[Nomen]

I've got a TomTom GPS that's about a year old that I've rarely used. I've been playing around with it lately and I plugged it into the USB port of one of my PC's running XP-SP3. Windows didn't know what to do with the device - so in trying to install a driver, I looked at the list of possible devices. Is it me, or am I wrong in expecting that XP should have a "GPS receiver" in it's list of possible device types?

So ok, XP doesn't seem to have a generic GPS receiver driver.

I did a bit of googling and found this statement on TomTom's website:

"TomTom devices use the standard drivers for USB mass storage devices which are pre-installed on Windows Vista."

So my next question is -> what are these magical USB mass storage devices that apparently Vista has, but XP doesn't ? Is there any way I can give XP this so-called "standard driver for USB mass storage devices" so that it can at least see the GPS receiver as some sort of attached drive or volume?

[jaclaz]

It's not *exactly* like it's stated on the resource you cited.
The USB Mass Storage subsystem is something that XP has normally as well.

What Vista may have could be an added VID/PID (or whatever) linking the device to the USB Mass Storage driver.

Usually (cannot say specifically for your TomTom) the device can be put in a state in which it "behaves" (and presents itself to the OS) just as if it was a USB flash pendrive or a USB hard disk, i.e. it is found as Disk in Disk Management and - normally - the filesystem on it is mounted to a drive letter in Explorer.

On the other hand if the device is not set in that particular "mode", XP (nor Vista) can make head or tail of what is it and asks for a driver.

BUT a number of more recent devices are simply not anymore capable of being connected as mass storage devices, they use other connection methods and/or a proprietary drivers.

You should post the EXACT model of your device so that it will be possible to make sure, see here as an example:
http://discussions.t...-25/td-p/108247

jaclaz

[Joseph_sw]

And while at it, try looking in "Service" tabs using Sysinternals' Autoruns.

Why do i ask that?
I also experience a somewhat similar situation,
a plugged usb composite-device doesn't show as a (CD-Rom) drive which contain the actual drivers for the devices.

After some testing, I found out that on that machine there already similar device installed,
and its installation creates a windows service that BLOCKS similar devices being recoginzed as storage devices.
Disable said service allow the plugged devices to recognized as storage devices.

Perhaps it similar in your case, try look for anything that doesn't published by (Verified) Microsoft.

[Nomen]

The GPS unit has "Model 4EN42 Z1230" printed on the back . Based on web searches it seems that those numbers can map to several (or many) different TomTom units - Start 20, Start 25, Via 220 to name a few. Mine in particular (according to the box it came in) is a Via 1400.

My XP pc has about 16 services running when it starts. Two in particular that I DID NOT have running were "Universal Plug and Play device host" and "SSDP discovery service". At the time (last night) I was seeing the TomTom showing up as an "Other" device in device manager. I went to TomTom's website and went through a registration process where it downloaded some files and via http interface it interactively communicated with the GPS and uploaded some software updates.

This morning I no longer see "Other" in the device list. I do see two entries in Device Manager under network adapters: TomTom Remote NDIS / USB 802.3 miniport driver.

Even when I start the UPNP device host / SSDP discovery service, and unplug / replug the GPS into the USB port, I see nothing in terms of new storage volumes. I scan for hardware changes and see nothing new. The "Other" in device manager is still gone.

So is the presence of the NDIS drivers now preventing XP from detecting the device as an attached storage volume?

[jaclaz]

Nomen, on 18 November 2012 - 09:29 AM, said:

So is the presence of the NDIS drivers now preventing XP from detecting the device as an attached storage volume?

NO, evidently that device does not support the "Mass Storage Device" approach.
It is possible that the device is "post MS/TomTom" civil lawsuit/agreement and/or that the update you just downloaded "upgraded" your device to the new "working model" of NDIS/Network device.
http://en.wikipedia....osoft_v._TomTom
http://discussions.t...Tom/td-p/111373
http://www.datamatio...Tom-Lawsuit.htm

jaclaz

[Nomen]

Wow.

I didn't know that Micro$haft was still fighting these FAT / FAT32 patent wars. Did MS go after Garmin too?

Aren't we at the point yet where these patents have expired?

Has Apple licensed these patents? (their products can read FAT/Fat32 volumes - can't they?)

[jaclaz]

Nomen, on 18 November 2012 - 05:12 PM, said:

Wow.

I didn't know that Micro$haft was still fighting these FAT / FAT32 patent wars. Did MS go after Garmin too?

Aren't we at the point yet where these patents have expired?

Has Apple licensed these patents? (their products can read FAT/Fat32 volumes - can't they?)

It's not as easy as you seem to think, nowadays anything in IT is a web of cross-licensed patents or attempts to stay away for those by etither claiming they do not apply or that they are not valid.
Here is a good example of the mess :
http://www.dailytech...rticle23088.htm

BUT, if MS is the obstacle, the approach TomTom took to walk around it is their own decision (they could well have used - say - ext2/ext3 and provide an installable filesystem driver or a compatible file explorer and later let the user - should he/she want to - re-format the filesystem as FAT - or whatever else - keeping the "plain" Mass Storage device connection).


jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 19 November 2012 - 05:13 AM