BUFFALO WLI-U2-KG54-AI USB adaptor stopped being 'recognized'

Managed trouble free use of this device for several days on Dell Inspiron
2600 laptop, before laptop says device is not recognized.

ON our pc, the device is first recognized as a disc drive, then changes as
the onboard set up programme starts (have not fully tested device on the pc
because it interferes with the on board D-Link adaptor settings).

On the laptop the USB ports work fine for other memory sticks and a USB
minihub, but the Buffalo is 'not recognized' even when connected via this
hub.

Have read around the messages and advice on USB issues, and as a result have
updated BIOS and tried 'uninstalling' the root hubs and rebooting. All that
happens is that the hubs reload 'your new hardware is being installed', then
the 'device not recognized or has malfunctioned etc.' pop up comes up and
'unknown device' appears in Device Manager.

After a lot of reading and searching I found the USB Hub driver set for the
Inspiron's chip set at Dell and downloaded this, but got to the end of the
install process only to be informed by the installer that the install was
not necessary because all the components were already there...

Trying installing drivers from Buffalo's set up disc is not an option,
because it asks for the device to be plugged in half way through...

On the other hand, when I ask the disc to uninstall the drivers which were
presumed to have been automatically installed by the device: it says there
aren't any to uninstall, even though it had worked fine for several days.

There are no references to Buffalo on the laptop, except in the registry -
particularly in a series under 'USBSTOR'. I thought perhaps that these
needed to be removed in order to allow the device to 'try again' at
installing itself and being recognized, but have no idea how to go about
this (Just trying the delete button does nothing...). Descriptions of the
Registry, and esoteric articles on USBSTOR.sys about how to set keys to deny
access to USB devices, may be significant to those in the know, but to me
they are largely gobbledegook, I am afraid.

I don't know what to do now, as Buffalo say, 'if it is recognized by the pc
it must be the laptop at fault', and have not replied when I pointed out
that it was just as logical to say that the Buffalo was at fault because
other USB devices work just fine on the same laptop ports, and that the
adaptor may have even damaged the laptop and so it would be foolish to risk
damaging any other equipment with it.

Any advice on what to try next would be most appreciated! (Is there an easy
way to delete all the Buffalo related settings from the registry for
example, so that I can 'start again' - system restore did not work in this
respect.)

Regards,

Steve_H

Steve

When USB devices do not work it is often a waste of time to try and fix
them. You could try your Buffalo on a valid PC and see if it works OK but
even if it does all you have learn is that it conflicts with your laptop.
I suggest you remove it entirely from your system and use something else. To
get rid of it try JUV Powertools from Mace:
http://www.macecraft.com/
Use the Registry Finder to remove all instances.

John

"Steve Hawkins" <steve.a.hawkins@ntl(nospam)world.com> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Managed trouble free use of this device for several days on Dell Inspiron
> 2600 laptop, before laptop says device is not recognized.
>
> ON our pc, the device is first recognized as a disc drive, then changes as
> the onboard set up programme starts (have not fully tested device on the
> pc because it interferes with the on board D-Link adaptor settings).
>
> On the laptop the USB ports work fine for other memory sticks and a USB
> minihub, but the Buffalo is 'not recognized' even when connected via this
> hub.
>
> Have read around the messages and advice on USB issues, and as a result
> have updated BIOS and tried 'uninstalling' the root hubs and rebooting.
> All that happens is that the hubs reload 'your new hardware is being
> installed', then the 'device not recognized or has malfunctioned etc.' pop
> up comes up and 'unknown device' appears in Device Manager.
>
> After a lot of reading and searching I found the USB Hub driver set for
> the Inspiron's chip set at Dell and downloaded this, but got to the end of
> the install process only to be informed by the installer that the install
> was not necessary because all the components were already there...
>
> Trying installing drivers from Buffalo's set up disc is not an option,
> because it asks for the device to be plugged in half way through...
>
> On the other hand, when I ask the disc to uninstall the drivers which were
> presumed to have been automatically installed by the device: it says there
> aren't any to uninstall, even though it had worked fine for several days.
>
> There are no references to Buffalo on the laptop, except in the registry -
> particularly in a series under 'USBSTOR'. I thought perhaps that these
> needed to be removed in order to allow the device to 'try again' at
> installing itself and being recognized, but have no idea how to go about
> this (Just trying the delete button does nothing...). Descriptions of the
> Registry, and esoteric articles on USBSTOR.sys about how to set keys to
> deny access to USB devices, may be significant to those in the know, but
> to me they are largely gobbledegook, I am afraid.
>
> I don't know what to do now, as Buffalo say, 'if it is recognized by the
> pc it must be the laptop at fault', and have not replied when I pointed
> out that it was just as logical to say that the Buffalo was at fault
> because other USB devices work just fine on the same laptop ports, and
> that the adaptor may have even damaged the laptop and so it would be
> foolish to risk damaging any other equipment with it.
>
> Any advice on what to try next would be most appreciated! (Is there an
> easy way to delete all the Buffalo related settings from the registry for
> example, so that I can 'start again' - system restore did not work in this
> respect.)
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve_H
>

