# USB Problem "Hardware ID Missing"



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

Windows 7 Ultimate, Nvidia 730i board, 4 Gigs RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 2.8GHz
Samsung Galaxy Note (Android) cell phone

I want to be clear that this is a USB port problem, NOT a phone problem.

There are twelve USB ports on this computer, eight of which are in use. The Samsung Galaxy Note works fine on ten of the twelve ports; but, there is a pair of ports on the front of the computer that give the following error when I connect the Note:


> Hardware ID Missing. Windows cannot identify the device plugged into the Samsung Mobile Composite Device. For assistance, contact the hardware manufacturer.


The two front ports are connected by a wire directly to the main board and so are four of the rear ports. Other devices (USB flash drives, scanner, Palm Treo 680 cell phone) connected to the problem ports work fine. I think this could be a Windows Registry problem; but, that is just a guess and I have no idea how to fix this.

Any suggestions?


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## ProMedic (Aug 17, 2012)

Are all your drivers up-to-date? This would not be a windows registry problem


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## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

Update: When I wrote the original post, it was correct at that time; however, I got up this morning to find I was getting that same "Hardware ID Missing" error on all USB ports.

I've been to the Intel and the Nvidia sites and I can't find any drivers for this board. I have only the drivers that came with it in the box when it was new. I tried to run that auto-driver-scan thingy on Intel's site (it has an Intel chipset) and it says it is unknown.

To be clear, I have no problem running other devices on USB ports -- printer, flash drives, scanner, etc.

I finally gave up and wiped the drive clean and am installing Windows 7 32-bit from scratch. I'll post back my result as soon as I get SP1 and all updates installed.


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## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I have now finished rebuilding the OS from scratch from the original setup DVD and have installed all drivers and the multitude of programs I use and, so far, the "Hardware ID Missing" error message is not popping up and the Samsung Galaxy Note is interfacing very well with the computer on all USB ports.

The part that is strange to me about all of this is that these USB ports have given no problem with varied other devices over at least a year or more. Also, I had an image of the drive that I made nearly two years ago that I restored that also did not help with the problem.


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## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

"Hardware ID missing" appears sporadically on connection to USB cable.

I can connect the phone and get "Hardware ID missing". I can disconnect and reconnect many times over and still get "Hardware ID missing". Then I can reconnect and it is recognized just fine.

To be clear, this seems to be a storage recognition problem ( the phone's internal storage and the add-in SD card ) as _MyPhone Explorer_ interfaces with the phone's applications just fine, "Hardware ID missing" error or not. I have searched the 'net and this appears to be a very common problem with extremely few of them being overcome.

(_MyPhone Explorer_ is a program for managing some of the phone's programs, like Contacts, images, etc.)

The USB cable cannot be the problem because, as stated above, _MyPhone Explorer_ interfaces with the phone's applications just fine, "Hardware ID missing" error or not.


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