Vista looking for drivers and BSODs

I bought a 3TB MyCloud device a few months ago. I cannot get it to work properly with my Windows Vista desktop and support refused to help. They remoted in and accessed the device without using their software and claimed it was a Windows problem, not theirs.

When I connect the device directly to my Ubee Wireless Router/Switch, Windows Vista immediately sees it as new hardware and tries to find drivers for it. Of course WD does not provide these. In Device Manager, it shows up under Other Devices with a warning indicator because there are no drivers installed.

I was able to copy files to the device, but when I try to access them from the device, my Windows Vista desktop gets a BSOD (this happened after the call to support). I’ve now disconnected the device from my network as the constant BSODs damaged my computer. The device works with my Windows 8.1 computer, but has problems with my Sony Blu-Ray player connected wirelessly to the network. I’ve posted about this in a different thread.

Is there a way to get this working properly with Windows Vista?

Hello, 

Honestly, I haven’t seen this case before. 

As a recommendation, contact WD Support to see if they can assist you directly with this case.

WD Contact info:

http://support.wdc.com/country/index.asp?lang=en%22

It is not the first post of the device causing BSODs

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/MyCloud-crashes-my-Windows-7-laptap-every-time/td-p/847976

The above post seems to have ended without resolution.

Hi there, the only divers that the drive might need are the WD SES drivers, you can download then and see if it helps.  WD SES driver download and instructions for recovering the WD SmartWare installer

AndyTampa wrote:

It is not the first post of the device causing BSODs

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/MyCloud-crashes-my-Windows-7-laptap-every-time/td-p/847976

 

The above post seems to have ended without resolution.

The BSOD that other thread talks about appears to be related to using one of the WD apps, my guess is the WD My Cloud Desktop app on their Windows PC. There is a known issue for some who use the WD My Cloud Desktop app where once that app is opened, some users experience Windows Explorer crashing. There is one or two other threads covering this very specific Windows Explorer crashing issue related to that WD My Cloud Desktop app that affects a few users.

Generally one does not need to install “drivers” to access the WD My Cloud. One should be able to access the WD My Cloud on their local network via Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer). It will show up in the “Network Neighborhood” or under “Network”. If it is not showing up under Network then check the network settings on both the Vista PC, ensuring it has the same Network Name/Network Workgroup (typically “workgroup”) that the WD My Cloud uses under “Settings → Network → Network Workgroup”. The other recommended suggestion is to configure the WD My Cloud for a static IP. Either within the WD My Cloud administration UI or within one’s router/gateway. Both the Vista PC and the WD My Cloud should be in the same IP address subnet (for example both should have an IP address in the 192.168.1.x range).

If you have not done so read through the WD My Cloud User Manualin particular “Using Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7” under “Getting to the Public Share” for the general procedure of accessing the WD My Cloud shared folders with Windows Explorer on Windows Vista.

Bennor wrote:

The BSOD that other thread talks about appears to be related to using one of the WD apps, my guess is the WD My Cloud Desktop app on their Windows PC. There is a known issue for some who use the WD My Cloud Desktop app where once that app is opened, some users experience Windows Explorer crashing. There is one or two other threads covering this very specific Windows Explorer crashing issue related to that WD My Cloud Desktop app that affects a few users.

 

Generally one does not need to install “drivers” to access the WD My Cloud. One should be able to access the WD My Cloud on their local network via Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer). It will show up in the “Network Neighborhood” or under “Network”. If it is not showing up under Network then check the network settings on both the Vista PC, ensuring it has the same Network Name/Network Workgroup (typically “workgroup”) that the WD My Cloud uses under “Settings → Network → Network Workgroup”. The other recommended suggestion is to configure the WD My Cloud for a static IP. Either within the WD My Cloud administration UI or within one’s router/gateway. Both the Vista PC and the WD My Cloud should be in the same IP address subnet (for example both should have an IP address in the 192.168.1.x range).

 

If you have not done so read through the WD My Cloud User Manualin particular “Using Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7” under “Getting to the Public Share” for the general procedure of accessing the WD My Cloud shared folders with Windows Explorer on Windows Vista.

You and I are worlds apart on this issue. Your solution doesn’t relate to my problem. I did not have a problem getting to or seeing the device in Vista. There were two problems and I believe I’ve cured both of them, though I don’t know how.

Problem 1: Vista keeps asking for drivers. When I connected the device to my network, Vista would see the device and try to locate drivers as if it had found a new printer. It couldn’t find any so I had to close the driver request windows without finding drivers. The device then would show up in Device Manager under Other Devices with a yellow exclamation mark indicating the drivers were not loaded correctly. After several BSODs (for a different issue), I ran SFC and CHKDSK on my computer. Neither program found a problem. Then when I tried to connect the device again, Vista started looking for drivers and I walked away from the computer for the evening. When I had come back, it said the drivers were loaded. In Device Manager, Vista shows a new device category named “Western Digital NAS” with two devices installed: My Cloud Network Media Server and My Cloud Network Storage. The driver problem is now solved but I don’t know how.

Problem 2: Files I had loaded onto the shares to learn how to use the device can be seen in Windows Explorer. That was never a problem. However, as soon as I clicked on a file, the screen would scramble and then BSOD. This only occurred with files loaded onto the MyCloud device. After some blue screens, I started up into Safe Mode with Networking. I was able to click on the files without crashing, though Media Player wouldn’t play them or even start in Safe Mode. I then did a clean boot and it tested okay. As I added items in MSCONFIG, the problem would not recur. There was one item that prevented me from even setting MSCONFIG to do a normal startup, and that was Kaspersky Internet Security 2015. Not only that, but I couldn’t start the software at all. I did a complete removal of Kaspersky and then reinstalled it. I no longer have any BSODs.

Both issues, as mysterious as they were, have mysteriously been resolved. I have a DLNA issue, but that’s in another post. I also have a new issue with the WD My Cloud desktop app but I don’t need to use that and if I do, I’ll start a new discussion.