Windows 10: USB ports suddenly unrecognized, among other troubles, DeviceCensus

My computer has been running into a few random problems over the last few months and I am a bit concerned.

Rebooting has helped solve the problems I am about to describe - only temporarily. They are persistent and unpredictable however.

I purchased this computer, an HP Pavilion 15t-cc500 CTO, in late January 2018. The first suspicious occurrence may have less to do with Windows 10 and more to do with my anti-virus software, ESET internet security, but I'm not sure. Several times a day, a notification will pop up asking for permission to access my webcam, requested by "DeviceCensus.exe". I disallow permission and tell it to remember not to ask again but it keeps asking and even allows it on its own sometimes. This started happening around late September 2018.

On October 3, 2018, I had my first major problem. I was listening to music in Winamp, when suddenly every file I tried to play would fizz out and stop playing at 00:11 seconds until Winamp just crashed. VLC media player crashed and then none of the programs on my computer would play any of my files. I then went to look into my external hard drive through Windows explorer to find that several of the folders which used to store many files now read "empty". I disconnected my external drive, via "Safely remove hardware" and I also unplugged it, but it was still recognized in Windows Explorer and I could still browse through the folders, strangely. Suddenly, my USB mouse stopped working. It's like everything was just gradually ceasing cooperation.

I was very alarmed and rebooted my PC immediately, and everything was back to normal. About a week ago, my USB ports suddenly stopped working once again. I connected/disconnected my external drive along with a few other devices several times, and they were not recognized. Upon disconnecting and reconnecting my USB mouse, it was no longer recognized. I rebooted and once again my mouse was now recognized and I could plug in my devices. I expect this to happen again and I'm worried that if I do not take action now, something irreversible could occur and ruin my PC or my data.

I would much appreciate any ideas or suggestions on any of these issues, or more importantly what it means as a whole. Thanks.

*What also may be important to note: I never restart my PC for any reason besides this, or to install mandatory updates. It runs 24/7, and I almost always am running file sharing programs such as SoulSeek. My external drive is always connected and I almost always have a browser open for email or youtube.

:)

 

USB Port Oddities


Ok, let's see it with pictures step-by-step. First right-click on the USB device and select Update driver software:





Then select Browse my computer for driver software (LAST option) :





The select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer (LAST option) :





Then select the standard driver from the list and click next:





Click next/OK as required to complete installation. Repeat the steps for all Intel USB devices. Finally click on each USB root device and press DEL to delete it, reply YES when asked. After deleting all USB root devices restart the computer.

I hope this is detailed enough...

 

Unrecognized USB device (device descriptor request failed)

Are you still around?

Sorry if none of that helped. I have tried pretty much everything else that has been suggested by others such as:

Uninstalling the unrecognized device and restarting

Uninstalling the USB drivers and restarting.

Trying every USB port on my computer.

Updating the drivers for every device

listed under universal serial his controllers in the device manager.

Please reply, I know there's got to be a way to fix this.

 

USB Ports

Hi Homer,

We'd like to ask a few questions to help us isolate this problem.

• Have you tried connecting your device tracker to a different USB port on your computer?
• If so, was it detected?
• Did you receive any error messages?

To address this issue, we suggest that you follow the troubleshooting steps shared by Praveen Venogupal on this

link.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards.