XP 'Lost' my USB Drive

Question

After I reinstalled XP Pro on my Dell Optiplex GX60, XP lost my DVD\CD RW external drive. Nothing I do gets XP to recognize I have anything in any USB port I connect the drive. (Other USB devices work fine, pen drives, external HDD, wireless mouse, etc. I tried the obvious things, reinstall the drive software, drivers (get message that the driver is already installed!, test the drive by plugging it into my other PCs. It auto plug & Played in my Dimension 2300 (XP Home) fine. Must I reinstall XP and SP2 again to get my DVD\CD RW drive back? Belarc Advisor does not report back finding anything plugged into any USB port that I have the drive powered on & plugged into. I got all my drivers installed and working but the ethernet card does not work. XP Troubleshooter reports 'no driver' or 'driver not properly installed'. System will not let me reinstall the Dell driver, reports I already have one! The card works & I had no problems until I reinstalled XP. I plug my ethernet cable in and the leds light up as they should, as if data is moving through the card! I've reintalled XP on my Dimension 2300 and XPS 400 several times with no problems

Bay Wolf · Answer

Did you install the Chipset drivers? That may be the problem. Your downloads can be found HERE.   After Reinstalling the OS, the chipset drivers should have been the first update installed.  BEFORE any other drivers are installed.

BruisedQuasar · Answer

Thank you for the reply. I used the Dell Recovery CD, Driver Disk immediately after I reinstalled XP Pro. I checked the C:\Dell\ folder & located the R41334 chipset Utility folder. How do you tell if it is installed? It looks installed. I followed the instructions on the CD. I have other Dell PCs, Dimension 2300, XPS 400 and I have owned many others, all major brand names in their day (IBM, Gateway, Toshiba, etc). Never ran into anything like this. Everything else works fine, all my USB 2.0 ports, etc. Only two problems. XP lost my external USB hard drive and the ethernet card has no driver, though I installed it. I've own 30 desktops in my day but have never seen anything like this for ten years where the drivers are not auto installed. I think it is amazing how not even Windows XP SP2 recognizes the USB and other hardware. I reinstalled XP for a kid's Hewlet Packard. Windows XP took care of everything.

Windows General

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