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snaporaz54
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April 13th, 2008 11:00
problems with scanner "unrecognized USB device"
Hi,
I wonder whether anyone could help. I have problems with my portable Dell not recognizing scanners. It’s a Dell Inspiron 9400 using windows vista 32 bit as OS. I initially installed my old scanner HP scanjet 4570c with a driver updated for Vista which I had downloaded on internet from HP. It still did not work and was not recognised by the computer (error message ”unrecognized USB device”) and I thought it was because the scanner was old and the updated driver faulty. So I bought a new scanner Canon (Canoscan 4400f) , the drivers were OK for windows vista and the scanner did work for about 2 days then exactly the same problem occurred with the computer not recognizing the scanner. I reinstalled the drivers a few times and nothing changed. I noticed on a Dell forum that someone else had similar problems and was told to update all the drivers in his computer. So I did and after I updated the chipset driver and all the other relevant drivers the scanner started working again but it only lasted a couple of hours and then I was back to square one. I ran the diagnostic tool of dell support center and there was some sort of message error concerning USB being disabled, quite obviously there is some problem somewhere on USB control as also my USB Keys everynow and then are not recognised and so happens with a USB microphone. Unfortunately Dell support center did not give any hint as to how proceed. If anyone has a suggestion on how to sort this problem out it would be most appreciatedsnaporaz54
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Posted April 14th, 2008 18:00
Thank you for your reply. Actually I don't know why but at some point yesterday the scanner started working again and has been working all right since. I suppose that somehow updating the chipset driver made the trick but I don't understand why it did not do so at once. As far as the USB microphone is concerned I found out that the driver of the sound card was also corrupted so it seems to be an all different problem. Thanks again for your help
fireberd
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Posted April 13th, 2008 14:00
If you disconnect the USB microphone does the scanner work? Some devices get their operating power from the USB ports but there is only a limited amount of power available and if the total devices connected draw more power than is available on the USB bus then there can be failures. Unplug all USB devices except the scanner and see what happens (If you are using a USB connected mouse also temporarily disconnect that and use the pad on the laptop until testing and/or isolation of the problem is done).
If it is a power problem with the USB ports, you can use an external powered USB hub (one that has it's own power supply) and plug the "power hungry" devices into the hub.