try to plug-in directly to see if it works or not.

Also, try to plug-in the USB device to another computer to check whether it’s the problem with your USB device only or something else.

It’s highly recommended that you use the upgraded USB ports.

Extra tip: Try to plug-out other USB devices also while doing this method because sometimes other USB devices can cause conflicts between each other.

Method 9- Unplug Computer

This is a super simple solution. All you have to do is unplug your computer from the power supply – that is all.

Remember that you don’t have to just turn off your computer using the power button and then restart it.

This way the computer doesn’t turn off completely and the motherboard might still be powered up. Most modern computers do that (they don’t turn off completely).

This can be useful when you want to remotely wake up the computer or something.

All the hardware (that includes USB ports) of the computer is connected to the motherboard.

Sometimes things can go wrong as USB ports may suddenly stop working. In this case, the motherboard has to be rebooted.

When the motherboard is rebooted, the drivers are reloaded by the small microprocessor on the motherboard. That will resolve the error and the devices may be recognized by the USB ports again.

To unplug your PC correctly, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Shut Down option in Windows or press the power button to turn off your computer.
2. Unplug the PC from the wall outlet.
3. Wait for several minutes.
4. Plug the PC into the wall outlet again.
5. Start your computer.

Well, that’s all folks!

I will add more methods as users report them to me while noticing the success rate.

Make sure to comment on the best method which helps you to solve this error and share the word with others.