Maximum PC

I recently got a newer Windows ME system to replace my old ME system. Before I can swap the old one out, I need to fix a problem with the USB drivers.

The problem is that flash drives will not show up on it. I've tried several different drives. Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark next to USB storage device because "The NTKERN.vxd driver loader for this device could not load the drivers. (Code 2)." So I copied a USBSTOR.INF file from another computer to this one's C:\WINDOWS\INF\. After restarting, I still have the same problem.

I haven't tried getting a USBNTMAP.sys file yet.

Here's the silly question:
What's the OS on the machine that you copied USBSTOR.INF from? Win2k/XP drivers won't work on a Win9x/Me system.....

Grab thee a copy of Everest Free, install & run it (I could swear that there's a proggy out there that'll do it withoiut installing, but cannot for the life of me remember what it's called... ). Lessee what it has to say about your USB devices & the root hubs. On that train of thought, what's your device manager have to say about the UDB controller(s)? Are the only errors in there about the flash drives, or do you have more?

Q: is this the same machine that's mentioned in this thread?

Windows ME did not support USB natively. As far as I remember they never patched it to add USB support due to it's very short lifespan.

It did, just reloaded an old laptop a month ago, my USB key worked without any updates.

Everything from Windows 95 OSR 2.1 and higher supported USB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... s_versions

I've had no problems getting USB drives working on Windows Me systems. However, Windows 98 usually require a specific device driver to work because Microsoft didn't add a USB Mass Storage driver until Windows Me.

And given the fact that Microsoft stopped all Win9x support over 18 months ago, new drivers won't be written.

You'll need your WinME disk to fix the issue - but I did find the article on MS's support.

Plain and simple - if you're not running Windows 2000, XP or Vista on your desktop, you won't find much of anything that works.

Why in the world would you buy a computer with Windows ME on it in this day and age?

I personally can't stand Windows 9X. Especially after being spoiled by the stability and robustness of Windows 2000/Windows XP.

WHY!!!!!

Well, there might be some old legacy software that just won't run under WinNx (2000/XP), without serious command coding. I actually just fixed an accountants machine with Win98, because this year he can finish the last of the pre-Y2K files he had. He'll buy a new XP machine later this year from me.

Have you tried using the Automatic Skip Driver utility in Windows ME? To access it, click on Start, then click on Run, and type in "ASD" (without quotation marks), and click the OK button. If Windows ME skipped loading a driver for anything, it will be listed here with an empty checkbox to the left of it. Check the box, click OK, and restart the computer.

cup, I got the USBSTOR.INF from another ME computer. The other thread had to do with a flash drive, and not a single computer. I've got three: a gaming system, an internet ME based one (I got the files from it), and a newer (but still old) ME based one. That last one is the one I'm having the problems with.

SuperChip64: I tend to regard Vista as the Windows ME of modern day. Both have compatibility issues and are difficult to live with.

damicatz, I didn't buy it. It was a gift, a decent hand-me-down. Considering the specs of my current internet browsing computer, I'm lucky to have a newer one at all. I've got a different computer quarantined from the internet used for gaming and school.

pcstudent, I ran ASD, and it didn't turn anything up.

cup, I got Everest Free, but I'm not seeing anything abnormal in it. I don't know what to look for, however. Device manager shows a yellow exclamation mark next to USB Storage Devices (when I have one plugged in), MIDI, and game controllers (those last two have different error codes).

SuperChip64, I did what the MS article said, but the problem is in the same condition as before, with the same errors and lack of USB support. When I ran the extraction thing, it wouldn't let me pull the files off of the drive the Windows CD was in, drive D:, but instead off of drive E:. I do have a drive E:, and it did run the extraction fine, but I thought it was worth mention.

I would like to run Windows update to maybe patch the USB problem, but my modem is USB.

Can't you add your "new" ME machine to the network, use Internet connection sharing on the "old" ME machine to get any updates that you need for your "new" ME machine?

Hey, can you do us a favor and look for the file NTKERN.vxd. I have a feeling it may have simply disappeared.

It should exist in /windows/system, note you may need to show hidden system files.

legojerry, when I go to Device Manager > USB storage devices and look at the driver details, there is a file in Windows\System\vmm32.vxd. Next to it in parentheses, it says NTKERN.vxd. So I guess it hasn't disappeared.

spacedogg, I think this problem affects storage devices only, so I may be able to get the "new" one online to get to Windows update.

cup, is there anything I should be looking for using Everest Free?

