Author of this post: Edmund Hee

When you plug your Universal Serial Bus (USB) device into your computer and find it can’t access. At the same time, the computer shows “This device cannot start (code 10)”. Here are some basic troubleshooting steps to help you to solve the problem.

First, you need to find out all the posible problems for the device itself. Here is a good way to test whether is your USB device problem or the Configuration of your computer. Try to plug your USB into other computer and try to access it. If it doesn’t work, then the problem is with the device itself. USB devices are very handy and portable everywhere, somehow it can fail just like any other device. However, if your USB devices does work on other computer, then the problem will be the Configuration of your computer.

Here are the steps to troubleshoot the problem and make your USB device to work again.

1. Open the Device Manager and look for the USB Serial Bus Controllers. When you find that, there’s a device with a yellow exclamation mark next to it such as USB Mass Storage Device. Double-click on it and entry to check the Device Status. If the Status shows something like “This device cannot start (Code 10)” try to procees to Step 2.
2. Here is the easiest way to solve for a USB error (code 10) in Window XP. *The steps below is to remove and reinstall all the USB controllers.
   1. Click on the Start button
   2. Right Click on My Computer and click on the Properties
   3. Click on the Hardware tab
   4. Click the Device Manager button
   5. Expand the Universal Serial Bus Controller sections
   6. Right Click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click the Uninstall to remove them all at a same time.
   7. Restart your computer, and allow the computer to reinstall the USB controllers
   8. Plug in the removable USB storage device, and then test it to make sure that the problem is resolved.
3. If you are using a USB cable with your device like external hard disk, check the cable to make sure it matches the speed of the device. USB 2.0 cables with USB 2.0 devices and USB 1.1 cables with USB 1.1 devices. Swap the cables to check the device, if this doesn’t work, proceed to Step 1.

Click here(Microsoft Support Article) for more information on Troubleshooting USB device problems.