Hi
I used few of these on different computers and had No problems installing
and using.
Given the extensive exploration that you did already I have to agree with
John that there might be some incompatibility with you computer.
However to rule out a Faulty Card try it on another computer (preferably
Desktop), if it does not work there insist on an RMA.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

"John Butler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Steve
>
> When USB devices do not work it is often a waste of time to try and fix
> them. You could try your Buffalo on a valid PC and see if it works OK but
> even if it does all you have learn is that it conflicts with your laptop.
> I suggest you remove it entirely from your system and use something else.
> To get rid of it try JUV Powertools from Mace:
> http://www.macecraft.com/
> Use the Registry Finder to remove all instances.
>
> John
>
> "Steve Hawkins" <steve.a.hawkins@ntl(nospam)world.com> wrote in message
> news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Managed trouble free use of this device for several days on Dell Inspiron
>> 2600 laptop, before laptop says device is not recognized.
>>
>> ON our pc, the device is first recognized as a disc drive, then changes
>> as the onboard set up programme starts (have not fully tested device on
>> the pc because it interferes with the on board D-Link adaptor settings).
>>
>> On the laptop the USB ports work fine for other memory sticks and a USB
>> minihub, but the Buffalo is 'not recognized' even when connected via this
>> hub.
>>
>> Have read around the messages and advice on USB issues, and as a result
>> have updated BIOS and tried 'uninstalling' the root hubs and rebooting.
>> All that happens is that the hubs reload 'your new hardware is being
>> installed', then the 'device not recognized or has malfunctioned etc.'
>> pop up comes up and 'unknown device' appears in Device Manager.
>>
>> After a lot of reading and searching I found the USB Hub driver set for
>> the Inspiron's chip set at Dell and downloaded this, but got to the end
>> of the install process only to be informed by the installer that the
>> install was not necessary because all the components were already
>> there...
>>
>> Trying installing drivers from Buffalo's set up disc is not an option,
>> because it asks for the device to be plugged in half way through...
>>
>> On the other hand, when I ask the disc to uninstall the drivers which
>> were presumed to have been automatically installed by the device: it says
>> there aren't any to uninstall, even though it had worked fine for several
>> days.
>>
>> There are no references to Buffalo on the laptop, except in the
>> registry - particularly in a series under 'USBSTOR'. I thought perhaps
>> that these needed to be removed in order to allow the device to 'try
>> again' at installing itself and being recognized, but have no idea how to
>> go about this (Just trying the delete button does nothing...).
>> Descriptions of the Registry, and esoteric articles on USBSTOR.sys about
>> how to set keys to deny access to USB devices, may be significant to
>> those in the know, but to me they are largely gobbledegook, I am afraid.
>>
>> I don't know what to do now, as Buffalo say, 'if it is recognized by the
>> pc it must be the laptop at fault', and have not replied when I pointed
>> out that it was just as logical to say that the Buffalo was at fault
>> because other USB devices work just fine on the same laptop ports, and
>> that the adaptor may have even damaged the laptop and so it would be
>> foolish to risk damaging any other equipment with it.
>>
>> Any advice on what to try next would be most appreciated! (Is there an
>> easy way to delete all the Buffalo related settings from the registry for
>> example, so that I can 'start again' - system restore did not work in
>> this respect.)
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Steve_H
>>
>
>

Hi Jack and John,

As I noted, the device does seem to work - at least in the first instance -
when it is plugged into the pc: but as the pc is set up to run with an on
board d-link adaptor, the self installing 'AI' part of the Buffalo device,
made such a mess of our settings that we had to do a system restore to get
it working again.

I tried plugging in the device to the pc with the auto install disabled, and
then the pc first recognizes it as a disc drive 'massed storage device',.
Unfortunately, 'exploring' it while it is in this state does not leave me
any the wiser as to which files I might be able to copy to the laptop
manually and to what location, in an attempt to get around the problem of
the set up programme on the cd asking for the device to be plugged in.
Interestingly, the references in the registry of the laptop seem to be
treating the Buffalo as a cd drive too - as if it never got past the set up
stage, even though we managed to use it for several days?

As I do not know what the problem is with the adaptor, I dare not try it out
fully on the pc in case it causes the same fault there and reduces us to
using 30metre ethernet cables again! But, as I mentioned, Buffalo say if
the pc recognizes it it must be the laptop at fault. I have put this
question on the Dell forum, but had no responses there, so I am stuck! It
does not look as if Buffalo will replace the device while it still appears
to be recognized by the pc but not the laptop, so I do need to get to the
bottom of this am afraid.

Jack: it was as a result of extensive reading of columns like these, and of
putting my own questions here, that I chose the Buffalo set up to replace a
D-Link router that had let us down through overheating. The WHR G54S is
still functioning very well and is a lot smaller and more stylish than the
DLink it has replaced, but this experience with the USB adaptor is most
disappointng after I was so careful about it's selection!

