Error Code 52 - USB ports not recognizing connected USB devices stating that "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device"

Anonymous
2010-03-07T20:11:51+00:00

Original Title: Error Code 52 - USB ports not recognizing connected USB devices

I have recently purchased a new laptop with Windows 7 and had no initial problems connecting USB devices (mouse, hard drive, camera etc.) to the ports. Since installing a number of windows updates none of my USB ports will now recognize any hardware that is connected to them.

The error code is quoted as follows **"Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52".**I have been into Device Manager and notice that each USB icon has a yellow exclamation mark icon next to it. I have uninstalled each USB port and scanned for hardware changes which has no positive affect. I have also tried to 'Update driver software' in device manager and again this tells me that the driver is up-to-date for each USB port.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2010-03-10T04:29:36+00:00

Hi slark101,

Boot into Advanced Boot Options and disable driver signing checking.

The Advanced Boot Options screen lets you start Windows in advanced troubleshooting modes. You can access the menu by turning on your computer and pressing the F8 key before Windows starts.

Disabling driver signature enforcement has helped a lot of users in fixing the issue.

You may also delete the USB "Upper Filter" & "Lower Filter" Entry and check if that helps.

Before we go any further, please first backup the Registry.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/

1.   Click “Start”, type “regedit” (without quotation marks) in the “Search” bar and press Enter.

Note: If UAC (User Account Control) pops up, please accept it.

  1. Right click “Computer” (the root node) in the left pane, click “Export” under the “File” menu, choose “All” under “Export range”, and select “Desktop” in the “Save” in box and type backup in “File Name”. Click “Save”.

**Note:**The backup file is on the Desktop and named backup.reg. We can simply restore the registry by double-clicking the backup.reg file.

  1. Click “Start”, type “regedit” (without quotation marks) in the “Search” bar and press Enter again.
  2. Locate the “UpperFilters” value under the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}

  1. On the “Edit” menu, click “Delete”, and then click “OK”.
  2. Locate the “LowerFilters” value under the same key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}

  1. On the “Edit” menu, click “Delete”, and then click “OK”.
  2. Quit Registry Editor and restart the computer.

Hope this helps.

Gokul - Microsoft Support

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-20T07:18:43+00:00

    Hello Jay,

    Very useful indeed. 

    It allows me to fix this error after some unsuccessful tries

    Good Job!

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-02T00:38:24+00:00

    Awesome....

    This trick worked for me... Basically like you said i deleted the upper/lower filters from registry and everything is working perfectly fine now...

    Thanks a lot

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-22T09:39:34+00:00

    when I install driver of FTDI USB_2_RS232, i encounter this problem.

    In device manager, this device will display 3 types devices: COM&LPT, USB Serial Converter and USB Composite Device. I uninstall COM&LPT(select option delete driver file), uninstall USB Serial Converter(select option delete driver file) and uninstall USB Composite Device. After that scan for device change, and then wait for a moment, the device can work and driver is ok.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-06-02T14:01:57+00:00

    Give this a try to see it works for you.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\COM Name Arbiter.

    In the right hand panel look at ComDB data does it show d5 at the start of a string of zero.

    If it does not click ComDB then under Edit menu click on Modify and change the first two to d5

    while leaving the strings of zero.

    Once I edit the string my code 52 error disappeared.

    Hope this works for you.

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