Win 7 issue with USB storage devices..
 

Anyone know a solution to this? My laptop still uses Window 7 and for some reason it "forgets" various devices. For instance my Galaxy S4, I plug it in via USB and windows can not find it. Meanwhile the same phone works fine on other PC's. The same thing happened with my old Nexus 4, both phones at first were detected just fine and then after a bit of time Windows stopped seeing them when I plugged them in.

I have the same issue when trying to plug in my old Canon 10d, windows can't see it, so I have to pull the SD card and use a reader. Meanwhile other windows machines can see the camera just fine.

I have a Galaxy Note Pro and windows sees it just fine, but it seems hit or miss with various devices. It makes it a pita to pull video or photo's off my phone. I have to transfer them from the phone to a usb device and then from the usb device to the pc.

Anyone have any ideas what causes this?

looks like they released new software

GALAXY S4 (GT-I9500ZKAMID) | Support | SAMSUNG Levant

If that doesn't work try this

Diagnose and fix Windows USB problems automatically

I don't think a software will help. Software or no software windows should see the device as a mas storage device, much like a USB stick. I've tried Kies 3 for example and it doesn't help as windows can't find the phone.

I think it comes with the territory; fewer USB ports and they seem to be prioritized. I will be watching to see if a solution is presented.

I use a WD Passport USB3 as a backup drive. I have one other exactly the same for various other files.

The backup drive sometimes will not be recognized when restarting the computer, and I need to disconnect and plug back in again for it to work. The other identical drive has no problems. I've been dealing with his for 2 years, or however long ago I setup this system.

What I'm saying is you can categorize it as "weird computer shit" like I do.

I have various external drives and find a couple ports work all the time no matter the device and some ports need to be reseated rather frequently

After all of these years of using computers, nothing surprises me anymore. Before I rebuilt my system, the last one wouldn't boot if an internal DVD drive was plugged in. I spent a day trying to figure it out and eventually said "what the fuck" and lived with it for 3 years.

I haven't owned one computer that didn't have a multitude of idiosyncracies and weird shit that annoyed me on a daily basis -- whether I bought it turnkey or built myself. Some day they'll figure out the hardware and software thing.

Even Apple has issues with USB ports causing things to fuck up. My old iMac would sometimes boot to a white screen and not load the OS. Randomly unplugging USB ports would sometimes get it to boot. Was very strange issue and a well known issue which Apple ignored and pretended never existed.

Several years later they release a patch and blamed it on faulty video cards well after everyone's warranties ran out. This is one of the reasons I swore off Apple products..

Computers will work properly when we make one smart enough to perfect itself. But we won't be able to enjoy it because it'll do a Skynet on us.