Scott - Thank you!  I was plugged into a front USB connection, and it said the driver was not found.  I moved it to the USB hub, and it still said the driver wasn't found.  I moved it to a rear USB port, and it said the driver wasn't found.  Since I already had a PCI/USB card installed, I unplugged a printer and moved the FBV to that USB port - and it found the driver and installed.  Amazing.  I don't understand WHY that worked, but it did and so I'm in business now.

In another thread I had found an account about how a Logitec camera driver was keeping a MIDI driver from installing, but the specifics didn't apply to my situation.  Something's going on with several people who are having driver issues with FBV.  I'm glad I got mine working - thank you for your suggestion to check all the USB ports.

Terry

Hi

With Vista and Windows 7, the drivers *should* install automatically for the FBV MkII pedals.  On a normally configured system this definitely works with no issues.  Some PC manufacturers supply laptops and PC's with a pre-installed OS etc... that *may* have a few modified (i.e. - non-standard) versions of Windows system files which replace the plain vanilla ones that come with a standard Windows installation disc and these *may* interfere with the installation of the FBV Shortboard.   This kind of scenario is not the fault of Microsoft or Line 6.

If you have a driver conflict because of some other hardware on your system, which to all intents and purposes is unique because just by order of the fact that you as an individual are the user will have made some minor or possibly major customisations to your system by connecting various other peripherals etc... it is impossible for anyone providing remote support to be able to 100% guarantee to resolve your very specific issue for you.  But thankfully some issues crop up repeatedly and mostly by a bit of intelligent guesswork and lateral thinking most issues are solvable, but unfortunately not all.

Alternatively, some PC manufacturers use third party hardware to provide things like USB functionality and this choice of chips and other hardware is usually based on cost to the manufacturer and sometimes manufacturers do cheat a little when providing 6, 8 or 10 (or so) USB ports because they may only use one or two actual USB controllers and split the function with an on-board USB hub or two which can cause problems.  Unfortunately the world still has a problem - because there are so many third party manufacturers making so-called 'compatible' hardware for the PC market very cheaply and unfortunately not everything turns out to be quite as 'compatible' as the manufacturers would have you believe.  Even some big brand computer manufacturers get caught occasionally and may use a controller chip that isn't quite what it should be.  Again this is not the fault of Line 6, but rather the manufacturer of the PC.  I am not a lover of Apple computers or the way their operating systems work, nor their (sometimes) lack of backward compatibility BUT one thing I do like about Apple is that they don't allow just any old third party manufactured parts anywhere near their core computer units and they don't allow anyone else to build Apple clone computers, and this way the potential for problems is limited.

However, you are using Windows XP and not Windows 7 or Vista.  XP requires that you  take a more 'manual' approach to install the drivers for your Shortboard as indicated in this document: http://line6.com/data/l/0a060072179794aa19127cf329/application/pdf/FBV%20MkII%20Series%20Controller%20Advanced%20User%20Guide%20(Rev%20B)%20-%20English.pdf in section 1-5 (Connecting FBV MkII to Your Computer).  Follow the instructions in the manual (link provided above) and the driver should be automatically detected as a "USB Audio Device" and this is what Windows XP Device Manager will show it as.  The USB Audio drivers are part of a standard Windows XP installation and will be in one of the sub-folders inside the Windows folder - usually \system32\drivers or \system32\drivercache or even in \system32 itself and Windows should automatically detect the correct driver from those available and install your hardware.  If you have followed the installation instructions to the letter in the file referenced in the link above and your problem persists, you may have a faulty FBV Express MkII pedal OR you may be one of the (very) unlucky few who have non compatible hardware in your PC (this is pretty unlikely in my opinion though and the problem is more likley I think to be because you may be using a manufacturer's customised Windows installation disc (Recovery CD) with everything pre-installed including a number of unwanted and fairly useless programs as they usually supply).

When installing an operating system clean, it is always better to work from an original genuine Microsoft Windows OEM or Retail CD/DVD and to install the necessary drivers for on-board audio, network, graphics etc... downloaded from the manufacturer's Web site.  This way, you minimise the chances of getting a manufacturer modified non-standard .DLL or .SYS file involved.  Once you have got your system the way you want it and before it gets cluttered up with junk, you should create a full backup image on a bootable CD/DVD (i.e. - make your own recovery CD/DVD set) that will allow you to reinstall to the level your PC is currently at, at the time you made the recovery set - and provided your system continues to run OK as you add more software etc..., you should periodically create updated recovery CD/DVD sets.

When working with PC based computer systems, those built by the bigger mainstream manufacturers tend to be more consistent and reliable than a lot of budget self-built systems which aren often very good, but equally often this type of system can be very flaky.  I work professionally in IT Consultancy and Management for small and medium businesses and I always recommend HP or Dell systems for desktops and servers on the basis that they just work and they keep on working.  For laptops: again HP, Dell, Toshiba, Sony and sometimes Acer.  I do build my own machines for my own purposes such as recording etc... and although I do like AMD based systems in terms of what you get for your money, and over the years I've built a lot of computers for myself, friends, my previous employers and the odd client here and there, I have to say that with AMD systems there's nearly always been a bit of additional tweaking to get them to run nicely and to play nicely with dedicated audio hardware and software - if there's any kind of stability issue, Cubase will find it whereas microsoft Word probably won't.  These days I always use Intel based motherboards and Intel processors as well as quality branded RAM and that way I don't get too many issues.  Sorry - that was a bit off-topic, but hopefully useful for reference.

I appreciate I have indicated that you follow the instructions in the manual again Sorry, but the instructions in the manual are the ones that work - definitely.  If following them to the letter hasn't worked for you and it sounds like you have already tried every which way with your system to get the drivers to load, you either have a faulty FBV Express MkII which you already appear to have ruled out or you may have another more serious issue with your computer which may be hardware related in some way.

Can you post the specific specifications of the computer (make, model or if self-built: motherboard, CPU, graphics, RAM, make and model of any PCI or PCI Express cards etc....) you are trying to install to and whether you reinstalled Windows from an OEM or retail disc or whether you reinstalled from a recovery disc set supplied by the manufacturer?  Are you overclocking your system? - some peripherals don't like it.  I can't remember whether you said, but have you disabled on-board sound?  Does your on-board audio use a Realtek HD audio driver?  Could this be conflicting?  I've seen some odd issues in the past with this.

Nick