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Help HELP. My computer doesn't recognize EPIC. How To mount? Drivers? Don't FREAK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those that need the driver for their Epic 4g for their PC (not MAC - there isn't one that I know of yet) go here: Samsung Epic 4G USB driver download | all samsung phones
I did verify it works. I've connected my phone to my work laptop - dragged a .jpg and a .mp3 file to the top directory and my phone found them (.mp3 with the media player and the pic using the camera and clicking to see what photos are already stored).
I just created a folder called "Photos" and one "Music" to see if the phone will still find them.
after that - I have not taken any pics myself yet so i'm going to unplug the phone from the laptop and take one to see if the phone creates its own directory for pics (and if there's one for videos). If so, i'll move the pic to that folder and delete the one I made.
 
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I just got my EPIC yesterday and tried to load pictures onto my computer, when I encountered this issue. The computer wouldn't recognize the EPIC as a USB device. I use windows 7 64, so I tried the 3g tether, downloaded drivers from samsung, uninstalled, reinstalled..nothing would work. Then, I happened to just see some comments that people said to try different USB ports. I tried the 2 on the front of my computer with no luck. I thought the suggestion to use the back USB ports was kind of silly, but nothing was working so why not try it. I climbed under the desk, plugged it in and guess what...IT WORKED. Now there are no issues with my computer recognizing the EPIC. So, I would reccommend using the USB ports straight off the board.
 
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I just got my EPIC yesterday and tried to load pictures onto my computer, when I encountered this issue. The computer wouldn't recognize the EPIC as a USB device. I use windows 7 64, so I tried the 3g tether, downloaded drivers from samsung, uninstalled, reinstalled..nothing would work. Then, I happened to just see some comments that people said to try different USB ports. I tried the 2 on the front of my computer with no luck. I thought the suggestion to use the back USB ports was kind of silly, but nothing was working so why not try it. I climbed under the desk, plugged it in and guess what...IT WORKED. Now there are no issues with my computer recognizing the EPIC. So, I would reccommend using the USB ports straight off the board.


I just wanted to reiterate this post that the Epic seems to not be getting enough juice from auxiliary USB ports.

There should be sticky specifying to use the USB ports right off the motherboard and not auxiliary ones, for some reason the Epic needs more all the power. Regardless of how i installed the USB drivers i had no success getting a successful connection. Once i plugged in my phone to the back it worked like a charm.
 
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Tried just about everything. The only thing that worked, in the end, was just patiently plugging and unplugging the usb cable.. again and again, until it recognized it as something usable.

Same exact thing worked for me. The front ports didnt recognize my Epic but the rear ports did with no problems. Weird.

Yet my front ports recognize all other stuff I plug into it. iPod, cameras and other phones..
 
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Hey this should be in the troubleshooting section. I just created a topic for this. Okay I"m totally stuck here. I have installed the drivers. I keep getting the...

"USB Device Not recognized, One of the USB Devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it."

Windows tells me to reattach to fix the problem or replace the unit. I also eventually got this to work 2 times so far and it literally took about 50 disconnects and reconnects before it finally worked. And when it does detect it and I get the "good" beep. My PC doesn't see it. Than I have to redo connect another 30 times or so and finally it will catch.

What's the deal here? I don't want to do this all the time. All I'm trying to do is transfer mp3's into my Epic. I am using the USBs in the back on my PC and my iPod and external Hard drives work fine using those USB ports. Do I have a bad cable? Bad Epic? I'm using Windows XP

And yes, I'm FREAKING OUT!!!! :p

UGH! I finally got it to work but their has to be an easier way.
 
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There is a few problems with USB for this phone and getting it setup. One as people mentioned is the USB port (recommend using back port on MB). However, this didn't fix mine either, mine was the cheap as hell piece of crap samsung microUSB cable they provided. I used my microUSB cable from my kindle and it worked wonders!
 
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In case Mac users either missed it or didn't trust it the first time (since the person who recommended it hadn't done it):

You can absolutely connect to a Mac by enabling USB Debugging in the Preferences > Advanced Settings menu from the Epic's desktop under Launcher Pro. Once you do that, your SD card will appear on the desktop of your mac and you can transfer anything you like to and from.

Here's the other way to mount your SD on a Mac: take it out and slip it into the adapter that came with your Epic. (I do hope that everyone who experiences connection issues with a Mac and any other smartphone or media player will now know enough to try this before posting rants about how bad their new ____ is for "causing" the problem.)

Bluetooth also works for me, though of course you won't be able to see the process on your desktop. Your mac will identify and pair with your Epic (and even identify it as a "smartphone") but won't connect with it until you scroll down to the name of your device and select "send file" in the bluetooth menu accessible from the upper right corner of your screen. You should also tell your Epic always to allow your mac to send files if you don't want to kill the bluetooth synchronization of mac-friendly apps.
 
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I am a Unix System Admin and I would have never figured out that the EPIC needs a full USB connection to the Motherboard. It will only work on the rear USB ports. I don't even think you need to download the drivers. This should be in the Sprint manual. But thanks to all my Droid peeps for the hookup. It works perfectly on the rear USB ports.
 
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Tried the front USB ports first to no avail. I'm using a PC with XP Pro. The computer recognized the Samsung being plugged in but didn't like it - it suggested that there was a device failure. Tried it on the back USB's and same thing.

Then I remembered that the Epic came with an adapter for the miniSD card and I've got a SD Card slot.

So for anyone else having a problem - just take the SD card out of your phone, dig out your Epic box and find the miniSD to SD adapter and use that! (If that's an option for you.)
 
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I don't know about cables or using specific USB ports on your PC, but my problem ended up being USB Debugging. I turned off USB Debugging and the phone connected right away, and Windows recognized it exactly correctly, and I saw the three options on the screen they say you should see.

I posted the details here if anyone is interested:
http://androidforums.com/epic-4g-tips-tricks/193272-how-successfully-mount-epic-4g.html#post1732103

Hope this helps people!

this worked with me for my mac. before root - saw it just fine, after root, nothing. i unplugged cable, disabled usb debugging, plugged it back in, picked mass storage on the phone, then did the normal thing to mount sdcard, and then it showed up in Finder again. yay! never would have thought of that.
 
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