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Twice now, I've plugged in devices which the manufacturer claims require no drivers, only to have Windows tell me that the device driver was not successfully installed. I've managed to get the devices running on other computers without drivers, including a computer running exactly the same system.

My machine is Win7 32bit, and the devices are a Sabrent floppy disk drive and a bar code scanner of unknown pedigree, but I suspect it's a more general issue.

How can I get around this problem?

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  • When you say 'twice now' does that mean you ran into this (it not recognizing them) on two different systems, or you ran into it doing it twice on one computer? Are they consistently not recognized on the same system, or is it intermittent? (ie: It happened twice, out of 50 times, the other 48 it worked). How do they connect? USB? For now I will say that I wouldn't expect a USB floppy drive to need extra drivers (it should use in-built ones in Windows), and it should install them in the background, probably without you noticing (the first time).
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Aug 23, 2011 at 22:44
  • Most devices work fine on the computer in question. Two devices refuse to work - the floppy disk drive and the barcode scanner mentioned. They've failed to work under two different operating systems (on the one computer) - Vista and Windows 7. I have another computer, running the same version of Windows 7, on which the devices work. The devices work on every other computer I've tested them on - XP, Vista and Windows 7 alike, I only mention this specific other computer because the system is installed from the same disk, so guaranteed to be the same. Both are USB devices.
    – wyatt
    Aug 24, 2011 at 11:28
  • You've tried different USB ports (front, back, etc.) on the problematic computer?
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Aug 24, 2011 at 11:45
  • It just has the two, tried them both. The ports work well enough, it's just those two devices that haven't worked. It's not a pressing issue, neither device is crucial and, as mentioned, I can get them going on other machines, it's just thoroughly mystified me. To add to the confusion, the other machine I've mentioned is the predecessor to this machine (that is, the previous model in the same range), so it's not as though the machine should have any fundamental inability to handle the devices (inasmuch as hardware can be incapable of accepting devices, anyway).
    – wyatt
    Aug 24, 2011 at 11:54

1 Answer 1

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Are the devices rated/labelled/certified as Windows 7 ready?

They may have worked with XP with 'no additional drivers', but those same 'built-in drivers' may not be in 7 (especially if the company has died, or dropped the product model).

Perhaps check out Microsoft's Windows 7 compatibility webpage, and/or 7's XP Mode.

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  • The devices aren't labeled as not requiring any additional drivers for any version of Windows, but as mentioned, they install just fine on another computer running exactly the same version.
    – wyatt
    Aug 23, 2011 at 22:25
  • @wyatt I see. Check out my new comments on the question.
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Aug 23, 2011 at 22:40

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