a couple of days ago for some reason my usb devices started playing up on my Desktop computer but still work fine on my laptop... now when i plug in mass storage devices such as my pendrive, external hardrive, camera etc a thing pops up down in the right hand corner saying that the device has malfunctioned and it is an unknown device... these were all working fine until a couple of days ago so any help would be great. thanks.

Hey stovan, welcome to PCHF.

Has there been any new USB devices installed, or a powered USB hub removed recently? The problem you are describing sounds like you have too much connected (there is a limited 500mA power that can be drawn for a USB Hub).

So if your using too much power, then you'll need to think about purchasing an external, self powered USB Hub.

thanks for the tips. There hasnt been any new usb things installed lately and nothings been removed it just randomly stopped working... our printer and everything else is working... its only mass storage devices which arent being recognised by the computer.

Oh right, you mentioned external hdd and camera. I guess you were not talking about a web camera, but a digital camera? So any storage device, not any devices that were already plugged in. It's possible, and still most likely to be a power issue, so I would first suggest disconnecting all your other USB devices and then try to use your storage devices. They have also been tested in other PC's?

There's nothing that I can think of that would paticularly target storage devices, however a device can sometimes get tied to a particular USB port. In this case, a simple solution would be to use an alternative port. If using an alternative port works for you, then to prevent this from happening again, please make sure you use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon that will appear in your system tray for when you disconnect a storage device.