Buffalo too have been disappointing in that I got a prompt reply to my
initial request for help (8Feb) but got no further acknowledgment or reply
when I responded to this.

So, I have a couple of things at least to try/ask - hopefully someone out
there can suggest more:

How can I delete all the old Buffalo references from the registry - so that
I can try again from scratch. John has suggested a proprietory registry
cleaning programme: is there a free tool or Microsoft power tool I can use
to do this, as I don't have much finance to play with (which is why I was so
careful before buying this particular setup)? I tried a search for such a
tool but found a lot of references to these as being mostly scams, and even
trojans. I did notice SpyBot had some limited registry cleaning tool built
in, but this only finds certain things known to be problems by the SpyBot
people.

Having determined that my USBSTOR, start setting is indeed '3' manual ('4'
apparently being disable), would there be another figure for 'automatic'.
On the other hand, as all the other USB devices I have seem to work in the
laptop, this would appear not to be a problem unless there is somewhere,
another 'start' setting for the Buffalo device itself in the registry, which
I can find no references to?

One final thing I wondered about is if the USB adaptor may be taking too
much power for the laptop to run it? Presumably a radio device is going to
consume more power than an ordinary flash drive, and that might explain why
one works and the other apparently does not. On the other hand, the laptop
does power up a mini hub OK so, this would point to there being sufficient
available!

Any further useful advice or theories as to what might be causing this
problem would be most appreciated.

Thanks to all,

Steve_H


"Jack (MVP-Networking)." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
> I used few of these on different computers and had No problems installing
> and using.
> Given the extensive exploration that you did already I have to agree with
> John that there might be some incompatibility with you computer.
> However to rule out a Faulty Card try it on another computer (preferably
> Desktop), if it does not work there insist on an RMA.
> Jack (MVP-Networking).
>
> "John Butler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Steve
>>
>> When USB devices do not work it is often a waste of time to try and fix
>> them. You could try your Buffalo on a valid PC and see if it works OK
>> but even if it does all you have learn is that it conflicts with your
>> laptop.
>> I suggest you remove it entirely from your system and use something else.
>> To get rid of it try JUV Powertools from Mace:
>> http://www.macecraft.com/
>> Use the Registry Finder to remove all instances.
>>
>> John
>>
>> "Steve Hawkins" <steve.a.hawkins@ntl(nospam)world.com> wrote in message
>> news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Managed trouble free use of this device for several days on Dell
>>> Inspiron 2600 laptop, before laptop says device is not recognized.
>>>
>>> ON our pc, the device is first recognized as a disc drive, then changes
>>> as the onboard set up programme starts (have not fully tested device on
>>> the pc because it interferes with the on board D-Link adaptor settings).
>>>
>>> On the laptop the USB ports work fine for other memory sticks and a USB
>>> minihub, but the Buffalo is 'not recognized' even when connected via
>>> this hub.
>>>
>>> Have read around the messages and advice on USB issues, and as a result
>>> have updated BIOS and tried 'uninstalling' the root hubs and rebooting.
>>> All that happens is that the hubs reload 'your new hardware is being
>>> installed', then the 'device not recognized or has malfunctioned etc.'
>>> pop up comes up and 'unknown device' appears in Device Manager.
>>>
>>> After a lot of reading and searching I found the USB Hub driver set for
>>> the Inspiron's chip set at Dell and downloaded this, but got to the end
>>> of the install process only to be informed by the installer that the
>>> install was not necessary because all the components were already
>>> there...
>>>
>>> Trying installing drivers from Buffalo's set up disc is not an option,
>>> because it asks for the device to be plugged in half way through...
>>>
>>> On the other hand, when I ask the disc to uninstall the drivers which
>>> were presumed to have been automatically installed by the device: it
>>> says there aren't any to uninstall, even though it had worked fine for
>>> several days.
>>>
>>> There are no references to Buffalo on the laptop, except in the
>>> registry - particularly in a series under 'USBSTOR'. I thought perhaps
>>> that these needed to be removed in order to allow the device to 'try
>>> again' at installing itself and being recognized, but have no idea how
>>> to go about this (Just trying the delete button does nothing...).
>>> Descriptions of the Registry, and esoteric articles on USBSTOR.sys about
>>> how to set keys to deny access to USB devices, may be significant to
>>> those in the know, but to me they are largely gobbledegook, I am afraid.
>>>
>>> I don't know what to do now, as Buffalo say, 'if it is recognized by the
>>> pc it must be the laptop at fault', and have not replied when I pointed
>>> out that it was just as logical to say that the Buffalo was at fault
>>> because other USB devices work just fine on the same laptop ports, and
>>> that the adaptor may have even damaged the laptop and so it would be
>>> foolish to risk damaging any other equipment with it.
>>>
>>> Any advice on what to try next would be most appreciated! (Is there an
>>> easy way to delete all the Buffalo related settings from the registry
>>> for example, so that I can 'start again' - system restore did not work
>>> in this respect.)
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Steve_H
>>>
>>
>>
>
>