Mass Storage Drive Problem

[yellowdog321]

Hello. I've got a vexing problem with my WinXP machine. I recently bought an Archos Jukebox Multimedia device, which comes with a 20 gig HD and is supposed to connect to WinXP as a mass strorage device without need for additional drivers. When I plug it into the USB port (it's USB 1.1) , the "new hardware" bubble pops up, I get an error saying "Cannot install this hardware. THere was a problem installing the hardware Hitachi_DK23CA-20 USB Device. An error occurred during installation of this device. The filename, device name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." Sometimes the last line
is replaced by "The specified service does not exist as an installed service."

Once this error comes up, the device seems to work fine most of the time. The USB Mass Storage Device and Generic Volume both appear as normal and working in the XP Device Manager, but the Hitachi_DK23CA-20 USB Device shows up with a yellow exclamation point and is shown as "no drivers for this device are installed (Code 28)."

When looking in device manager, the driver listed is "partmgr.sys"

I know that the unit itself works fine, because I brought it to work and plugged it into my Win2000 machine and it was recognized immediately without error. The odd thing was the driver listed on that PC is "Disk.sys". I have tried many times to get my WinXP machine to load its own disk.sys driver and it simply won't do it. I even have installed the WinXP SP1, which provided a new Disk.sys file version, all to no avail.

Any suggestions at all?? Many thanks.

[tonyc]

I have exactly the same problem with Highpoint IDE RAID on a SOYO KT400 Dragon Ultra mobo with Win XP. Lexar Jumpshot and IC CompactFlash card readers thru USB do the same thing too.

I have asked Highpoint and Lexar for a list of the Services that their drivers use during install, so that I can figure out which "specified service" is missing, but no answer yet.

If you or anyone(!) has gotten success in any way, please let me know, thanks.

[JerryWMac]

try UnknownDeviceIdentifier.exe search.
Works just fine, including located drivers for items in multi OS's..

[johnwill]

JerryWMac, It would appear that he knows what the device is, but the drivers aren't installing correctly.


yellowdog321, open Device Manager, select View Hidden Devices, and uninstall any unknown USB devices that you find. Reboot and try connecting again.

[JerryWMac]

I did not mean to say he did or does not know what the device is. Itis the computer that doe snot know...
It is also quite possible that the drivers he has are not current enough for the computer to install from.

The program I mentioned helps in locating the most current driver for him.
Granted, his modem is down, ok,
granted he has to transport the drivers form one computer to another, but,
that is only because the only thing not workingis his modem....

[johnwill]

You obviously miss the point. There are no drivers for XP for this device, since it's a standard USB mass storage device that is natively supported by ME, 2K, and XP. You might want to go back and re-read the first message.

[tonyc]

The issue is that XP fo some reason is looking for a service that is not installed. As I said in my post, I have the smae problem with the on-board Highpoint RAID controller and any connected USB mass storage device. As yellowdog321 says, the device seems to wortk, but Device manager is showing only the partmgr.sys, and not BOTH the partmgr.sys and disk.sys that all other mass storage devices show. There is definitely a problem with the install on these devices.

The question to the forum is does anyone know how to let XP know that the service it requires IS actualy there!!??

[johnwill]

Well, in both cases, it sounds like you have a basic XP installation issue with the USB ports, not the mass storage devices. I suppose you could try a repair of the XP installation as a start...

[tonyc]

I've noticed that if you get to Device Manager before the start-up/login process completed, the USB devices have both partmgr.sys and disk.sys and there's no yellow ?'s against them. As the start-up process finishes, it is then that is complains that it can't finish the h/w install properly due to the "specified service does not exist as an installed service", and tghe disk.sys driverer disappears form the Device Mgr properties against each device.

It's almost as if the login itself is what screws it up? It does it with the built-in Administrator account as well as the other three accounts on the machine, so I don't think it's specific to a particular user account (registry for example).

This one's really weird ....

[epjb100]

Hi everyone,

I'm having the same problem as YellowDog. I've also noticed this on a number of other forums and websites but have not seen a working solution.

Has anyone found the answer yet?

I'd appreciate any help you could give.

