Member Avatar for silvercats

my other ports are fine and I use Pen drives on them.modem is new

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Brief, practical follow-up to the thread with and : below are concrete checks and fixes tailored to a Huawei E220 on Windows 7 that explain why the stick can behave differently depending on which USB jack you use, and how to stop Windows from asking to re-install drivers every time you move it.

First, how Windows may be treating the device: Windows builds a device-instance string for USB devices that normally includes a device serial. If the serial is missing (or the driver exposes only per-port identifiers), Windows will create a distinct device instance for each physical port. That makes the system run the install flow again when you plug the modem into a different jack. Verify this by comparing the device’s Details → “Device instance path” or “Hardware Ids” in Device Manager when plugged into two ports; if the trailing bits change, Windows is using a port-based instance. See Microsoft’s documentation on USB device instance IDs for background: .

Practical fixes

  • Prestage the official driver into the Windows driver store so the system can reuse it on any port. From an elevated prompt run:
    pnputil -i -a "C:\Drivers\Huawei\E220\*.inf"

    Then unplug and replug into other ports. (Documented tool: pnputil reference.)

  • Install the latest Huawei package (Mobile Partner / modem drivers) from Huawei or your carrier so the INF includes the right hardware IDs.
  • Update chipset/USB host-controller drivers (Intel/AMD) and correct USB3.0 drivers if the machine has mixed USB2/USB3 ports.
  • To rule out power: test with a powered USB hub.

Troubleshooting tips

  • Use Device Manager → View → Show hidden devices to remove stale entries so Windows doesn’t confuse installs.
  • Look in Event Viewer (System) for USB install errors.
  • Don’t edit INFs unless comfortable; changing INF IDs is advanced and can break installs.

For device background (modes and driver behaviour) see the Huawei E220 overview: Huawei E220.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for rubberman

A modem requires a "powered" usb port. Some only provide enough juice for things like thumb drives, but many laptops only provide 1 port with enough power for things like broadband modems, etc.

Member Avatar for silvercats

I don't get this problem with win XP. Later I found out that I need to install drivers again and again if I need to change the USB port with Windows 7.weird but worked.Thanks for the help

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