Since Windows 8 is the latest operating system released by Microsoft, it is likely that it would support almost all USB devices that are connected to the computer.
However there might be cases when Windows 8 fails to detect certain USB devices when connected. The most possible reason for this issue can be conflicts between other USB devices that users might have connected to the computer. In order to resolve this issue, users should try removing other connected USB devices, restarting the computer, and then reconnecting only the target USB device to the computer, without connecting the other devices at all.
If the above method doesn't resolve the problem, the issue might be old or incorrect USB drivers. Although drivers for almost all types of USB ports are present in Windows 8 driver database, there might still be some ports that the operating system fails to detect. When this is the case, administrators are recommended to update old driver with the latest version of USB driver to resolve the issue.
In order to make things easier for the administrators, Windows 8 automatically searches for and downloads the latest USB drivers from the Internet. However the process of driver search and download must be initiated by the administrator manually.
Like other driver and software update processes, the update process of USB drive also requires elevated privileges. This means that in order to update the USB driver, administrator account must be used to log on to Windows 8 computer.
How to Update USB Drivers?
In order to update USB drivers in Windows 8, simply follow the below steps:
- ■Log on to Windows 8 computer with the administrator account.
■Make sure that the computer is connected with an active Internet connection.
■Click Desktop tile from the Start screen to go to the desktop window.
■Once on the desktop screen, hover mouse to the bottom right corner of the window.
■From the displayed options, click Settings.
■On the Settings pane, click Control Panel.
■On the opened Control Panel window, click Hardware and Sound.
■On Hardware and Sound window, click Device Manager under Devices and Printers category from the right pane.
■On Device Manager window, expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers category.
■Once expanded, right-click the USB controller that is to be updated.
■From the context menu that appears, click Update Driver Software to update the driver of the selected USB controller.
■On the displayed box, click Search automatically for updated driver software to make the Windows to search for the updated driver from the Internet.
■Wait till the selected driver gets updated from the Internet and on the next page, click Close.
■Close Device Manager window, when done.
For a detailed video walkthrough, check out the Tom's Hardware Tutorial Video below:
After spending a lot of time and trying a bunch of different ways to fix the problem, only one solution ended up working for me. I’ll mention that solution first, but will also mention the other possible solutions, as the first solution may not fix the problem for everyone.
Method 1 – Unplug Computer
So how did I finally fix the problem? Well, if you are lucky, it’s a super simple solution! Try this method first and if it works, you’ll have saved a lot of time.
Simply unplug your computer from the power supply. Yes that is it! Note that this does not mean just turning off your computer using the power button because most modern computers don’t actually turn off completely and the motherboard will still get power. This is useful sometimes if you want to remotely wake up a computer, etc.
The motherboard is where all of hardware of the computer connects to, including the USB ports. Sometimes the motherboard needs to be “rebooted” because things can go wrong, i.e. all or some USB ports suddenly stop working. The small microprocessor on the motherboard will reload the drivers and your USB ports should hopefully be recognizing devices again.
So first turn off your computer using the Shut Down option in Windows or pressing the power button and then UNPLUG the PC from the wall outlet. Let it sit for several minutes and then plug it back in.
Method 2 – Update Device Driver
If Windows is not able to recognize the device, you may also see in Device Manager that the device shows up as an “Unknown Device”. You can get to Device Manager by clicking on Start and typing in devmgmt.msc or by going to Control Panel and clicking on Device Manager.