Laptop

thomas01155

i have a old laptop but when i put my usb memory stick it the computer doesen't see it. The light on the memory stick goes on. The laptop is an old tecra 750cdt

Browntoa

if it's not using Xp then you will need drivers installed

thomas01155

its xp it has these weird usb drives there like a bigger version.The usb memory stick is harder to put in them

Browntoa

should just recognise it....

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

Anti virus, anti spyware, anti anything, personal firewalls, cd/dvd writing software, Adobe Elements (namely its download manager), usually installs a service and some drivers to get as much control as possible. Sometimes such services and drivers cause very strange effects.

To discover if a problem is caused by 3rd party software first start XP in Safe Mode. If the problem is gone then, boot again normal. Go to Start -> Run, msconfig, Tab 'Services', check 'Hide All Microsoft Services'. Disable them all, reboot and check if the problem is gone again. If yes, then enable them one by one (reboot each time) until the problem is back again. The you have the culprit...
If deactivating services doesn't help, try it with drivers. Start -> Run, devmgmt.msc. View -> Show hidden devices. Open in the device tree 'Non-Plug and Play Drivers'. Here you see lots of items, many from Microsoft and others. You can deactivate a driver by right clicking it an select 'Deactivate'.
If you are not sure about a driver, just enter its name at Google and you will see...

Create a restore point before!