Forcing XP to acknowledge connecting devices

[Guest scs0]

Aside from installing an OS that wasn't built by Microsoft engineers,

is there a way to get a PC to recheck all of the external firewire/USB

devices and connect to them if not already connected? I'm using

WIndows XP Pro - SP2.

 

I have a firewire DVD burner. If I connect it to my XP-Home system it

recognizes it every time. The XP-Pro machine? Eh. Since the drive

is noisy I like shutting it off, but when I turn it back on I have

this crazy expectation that, you know, things will actually work.

 

So now I have all these applications running, one of which is the one

I want to use with this drive and Windows refuses to see that a drive

has been attached. I don't want to reboot. I just want the thing to

do what it's supposed to do. Hell my other system is unreliable for

video capture. Sometimes it recognizes that I've connected a video

device and sometimes it doesn't. At least with that system I can

"play the game" of reconnecting over and over until the Microsoft

software gives in and complies. This system seems especially

stubborn.

 

 

Did Microsoft at least get this working with Vista?