What if the PC does not see the USB flash drive?

Compact memory devices based on flash memory, just appeared on the market, deservedly gained immense popularity among computer owners. Portable hard drives, still, it is difficult to call portable - they can not be put in your pocket, and if it works, the weight of the device is unlikely to please anyone. Other Competitor flash drives - rewritable CDs. However, the recording speed is quite low, and they demand too careful attitude to themselves. Given the popularity, it's no surprise that the network often asks questions like: "Comp does not see a flash drive, what should I do?". Problems with flash drives can arise from any user, regardless of the accuracy of the call. Therefore, today we will explain why the PC does not see the flash drive and what actions the owner can take.

The most common problem, which, nevertheless, occurs in 80% of cases - a feature of the USB-ports of the computer. It is understandable that most users connect USB flash drives to USB connectors on the front of the computer's system unit - it's convenient. It's hard to believe, but this is one of the reasons why the PC does not see the flash drive. The connectors located on the front panel are connected to the motherboard (on which the controller chip is located) by means of a loop. Since the manufacturer of the case does not know at which point of the motherboard the contacts for connecting the USB cable will be located, then the length of the wires The plume is taken with a margin (often 2-3 times). For the USB 2.0 standard, the maximum current per port is 500 mA. For such a low value, every "extra" centimeter of conductors causes a noticeable additional loss of voltage, so less than 500 mA (current, voltage and resistance) can be connected to the device connected to this connector. The result is that the PC does not see the USB flash drive, since the latter does not receive enough power. For the solution, connect it directly to the motherboard ports located on the back of the system unit. Also it is necessary to check up its working capacity on other computer.

Owners of laptops can face the same problem - the PC does not see the flash drive, although they do not have any trains, as in personal computers. The reason for the peculiarities of the controller with USB ports. Sometimes two adjacent connectors have different speed characteristics. You should plug the USB flash drive into another slot and disconnect the "extra" USB devices - mouse, printer, etc.

Also, many companies do not see the flash drive due to software failure. In the Windows system, go to "Computer - Properties - Device Manager". In the list we find the item "USB controllers", open it. We plug the USB flash drive, a new entry appears - delete it (the Del button). We extract the flash drive and reconnect it.

If the flash drive is detected, but it is not assigned a drive letter, then click on the "Computer" icon with the right mouse button, then go to "Manage - Disk Management". We find in the list of devices a flash drive and in its properties we change the drive letter to any free disk .

Sometimes a USB flash drive is defined as a "USB device". In this case, the firmware update can help. In the web there are sites dedicated to flashing flash drives - you need to use the information from their pages.