Encountered a strange problem on Vista when I plug in a newly-purchased USB flash thumb drive into the USB port. It was working OK until some time later, it started to complain about the not being able to load the driver.
Google search found the following issue and did the trick:
Apparently there is some bug with Vista where you can get a corrupt driver cache file and if you delete it then it will solve all these problems.
The culprit file is called INFCACHE.1 and it’s located in c:\windows\inf. I discovered this on a newsgroup post. This is the relevant parts:
“The solution to this annoying problem (I had it on one PC), seems to be to locate and delete the file INFCACHE.1, which may be corrupted and causing the problem. To delete this file, you will first have to modify its permissions so the users group can access it (right-click on the file->Properties->Security). INFCACHE.1 file. It’s located at C:\Windows\inf (scroll down to the file). (Note: to see INFCACHE.1, you must set Windows Explorer to display hidden and system files)
When modify these system files, i usually find i have to take ownership first for my own user account, then add myself to the permissions with full control. then you can delete it, or rename it to X_INFCACHE.1, etc.”