In sci.electronics.repair bitrex wrote:
Windows now recognizes that a USB device of some type is plugged in,
but is giving me a "Device Not Recognized" error.

Keep working on the idea of getting a better USB connection, but also
take a close look, under magnification if you have it, at the flash
memory chip itself. At least on some older flash drives I have taken
apart (1GB-4GB or so), there was a small controller chip that spoke USB,
and then a standard-ish flash chip for the storage. If the controller
chip is there, but the connections to the flash chip are damaged, you
could well get the problem you describe: the controller wakes up enough
to convice the OS that something is there, but the controller is unable
to come up all the way because it can't get at the flash memory.

I have held in my hand a drive that was damaged this way; it was whacked
hard enough that many pins on the flash chip lifted from the board. The
owner decided to start with (older) backup copies of the documents that
were on the failed flash drive.

Matt Roberds