Member Avatar for RET1

I can not see my flash drive (SimpleTech BobzaiXpress 1GB). I loaded the drivers, restarted the PC, & nothing shows up. Could it be because, yesterday when I tried to connect a LaCie hard drive via the USB port & removed it without diconnecting by going to the system tray, instead I just pulled the plug? Later, I read somewhere that if you do not properly disconnect from the USB port in with Win98, the USB port may stop responding & then no longer recognize any USB device. Could this be why I am not seeing the drive? What can I do?
Win 98, Pentium II 400MHz, 96 MB Ram.

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For : with Windows 98 on a PII/96MB system, a few Win98-specific and hardware-level issues can make a flash stick invisible even after "installing drivers." pointed to a Microsoft KB and suggested checking other devices — those are good starts. Below are additional, practical checks and order-of-operations that haven't been covered.

  • Confirm the exact Windows 98 edition (Right-click My Computer -> Properties). Original Win98 and Win98 SE differ in built-in USB mass-storage support; that changes whether a vendor driver or an OS update is needed.
  • Do a true hardware reset of the USB controller: complete shutdown, unplug the PC from mains for 30+ seconds, then power on. Some older controllers need full power removal, not just a reboot.
  • Check BIOS setup for USB-related options: make sure the USB controller is enabled and note any USB 2.0/EHCI or "legacy USB" options. Toggling a setting (enable/disable) and rebooting can force re-enumeration.
  • Consider current draw: bus-powered external HDDs (like LaCie) can overload an old single-port controller. Remove the HDD, then try the stick. If the HDD is needed, use a powered hub or its own power supply.
  • Inspect Device Manager (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager). Look under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" and "Disk drives" for unknown devices or warning icons. If the stick never shows up at all but other USB devices do, the stick itself may be failed.
  • If Windows still will not see anything, a cheap PCI USB 2.0 expansion card is often the fastest hardware workaround on very old motherboards.

Caution: avoid repartitioning or formatting the stick if data recovery is required. If the drive is not recognized on any other machine, the flash module may have failed.

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Member Avatar for cguan_77

check out this one from Microsoft hope it will help

Member Avatar for Salim9

Have u tried anything else like a pen drive or something on the port ... if it does not detect that as well then try reinstalling the drivers for usb ....
COZ UNPLUGING without disconnecting once cannot cause malfunction ...!!!

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