Why does my XP machine think I have USB devices plugged in?

Factual Questions
1

Whenever I boot my XP machine at home, it shows 3 USB devices available, although I have none. I have tried stopping the devices, but they just return when I reboot. Anyone else ever see this? It isn’t really a problem, AFAIK, but I’m finding it annoying.

Thanks.

2

What exactly is it listing? One WAG is that you’ve got a multi-card-reader thingumy…mine shows up as four removable disks and one USB device (it’s plugged into a USB port directly on the motherboard), without any cards present.

3

What devices are showing? If they are hubs, that behavior is normal and correct. There really are hub devices on the bus, integrated into your motherboard. Also, do you have internal Bluetooth, media card readers, front panel controls, or other internal hardware other than drives and expansion cards? And if this is a laptop, your keyboard and trackpad may be USB devices as well.

4

Drive D: Compact FlashI/II
Drive E: MMC/SD
Drive F: Smart Media
Drive H: Memory Stick

5

I’m not quite sure I understand what you are saying. Are you asking why the card slots show up when you don’t have cards inserted? Do you have a card reader plugged in? If so, the slots are supposed to show up as drives whether a card is inserted or not, just as the icon for floppy drives and CD/DVD drives is always present.

6

Do you have a photo printer with media slots? They will show up as USB drives.

7

I second Fear’s guess of printer flash memory ports being a possible culprit. If not that, perhaps check your motherboard’s BIOS settings. Turn off any references to on-board card readers, etc.

If you can’t turn it off, try right-clicking on the time in the system tray, click Properties, click Customize button, find the icon for the USB devices, and set to “Always hide”. This is assuming you have the “Hide inactive icons” box checked on the Properties page.

8

Same “problem” I encountered when I installed a multi card reader in my brother’s computer: the connection to the motherboard was made from the internal USB connections.

In that case, I think the USB has to show that the card readers are available to allow you to then hot swap: that is to connect and disconnect cards like flash memory or memory stick on the fly. My educated guess is that it is a limitation of having a multi card reader connected via USB.