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Sony Memory Stick - This device cannot Work (Code 10)

Greetings all :) This is my first post in this fine forum. :)

I'm dealing with a computer question in another forum, and I would like to ask for some opinions on the issue.
So please I'd appreciate some inputs.

The forum I use is in here: http://forum.japantoday.com/default.asp
I use quite a bit the Computer forum under the names of Ghostman, AeroThoughts, Skyman and Knight Lightning.

The issue is here: http://forum.japantoday.com/Memory_stick_drive_in_New_Sony_Vaio_not_detected_after_installing_english_OS/m_72534/tm.htm

Basically this is the problem in hands:

A certain user wrote:

'I am having a very similar problem, except that I did not recently install WinXP. My
machine (PCG-R505EL) came shipped with XP Home. Several months ago, I upgradedto XP
Pro without any problems.
Just today, I noticed my Memory Stick drive was gone. I went to "Add new hardware"
and attempted adding the "Sony Memory Stick Controller (PCI)", but Windows said it
cannot start the device. I have been searching the web for about an hour now looking
for someone who has experienced a similar problem, without avail.
This was the closest I found. Please... Does anyone have any suggestions?
That drive is, like, why I bought the camera and the discman that I did.'
--
And:

'I checked for and installed some Windows Updates, but none of them were related to my
Memory Stick drive.
I also visited sony.com/support and downloaded the Memory Stick PRO firmware upgrade
- because I figured it couldn't hurt. No luck though; the problem is unchanged.
Then, I downloaded BigFix, but am relatively unimpressed with it. All it appears to
do is search the web for updates and things, but not actually search my machine for
items which need updating - at least, as far as I could tell. In any case, it only
found two suggested downloads, but neither of them were related to this issue.
I feel the problem might be hardware related, which worries me. But, if that does
turn out to be the case, does anyone know if this is the kind of thing which can be
replaced?
Oh, Device Manger refers to this as "Sony Memory Stick controller (PCI)" and does
indeed have a yellow exclimation mark next to it. Its status is "This device cannot
start. (Code 10)". Sigh. =( '


My answer was:

That basically, this is a driver's issue, that he has to look into Device manager and see the status of it, and perform a Driver update.
That it could have been that the driver became unrecognized because he did an OS upgrade.
He shifted from Win XP Home Edition to Pro.
However this is not the case because the Sony Memory stick stopped working a while after he did the upgrade.

Still: the error he gets: This device cannot work (code10) - indicates a driver problem that can be resolved with the right driver installed or a driver upgrade.

I also sugested he could perform updates searches with Windows update and with a program called Bigfix ( www.bigfix.com)

I have found: a driver update
Right here:

http://ciscdb.sel.sony.com/cgi-bin/select-software.pl
Searching in Sony's sites for notebooks/ model PCG-R505EL

Called
Memory Stick with the date 11/6/2003 on it - it is correspondent to his machine's model Sony Vaio PCG-R505EL and Windows' version too 8 Win XP)

I also suggested re-installing the driver from the recovery discs, to perform a re-install.

His reply was:

'Okay, well, I do have recovery CD's, but am currently at the office and the CD's at my home - so that I can't try until later. I tried that link, but it doesn't allow a direct click, apparently, as I am greeted with a nice "Information not available" warning.

Before reading these replies, however, I did try an Internet Update through the Device Properties menu - but to no avail. And I did a search at Sony for all drivers to this machine, and installed the only one I found, but it didn't fix anything. Oh well.

EDIT: Here's an interesting and aggrevating development: When I plugged in my camera to dump all my vacation photos off it, it didn't appear as "Konica Camera" the way it usually does. No, this time it appeared exactly as if my Memory Stick Drive was working again.

The camera was my F: drive, just like the internal MS used to be, and was even labeled MS-REVIO, just like the internal one used to be. Of course, unplugging the camera made the drive disappear, and removing the MS from the camera, inserting it in the internal drive, and clicking "refresh" on the My Computer window accomplished nothing.

