i'm pretty much ripping off a forum message i found that describes the problem i'm having (with minor changes), which was not answered. this is a real pain and i'm out of ideas:
I am on a Windows XP SP3 PC. When I plug the 16 GB Cruzer Micro USB card in the light comes on and the New Hardware Detected window pops up, yet the drives do not appear in My Computer, Manage, Disk Management, nor does a U3 icon appear on my task bar. I downloaded the driver (LPInstaller.exe) from SanDisk, but when it ran it asks me to insert the U3 card which is already inserted and lit up... in which point, i also can't remove the device safely and if i try to log off windows it gets stuck on the "windows is shutting down" screen" and i have to manually turn it off.
you'd think there's a problem with the flash drive itself but there isn't.
it works fine on other pc's (with both Windows XP & windows 7), but here at my pc it doesn't after it did for more than 2 years and this is the first time it happens.
also, my pc doesn't have problems with any other usb flash drives.
now, i found a solution that involves messing with the device's registry entries (deleting them so it can be recognized and installed as new hardware). it only works until the next time i reboot, then it's the same problem all over again.