The computer still doesn't work with USB devices, but I now have a router, so I can connect it via Ethernet cable and connect to the internet that way. The problem is that I cannot get Windows Update to run, along with all of the previous errors. When I visit update.microsoft.com, or click the Windows Update shortcut, it sends IE into a redirect loop. I've turned automatic updates on, but it does not download and install updates automatically. Microsoft's automated Windows Update diagnostic tool does not support WinME. Internet Explorer 7 and 8 are not compatible with Windows ME; Firefox does not support WinME; Chrome requires Java to run, Java 5.0 is the latest supported by WinME, but Java's website warns not to use it due to the security holes in it (I installed 5.0 anyway, since I don't see how I can do without it if I'm going to use the Internet at all). When I try to run Chrome's setup, I get this message: "The CHROMESETUP.EXE file is linked to missing export KERNEL32.DLL:SETFilePointerEx." If I can't get Chrome running this leaves IE 6 as the only browser option available.

Whenever I try to plug in a USB device, the message "The file 'kbdhid.vxd' was not found," it does the same with hidserv.exe (the hidserv.exe error is present as soon as Windows boots when a USB device is plugged in at boot).

This article talks about what vxd files are, but didn't give specifics on how to fix this particular case.
http://www.osronline.com/DDKx/w98ddk/usbptr_9h0u.htm

This article says that vxd files are unique to a computer's configuration:
http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread ... -win-98-cd
The authors advise reinstalling WinME, but I do not have the install disc for it. I have the disc from my other WinME computer, however, but I don't know if it will work on this one due to the activation and registration key system, or if it would fix the vxd problems at all. vmm32.vxd is supposed to hold vxd files; this article talks about how to restore them by setting up vmm32.vxd rather than reinstalling WinME. It refers to Windows 98, so I doubt it will work exactly like WinME does. SFC does not run on this system, for example.

I have my reinstallation disc for the older WinME system, but is says on the disc, "[...] not for reinstallation of application programs or drivers." This article says I can get extract the files from C:\Windows\Options\Install since it is an OEM install, along with this article, which says the vxd can be extracted to fix broken versions of vxd files, but the latter article refers to Win98. The problem with this solution is that vmm32.vxd is not in C:\Windows\Options\Install, and since it is created at the time of Windows installation, it's not something that can be copied from another user's system, and may or may not be something that can be copied from the install disc, since the only install disc I have is from a different WinME system made by a different retailer. To verify this, I extracted kbdhid.vxd and hidserv.exe from the install disc to C:\Windows\Options\Install and restarted the computer without the install disc in the cd drive, but got the same errors. I then extracted the files to the cab folder mentioned in hidserv.exe's error on Windows boot (c:\WINDOWS\CatRoot) and restarted. After extracting the hidserv.exe and kbdhid.vxd to that folder, the errors did not appear on boot to Windows and a USB keyboard I had tested it with worked. kbd is the abbreviation for keyboard, which was the only USB device it enabled.

Other USB devices, like mice, joysticks, and drives, still are non-functional. When I plug the drive in, Windows gives its "Windows is installing the USB device" message, but it does not appear in My Computer's list of drives. When I run the Add Hardware wizard, it detects a USB Mass Storage Device, but says it already has the latest driver. I extracted files with usb in their title from BASE2 and DRIVERS7 to C:\WINDOWS\INF, C:\WINDOWS\CatRoot\, and C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\INSTALL\, and restarted, with the same non-functional usb devices as before.

EDIT: I called HP's technical support number (800-474-6836) to see if I could get an OEM install disc or download of WinME. The support representative said that support for their PCs ends after five years. The computer is over ten years old. I asked the representative if there were any affiliate HP stores, and he said they didn't have that information. He said to look for a store using the Google search engine. >_< I can probably find a copy of the OS online somewhere, but I don't know if it would have the correct drivers. The same goes for the Dell OEM CD version of WinME I still have. The WinME version installed is 4.90, build 3000, so it is probably prior to a fix that enables USB 2.0 functionality.

EDIT 2: I tried to reinstall Windows ME on the HP from the Dell CD, but it says partway through installation that it "cannot be installed on this system, contact your computer manufacturer."

Have you gone into Safe Mode and looked for the option to rebuild or repair the operating system. I don't know if they made a hidden partition on your hard drive or not and put the system install program there or not. It is worth a look. If a repair is one of the options, try using it, or back up your data and use the reinstall option if it is there.

Nasty

I had a few of links in repair notes from when I repaired/updated a Toshiba laptop quite a while ago that ran WinME (had a single USB1.1 port in the back). Hope they help. I agree, repair the OS if you can.

I stopped supporting non-NT based systems quite a while ago---in fact I think that Toshiba was the last straw---too time consuming to try and refamiliarize myself with an antiquated system I haven't worked in some time.

http://www.datarecoveryunion.com/troubleshoot-usb-in-windows-98-se-and-windows-me/

http://www.usbman.com/winxpusbguide.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184400/EN-US/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263218

1. HOLY SHIT this is an old ass thread!
2. Just to check the hardware: Try a linux live distro, if your USB ports dont work then it ain't a software problem.