[JerryWMac]

Originally Posted by yellowdog321

Hello. I've got a vexing problem with my WinXP machine. I recently bought an Archos Jukebox Multimedia device, which comes with a 20 gig HD and is supposed to connect to WinXP as a mass strorage device without need for additional drivers. When I plug it into the USB port (it's USB 1.1) , the "new hardware" bubble pops up, I get an error saying "Cannot install this hardware. THere was a problem installing the hardware Hitachi_DK23CA-20 USB Device. An error occurred during installation of this device. The filename, device name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." Sometimes the last line
is replaced by "The specified service does not exist as an installed service."

Once this error comes up, the device seems to work fine most of the time. The USB Mass Storage Device and Generic Volume both appear as normal and working in the XP Device Manager, but the Hitachi_DK23CA-20 USB Device shows up with a yellow exclamation point and is shown as "no drivers for this device are installed (Code 28)."

When looking in device manager, the driver listed is "partmgr.sys"

I know that the unit itself works fine, because I brought it to work and plugged it into my Win2000 machine and it was recognized immediately without error. The odd thing was the driver listed on that PC is "Disk.sys". I have tried many times to get my WinXP machine to load its own disk.sys driver and it simply won't do it. I even have installed the WinXP SP1, which provided a new Disk.sys file version, all to no avail.

Any suggestions at all?? Many thanks.

as a secondary possiblility..
I have noticed that many boards, are running the USB 1.1 compatibility.
And you have to upgrade the board to read the 2.0 compatibility.
Normally, I believe this might have been done at the factory. but upgraded through drivers.

Which is why I mentioned the UnknownDeviceIdentifier.exe program to track down that little problem.
This brings in where one computer does read the device, but another comes up with the error.
The driver is not installed correctly for that bios and/or OS to read it.
Which is why everyone is always saying, UPGRADE YOUR DRIVERS, not just the OS drivers, or the hardware drivers, but also the BIOS drives.

[epjb100]

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm using a brand new board (MSI ms6734) with the latest bios (MSI live-up-date) and the latest drivers obtainable through windows update. (Certain drivers, such as chipset, obtained from MSI.)

If there is another way to update the bios usb drivers I'd be grateful if someone could let me know how to do it.

Thanks!

[JerryWMac]

Sounds lkike you have it taken about as far as you can go.
Usually those problems have to do with drivers, USB drivers are installedx from ?Windows when you install it. Normally that and the Bios drivers do the trick.

However, since you said that your board is NEW, (deceptive term), you might try giving the makers of your board quick check and ask them for a remedy to your problem.

CPU
• Supports Socket A for AMD® Athlon™/Athlon™ XP/Duron™ Processor
• Supports up to Athlon XP 3000+ processor.

Chipset
• VIA® KM400 Chipset
- FSB @200/266/333MHz
- Integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome 2D/3D Graphics with motion compensation
- AGP 4x and 8X
- Advanced memory controller supports PC2100 DDR266 technology.
• VIA® VT8235 Chipset
- Integrated Direct Sound AC'97 audio.
- Dual Channel Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 master mode EIDE controller.
- Supports both ACPI and PC2001 compliant enhanced power management.
- 6 ports USB 2.0 controller.
- Integrated Ethernet MAC.

Main Memory
• Supports four memory banks by using two 184-pin DDR DIMMs
• Support upto 2GB of DDR200/266/333 DDR SDRAM.
• Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM DIMM

According to the above, your board should support naturally the USB 1.1 and the 2.0 standard, so yes get in touch with the maker.
If you need whatever type of driver for that, and current is not working.. then talk to them. Maybe they need to exchange it or what.

[tonyc]

A previous subscriber on this thread 'Roxan' and I were discussing UpperFilters and LowerFilters in the Device Classes section of the Registry at one point, but these parts of the thread don't seem to be there anymore?

Anyway, here's the gist of the solution as I wrote previously on May 2nd, 2004:

""I have solved the issue with the disk devices not loading properly. From contacts on a tech forum, I was lead to the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key in the registry, where I discovered a zero-length binary "LowerFilters" value (which should be string or multi-string). I surmised that this was the culprit because it should not exist with zero-length let alone be binary. I decided to delete this value and then rebooted. Hooray -- everything is okay for all devices, the RAID and all the USB devices!!""

PS. if you're not familiar with editing the Registry, please back it up before you do, as a minor mistake whilst editing can render your PC unbootable - there are many web sites, discussion threads, etc. that discuss the precautions you should take when editing the Registry.

