Cell phone issues

[PlutonianEmpire]

Normally, I'm using my cell phone and tethering it to my laptop in order to get internet (which my data plan allows, IIRC).

However a few weeks ago, when I connected the phone to the laptop, the laptop says "installing device drivers", and then after a few seconds, it says that the driver installation failed, and then my cell phone wouldn't activate the tethering until I unplugged it and then plugging it back in, after which the tethering would work.

I figured I'd be able to solve the problem next time I got to an actual wifi so windows could look for the drivers online. Same problem. I looked at it, and it said the reason the driver installation failed is because the cell phone was unplugged, even though it was plugged in to the computer.

I went to device manager to get it to update, but same problem.

Also, when I'm done tethering for the day and unplug it, windows says the device was not recognized and/or it malfunctioned or something.

My cell phone is an Android, a Samsung Galaxy II (2) S (or is it S II (2) ? )

Any solutions?

 

[wolfigor]

this is a strange problem but Galaxy (and android in General) tends to have a few of these issues.

The drivers get installed by connecting the phone, going to device manager is not going to change anything (unless you uninstall the drivers and start the procedure anew).

Another thing that tends to confuse users is that there are 2 sets of drivers: one gets installed when in "normal" mode, one when in "usb debugging" mode.

Restarting the laptop and/or the phone usually helps too.

So freshly restart phone and laptop.
Set the phone in "usb debugging" mode and plug it with usb cable.
"usb debugging" is settings under applications/development in Android <4 and in Developer options in Android 4.x

You laptop will download and install the drivers... do not interrupt this operation!
when everything is done, unplug the phone.

Go back to your settings and disable "usb debugging".
plug the phone again, wait for drivers installation.

everything should be ok

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

this is a strange problem but Galaxy (and android in General) tends to have a few of these issues.

The drivers get installed by connecting the phone, going to device manager is not going to change anything (unless you uninstall the drivers and start the procedure anew).

Another thing that tends to confuse users is that there are 2 sets of drivers: one gets installed when in "normal" mode, one when in "usb debugging" mode.

Restarting the laptop and/or the phone usually helps too.

So freshly restart phone and laptop.
Set the phone in "usb debugging" mode and plug it with usb cable.
"usb debugging" is settings under applications/development in Android <4 and in Developer options in Android 4.x

You laptop will download and install the drivers... do not interrupt this operation!
when everything is done, unplug the phone.

Go back to your settings and disable "usb debugging".
plug the phone again, wait for drivers installation.

everything should be ok

I tried this, and while the driver installations in "usb debug" were fine, I plugged it back in after disabling "usb debug", and it still says the driver installation failed, again saying it was unplugged, even though it was plugged in.

I also found another problem: the usb port I use for tethering will not work with *ANY* other usb device except the cell phone. Mice wont work, keyboards won't work, and when I unplug from that port, no matter what I unplug, I continue to get the "device not recognized" pop up. Yet, the port still works fine when connecting it to my cell phone. I can even look inside my folders on the phone, sync music, tether, etc.