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

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.

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Anonymous

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Hope this helps.

Gokul - Microsoft Support

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42 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-06-05T13:22:55+00:00

I spent 7 hours searching the Internet far and wide to find a solution for this. There are a couple different solutions, none of which I was able to use due to the stringent requirements of working in a DoD-secure facility. BUT WAIT! I can ACTUALLY get your USB ports working for you again!!

First, let me explain what didn't work for me, and why:

* http://code.kliu.org/.etc/7601usbfix/ - this hotfix hosted at kliu: could not use due to unverified nature of software (DoD environment doesn't allow random, untrusted fixes like this)

* The Microsoft HotFix on the page linked above (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2529073), which had returned an error along the lines of "This operating system is not supported." (even though according to the text of the hotfix page, Win7 64-Bit is supported)

* Deleting all devices out of Device Manager and then rebooting - this did not fix the USB problem at all, although with many Reboots, I was able to at least get the USB Enhanced Controllers to go from (!) in Device Manager, to reinstall (did not work for mouse and keyboard, which both still registered not as their respective items, but "Human Interface Device" (they still didn't work). With no tickbox to "Delete drivers software," even deleting the drivers manually and rebooting / letting Windows repull the drivers from the repository folder(s) did not solve the issue (for me, anyways).

* Complete Reimage - the PC I was working on had some advanced climate-monitoring applications on it and I did not! want to go about figuring out the license info (some from programs 10 years old) to reinstall them.

So now that you've read all that... how did I fix it? How was I able to get the mouse and keyboard working again?

Well friends and technicians, if your case is similar to mine (someone got overzealous with their Disk Cleanup, cleaned *System Files* which in turn then deleted the security catalog files for your USB drivers, thus rendering your signed USB drivers useless), what you will have to do is:

1. Find the exact same model computer with the exact same OS (if you're in an enterprise environment, this will likely not be difficult). For me, it was an Optiplex 780 with minimal extra configuration.

2. Set it up on the network alongside your affected computer.

3. Log on to or remote into your working computer found in Step 1, and copy the contents of the \Windows\system32\drivers\CatRootfolder. Note: you may have to go into Folder Options and turn on "Show hidden system files" if you don't see any files here. Paste the files you just copied to your own workstation.

4. Log in remotely to the affected, non-USB workstation. Copy the contents of that \CatRoot folder to the same location on the broken PC. Note: only let the files that are missing copy over (that is to say, when a Confirm Overwrite? dialog box pops up, Skip All and let the rest of the files continue copying).

5. Open a Command Prompt, then run sfc /scannow, and chkdsk. (I just did this to be safe).

6. Reboot the affected computer; open the Start menu, then in the Run box, type shutdown -r

7. When PC reboots and your input peripherals functionality is restored (it may take a minute at the Windows log-in screen to rediscover the drivers), rejoice in the fact that someone else was able to figure this all out, leaving more time for you to close tickets (or get breakfast!)

If I have helped you, please shoot me an e-mail or leave some thanks. I wanted to type this up so anyone going through this struggle might have a better shot at repairing the issue than a straight reimage!! =D
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Anonymous

2014-10-14T15:20:10+00:00

Thanks Jay, but can anyone explain why this works? I'm interested to know which files these are that are being copied and why :)

he same thing happened to me on an Optiplex 780, I'm guessing it was because of an update that was installed. Problem didn't occur on other identical machines, wondering what caused it.
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Anonymous

2014-10-14T15:34:08+00:00

Found some info explaining why and how this works, looks like the catalog file must have disappeared or been corrupted, wondering if this was caused by a bad update, bad initial install or disk error..

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2012/04/15/troubleshooting-boot-issues-due-to-missing-driver-signature-x64.aspx

http://superuser.com/questions/577830/windows-7-claims-driver-is-not-digitally-signed-but-it-is
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Anonymous

2014-10-15T04:56:05+00:00

Using sigcheck I found that it was KB2862330 that was causing the issue with these USB drivers, reinstalling this update fixed it for me.

http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2862330
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