XP Pro installs Multiple Copies of USB scanner

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Is there a way of preventing Windows XP Pro from automatically installing USB Scanner if it's already been installed, but moved from one usb slot to another? Seems to be the same with other usb devices too

Thank
 
I think that this is the only way for XP to be able to
use the device regardless of it's USB port. I have the
Intellimouse Explorer 3.1 connected to my laptop which
has 3 USB ports. When I first installed it, I had it
plugged into the port furthest to the left, but when I
moved the plug to the other two ports it redetected the
mouse and said new hardware installed. I think what this
actually means is that it's installed the necessary
drivers for that particular USB port.

This seems normal enough and hasn't affected my system in
the least. On my desktop, I have a USB Lexmark Printer, a
Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 1.0 connected via USB, and
a USB logitech webcam. I've moved the ports around and
the mouse and the webcam just get detected on those ports
and installed accordingly. The printer gets detected, but
then I cancel the install since the native XP drivers
don't work for the printer, but since XP knows that the
printer has appeared on that port, it works fine.

As long as the little Hardware Installation ballon
doesn't pop up everytime you plug the scanner in (to a
port that you've used before), then everything is working
fine and you shouldn't need to worry.

Hope this helps,

Nick

-----Original Message-----
Is there a way of preventing Windows XP Pro from
Click to expand...
automatically installing USB Scanner if it's already been
installed, but moved from one usb slot to another? Seems
to be the same with other usb devices too.
 
This is a sign of a poorly designed driver. USB has to assign a device
number to the scanner, depending one which port it is connected. On a
proper USB driver, this number gets updated silently. The only way around
this is to disconnect the scanner and re-connect it to each USB port you may
have. This will force the device number to be assigned to each port for
whenever/wherever the scanner.
 
There's a valid reason Windows does this.

Some USB devices have a unique ID built into them so that when Windows
queries them, the unique ID is returned and Windows knows it is the same
device, but you've just connected it to another USB port.

Most USB devices do not have this ID, so when Windows queries it, it does
not know it's the same device, it then presumes you have a second instance
of the same device and will require reinstallation.

Some people do indeed have two instances of the same USB device (usually
printers) and a second installation is necessary so that both of them can
actually work at the same time. For instance if you were printing out 100
copies of the same document, you can send 50 copies to the first printer,
and then 50 copies to the second..... it would then finish the print job
twice as fast.

However most of us only have one instance of a device and it is a bit
annoying!

Cari
www.coribright.com
 
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