Error 32 : all removable (USB, SD, Memory Stick) devices disabled

Hi Imran,

Thank you very much, this seems to be a tough nut to break:

1. Disabling driver signature enforcement does not help, the situation is the same after booting with this option as with standard booting.
2. Looking at the registry, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000} contains only a UpperFilters value (no LowerFilters) with an empty data:

UpperFilters     REG_MULTI_SZ

I deleted the value but that did not change the situation. I restored it to be on the safe (?) side, tell me if I should delete it permanently.

I feel ashamed of bothering you with this, but do you have any other suggestion I could run?

Many thanks!

Jean-Jacques

PS I have a sort of Hail Mary Pass idea: Device Management lists 8 devices under the USB bus controller category (2 root USB  hub, 2 USB host controllers, 2 generic USB Hub, 1 composite USB peripheral, 1 Qualcomm Gobi USB controller (that's my wireless WAN modem)). Should I uninstall all of them and hope that Windows 7 reinstalls them properly?

Hi Jacques,

Thank you for reverting back and providing more information on the issue.

Boot into Advanced Boot Options and disable driver signing checking.

The Advanced Boot Options screen lets you start Windows in advanced troubleshooting modes. You can access the menu by turning on your computer and pressing the F8 key before Windows starts.

Disabling driver signature enforcement has helped a lot of users in fixing the issue.

You may also delete the USB "Upper Filter" & "Lower Filter" Entry and check if that helps.

Before we go any further, please first backup the Registry.

Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Back up the registry

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Back-up-the-registry

1.   Click “Start”, type “regedit” (without quotation marks) in the “Search” bar and press Enter.

 Note: If UAC (User Account Control) pops up, please accept it.

2. Right click “Computer” (the root node) in the left pane, click “Export” under the “File” menu, choose “All” under “Export range”, and select “Desktop” in the “Save” in box and type backup in “File Name”. Click “Save”.

Note: The backup file is on the Desktop and named backup.reg. We can simply restore the registry by double-clicking the backup.reg file.

 3. Click “Start”, type “regedit” (without quotation marks) in the “Search” bar and press Enter again.

 4. Locate the “UpperFilters” value under the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}

 5. On the “Edit” menu, click “Delete”, and then click “OK”.

6. Locate the “LowerFilters” value under the same key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}

7. On the “Edit” menu, click “Delete”, and then click “OK”.
8. Quit Registry Editor and restart the computer.

If you need further assistance, please reply and we will be happy to help you.

Imran, thanks a lot for your reply. The bad news is that your suggestions did not work, but here is the detail:

0. Latest change made to the computer was installing a batch of windows updates on 11/17, I did not note any problem since, until a couple of days ago when I needed to use a USB key and found out it did not work.

Method 1: the troubleshooter diagnoses that the Memory Stick does not work and instructs to uninstall it and reboot. Upon rebooting, Windows first shows "Driver being installed" and a little later an error message "Driver could not be installed".

Method 2: I uninstalled the two "Host PCI to USB controllers", rebooted, Windows shows several "Driver being installed" boxes, then a couple of warnings "Driver could not be installed", then ends with a big 6-liner box:

*************************************************

Generic USB            Ready

Volume ()                 Failed

Generic USB              Ready

Ricoh Memory Stick Disk Device          Failed

USB Root Concentrator                         Ready                   

Ricoh SD/MMC Disk Device                  Failed

**************************************************

And I get the same syndrome as before on the Device Manager, i.e. yellow triangles on anything under disk unit. Back to square 1!

Funny thing (so to speak...) is that when I run NirSoft USB Deview, it sees an USB key when I plug it in (with its S/N !) - but Windows does not see it when I open Computer.

I'm getting crazy... Do you have an idea on what to do next?

Thanks a million!

Jean-Jacques (that's my first name...)

Hi,

It looks like you have issue with recognizing all removal storage devices. In order to provide you with a quick resolution, please reply to this question:

Have you made any changes on the computer prior to the issue?

Follow the suggestions listed below for a possible fix:

**Method 1:**I suggest you to run Hardware Troubleshooter and then check for the issue.

Open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Open-the-Hardware-and-Devices-troubleshooter**

**Method 2:**If the above step does not help us to diagnose the issue, uninstall the drivers for USB [Universal Serial bus] host controller and restart the computer. Let Windows install the generic drivers and then see if it helps you to fix the issue.

a.       Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, then Device Manager in the search box.‌

If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

b.      Look for the device under USB [Universal Serial bus] host controller, right click on it and select Uninstall.

c.       Reboot the computer.

d.      On reboot, Windows 7 should re-install the drivers automatically.

You may also refer the following article for more information on error codes:

Explanation of error codes generated by Device Manager in Windows XP Professional

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310123

Note: The article is for Windows XP and it’s provided just for description about the error code you are receiving.

If you need further assistance, please reply and we will be happy to help you.