Oh well, at least I got my vacation pics... But I must say I didn't enjoy digging the USB cable out of a box when all I should've had to do was click in that stick. I'll try the recovery discs tonight, I guess. Wish me luck. =)

Oh, yeah.. My original question still stands though. If this is indeed a driver problem (and let's continue to hope that it is), why would it be fine one day and spontanously unable to start the next? I've been running XP Pro for months now...

At last, I suggested:


1- Check for updates
Check for driver updates, bug fixes, patches

2- That doesn't work, I re-install the driver and restart;

3- Use Windows updates
Install all updates needed and restart.
I use also BigFix, it can search for more updates than Windows updates, as it can also check for updates from other sources than Microsoft.
You can find BigFix here: www.bigfix.com 

4- I scan all my computer with my Anti-crash software, as it can fix problems, even drivers.
A trial of it can be found here:

http://www.dachshundsoftware.com/index.html 
I use then the Repair Wizard, full scan. It takes a while.

5-
That doesn't works ,
I Run a full anti-virus scan, then a full anti-trojan scan, and anti-spyware scan

I use: Avg Anti Virus Pro, Anti-Trojan 5.5, and I pick one spyware, let's say Ad-aware.
Although that what can infect hardwares are often viruses, but spywares can affect too, but anyway, there is such a variety of these, so I'd just make these tests.
It may very well be improbable that this is the result of an infection, indeed I don't think it is, but I'd do the test anyway.

6- I search for an online manual about your machine, and read the troubleshooting section. I search the net using the name of your model and of the device giving troubles as I'm sure you're not the only one that experienced that.
There surelly must be an English manual about your machine in HTML or PDF, or I look deep into forums, where you can find the same trouble.

7- That didn't work, I look further for driver updates, nothing is found, I back up my data and do a full system restore.

I have found updates here:


http://ciscdb.sel.sony.com/cgi-bin/select-software.pl
Product: Vaio notebooks
Model PCG-R505EL

Yet the problem is still unsolved.
Further more, my searches produced a mention from Microsoft that mentioned a problem with Memory Stick where it would stop working.
It said:

SYMPTOMS
After you use Windows XP to format a memory stick for a Sony digital camera or device, you may not have access to some or all of the memory in the memory stick.

CAUSE
This issue can occur if you do not format your memory stick in the device that uses the memory stick. For example, this issue can occur if you format the memory stick in your computer, instead of in your digital camera. Memory stick media and Sony-specific devices that are designed for memory stick media support FAT format types only, and must be formatted in the target device.

RESOLUTION
To work around this problem, format the memory stick in a device that is designed to use this type of media, such as a Sony-specific device.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q303011 

However his memory stick device is internal.
Any opinions on this? Please?


ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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VaioMan

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AeroThoughts

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Vaioman, thank you. I just read your reply today. I have heard more from the user experiencing that problem with a memory stick. It turns out that he did a full system restore, and yet still his memory stick won't be recognized, even after having installed all the drivers from the recovery discs. So yes indeed, it is a hardware problem.
Thank you so much for your input Vaioman. :)
Here are the logical troubleshooting steps:

1) Test the memory stick and reader on another computer
2) If they don't work together then test each one separately
3) if they work elsewhere, boot into SAFE MODE (making sure the memory stick is NOT connected)
4) uninstall ALL items from the DEVICE MANAGER; do NOT reboot if prompted until all items have been removed
5) reboot into NORMAL MODE
6) all hardware will be redetected
7) once back up and running, reconnect the USB memory stick device and it should redetect

* I assume that like my own Sony memory stick there wre no drivers necessary for the XP OS to detect and load it
I currently have a Sony VAIO RS620G that is experiencing the identical problem listed above. I upgraded from Windows XP Home to XP Pro and everything was fine. I have narrowed the problem down to Service Pack 1. Everything works great until I install Service Pack1 and then all the memory card reader icons disappear and are unaccessible. I have tried working with SOny Supoort online to no avail. I have reloaded drivers and still doesn't work. I have restored my system back to the restore point prior to the SP1 install and the icons are there and the memory readers function properly. I need to have SP1 on my machine so I can load MS Office Pro and I need accessibility to my memory devices as well (it is why I bought the computer). Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Dave