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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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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
    2011-04-24T21:19:40+00:00

    I have the same issue after using windows 7 update this is clearly a microsoft problem. the driver solution above does work but is pain as you have to do it each time you turn on the laptop!!!

    MICROSOFT SORT OUT FIX ASAP PLEASE!!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-04-27T06:40:00+00:00

    I fixed mine!

    It was simple.

    In device manager, under

    Universal Serial Bus Controllers,

    my three FLAGGED "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller"

    I right=clicked each of those flagged ones, then clicked uninstall on each. They disappeared entirely from the list, which scared me at first. But I proceeded to restart my computer, and then Windows 7 automatically reinstalled them, working good as new.

    My source was here:

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprohardware/thread/be4b06be-6b12-47a0-bba9-38c4c238d7c8/

    Even though it was for error code 43, it described a pretty similar problem, so I tried it anyway. And it worked! :) The link's instructions say to uninstall all items under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, but I only uninstalled my three flagged items, which i presume correspond to my three non-working USBs.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-04-27T06:43:34+00:00

    I'm annoyed at Microsoft for releasing updates that break our computers. Because of it, i had to wipe clean my Zune HD, and I haven't had the energy to re-customize and re-set all my music and files. I was very selective on what was on my Zune, and yet 3000 songs is a pain to re-sync to the way it used to be.

    But still, at least they haven't screwed up like Sony's PSN Network Outage

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-05-02T00:29:31+00:00

    Same problem for me....I thought updates were good??? But they make things stop working :(

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