Bootable usb not recognized in windows or bios after first boot

got a strange situation here....

I created a bootable Hirens's Usb drive. it worked great on several units, but i came to a new samsung ssd led laptop. these have had constant problems recognizing usb drives on boot up, but if you flash the bios they stated working corectly.

Now for the fun part,

Created a new drive (i have one i was using for a week or so too) booted the samsung with old bios, and then it tweaked. turned off after attempting to boot mini xp, when i tried to boot to it again, it was missing. So then i tried it in another computer and nothing recognized at all. (not in device manager, bios, disk managment, mycomputer, nowhere.

So after, i tired the older drive that had been working for awhile with no problems what so ever. same thing happend.

I took apart the usb drive and found the contacts look a little worn but only in certain light. rubbed what i could off with a eraser. put it in the computer, nothing.

then i stuck just the stick in, on an angle, and i got it to show up in device manager but as an unrecognized device....

the drive looks fine, nothing looks burnt or smells .... any suggestions?

this is the closest post i could find:

http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/bootable-usb-drive...

-MOKM