Hope this helps!!

[epjb100]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your replies, I appreciate your time.

I was interested in the registry idea, found the right keys, but don't know how to recognise whether it's a problem or not.

I've got three things that look like folders, labeled 0000, 0001 and 0002.

For each of the these it says, under 'data': "value not set".

Does this sound right?

Thanks again.

[tonyc]

epjb100,

Yes you'll have sub-folders 0000, 0001, etc. for every disk or generic disk-like device in your system. The 'Default' value of "value not set" in these sub-folders is correct. See attached for an example of the 0000 device in my system.

As long as you've cleared the LowerFilters in the HKLM\SYSTEM\... \{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key itself, you should be okay. I have an UpperFilters in this key with a value of "PartMgr.sys". This appears to be correct as Upper-level filter drivers usually provide value-added features for a device (in this case an ability to handle partitions for example). Lower-level filters modify the behaviour of the device h/w itself (eg. one attached to a mouse device might provide acceleration, so performing a non-linear mouse movement).

In my case it was the zero-length binary "LowerFilters Value in the abve key that was the culprit. As I mentioned, removing this (deleting it) did the trick!

Hope this helps.

[itreeye]

Hi there Tony,
I have the same problem (except it's an IRiver MP3 player/recorder that won't be recognised) and went to the registry, and find that I have *no* Lower-Level firlters value under that specified key. Do you have any thoughts or ideas?
thanks very much in advance for any help

Originally Posted by tonyc

epjb100,

Yes you'll have sub-folders 0000, 0001, etc. for every disk or generic disk-like device in your system. The 'Default' value of "value not set" in these sub-folders is correct. See attached for an example of the 0000 device in my system.

As long as you've cleared the LowerFilters in the HKLM\SYSTEM\... \{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key itself, you should be okay. I have an UpperFilters in this key with a value of "PartMgr.sys". This appears to be correct as Upper-level filter drivers usually provide value-added features for a device (in this case an ability to handle partitions for example). Lower-level filters modify the behaviour of the device h/w itself (eg. one attached to a mouse device might provide acceleration, so performing a non-linear mouse movement).

In my case it was the zero-length binary "LowerFilters Value in the abve key that was the culprit. As I mentioned, removing this (deleting it) did the trick!

Hope this helps.

[tonyc]

Are you sure you have up to date drivers? Is the iRiver device a USB 2.0 device (and perhaps you only have USB 1.1 ports)? Sometimes backwards-compatibility is not assured!

I only stumbled upon the LowerFilter issue, so I don't have real insight into why a zero-length string would cause issues such as this. You could try searching the whole registry for "LowerFilters" especially in the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\... section. I just did and only found one in my CD/DVD Class -- in my case, this one is required to modify the device behaviour to allow it to function in digital audio.

If you find any that appear to be zero-length strings, then be VERY certain they aren't needed before removing! I suggest exporting the key to a safe place before deleting - that way you can re-instate it if something fails.

Hope this helps.

[Editman]

Originally Posted by tonyc

A previous subscriber on this thread 'Roxan' and I were discussing UpperFilters and LowerFilters in the Device Classes section of the Registry at one point, but these parts of the thread don't seem to be there anymore?

Anyway, here's the gist of the solution as I wrote previously on May 2nd, 2004:

""I have solved the issue with the disk devices not loading properly. From contacts on a tech forum, I was lead to the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key in the registry, where I discovered a zero-length binary "LowerFilters" value (which should be string or multi-string). I surmised that this was the culprit because it should not exist with zero-length let alone be binary. I decided to delete this value and then rebooted. Hooray -- everything is okay for all devices, the RAID and all the USB devices!!""

PS. if you're not familiar with editing the Registry, please back it up before you do, as a minor mistake whilst editing can render your PC unbootable - there are many web sites, discussion threads, etc. that discuss the precautions you should take when editing the Registry.

Hope this helps!!

WOW!!! I owe you for this solution! I've been pulling my hair out for weeks trying to solve this one. I'm not sure what creates the zero length key in the first place (I suspect maybe the old iPod drivers) but I finally got my computer working correctly thanks to this fix posted several years ago!!

[The_Perseus]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the solution!

I had a very similar problem while trying to install the new Digital Camera from Olympus (model SP-350) into one Win XP SP2 machine.

Now everything works fine.

Cheers,