USB - Access is Denied

[StubbyD]

Hi,

I run XP Pro and frequently get "Access is Denied" messages when installing a new USB item - irrespective of whether I am logged in as administrator level or not.

Also, the product doesn't seem to matter either ...

Any suggestions?

 

[micker377]

Check in safe mode/device manager and see if the USB drivers are installed correctly (one entry per port). If you have 4 ports and say 10 drivers, delete them all and let Windows re-install them on re-boot.

 

[StubbyD]

Well, gee thanks .........

Sorry to sound so ungrateful but I've just spent tehbest part of the last day trying to get myself back online due to your suggestion. In the end I've had to go for a fresh install and re-install of all my apps.

C'est la vie ...

 

[felixc]

Just for my education, (as I'm going to work a lot on USB stuff in the coming weeks) then after a fresh install do you still have the same issue?

 

[StubbyD]

Nope - all is now working as expected.
No trojans, no virus, no adware, spyware or scumware - in fact the system was clean prior to this experience and I still don't know what caused it.

Ahh, technology

 

[bcastner]

You should be able to remove only the USB Root Hub entries with Device Manager, reboot, and let XP rediscover the needed drivers, without having to do a clean install and re-adding USB devices.

 

[StubbyD]

Sorry to sound so cyncial, but yeah right!!!

That's exactly what I thought. Tried everything in standard operating and safe mode. In teh end I thought why not follow the above advice and all I got was trouble. Kept telling me "access is denied" no matter what I tried.

Tried a "repair" - that didn't work. Tried newer motherboard drivers, same answer. Tried newer USB drivers and yet more of the same..

In the end I was spending so much time trying to get it working I thought it would have been quicker from the start to do a fresh install - which I've now done and as you can see am happily back on the web. Just need to re-install some apps, but no biggie on those.

The Stub!

 

[bcastner]

Well, you can be as cynical as you want as you have not tried the suggestion.

The only underlying reason that I can see is if you do not have Administrator permissions on this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{
36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}

I saw this issue once, on a Sony Vaio laptop. I just used Sysinternals Regmon and FileMon utilities, and tried to uninstall the Root Hubs as I mentioned above. This clearly showed the access permission issue, and a quick stop in Regedit fixed the issue.

Note that my advice did not suggest removing installed USB devices, only the USB Root Hubs. I am very confident this would have worked for you.

Best,
Bill Castner, MS MVP