USB ports stop working

[Rich T]

I am having continual problems with USB ports stopping working at random.
Sometimes it is the port itself, so swapping the accessory to another port
fixes the problem. But sometimes the accessory itself seems to stop as
whichever port it is plugged into it does not work. Usually the problem
randomly fixes itself a few days later.

But this afternoon, for no apparent reason, my mouse stopped working. Then
all other USB accessories stopped working, including the keyboard.

I have spent all day trying to fix the problem - not having a mouse makes
everything very difficult. After multiple hard resets (ie pull the plug
out!) and reboots, I managed to get the keyboard to work. After figuring out
how to navigate using just a keyboard I managed to use device manager to
uninstall various USB dirvers, and after rebooting endlessly (and why is
Vista so slow to boot?) I finally managed to get a mouse to work (not my
usual Microsoft optical mouse - but the original Dell Mouse). It only works
on one port - if I plug it into any other ports it will not work. I can't
get any other accessories to work. My Microsoft mouse does not work in the
port where the Dell mouse works.

How can I fix this? I wouild guess there is some major problem with the USB
drivers, but I can't identify in device manager which USB hub driver to
delete. And I don't want to delete the driver that is controlling the mouse
by accident as it took about five hours work this afternoon just to get
mouse back.

I have already googled and installed all the USB cumulative hot fix for
Vista USB problems, and this seemed to have fixed some of the earlier
problems I was having, but unfortunately my optimism proved false...

 

[Pete]

I am having continual problems with USB ports stopping working at random.
Sometimes it is the port itself, so swapping the accessory to another port
fixes the problem. But sometimes the accessory itself seems to stop as
whichever port it is plugged into it does not work. Usually the problem
randomly fixes itself a few days later.

But this afternoon, for no apparent reason, my mouse stopped working. Then
all other USB accessories stopped working, including the keyboard.

I have spent all day trying to fix the problem - not having a mouse makes
everything very difficult. After multiple hard resets (ie pull the plug
out!) and reboots, I managed to get the keyboard to work. After figuring
out how to navigate using just a keyboard I managed to use device manager
to uninstall various USB dirvers, and after rebooting endlessly (and why
is Vista so slow to boot?) I finally managed to get a mouse to work (not
my usual Microsoft optical mouse - but the original Dell Mouse). It only
works on one port - if I plug it into any other ports it will not work. I
can't get any other accessories to work. My Microsoft mouse does not work
in the port where the Dell mouse works.

How can I fix this? I wouild guess there is some major problem with the
USB drivers, but I can't identify in device manager which USB hub driver
to delete. And I don't want to delete the driver that is controlling the
mouse by accident as it took about five hours work this afternoon just to
get mouse back.

I have already googled and installed all the USB cumulative hot fix for
Vista USB problems, and this seemed to have fixed some of the earlier
problems I was having, but unfortunately my optimism proved false...

Really sounds like hardware.

 

[R. McCarty]

Root Hubs have current draw limitations ( 500 mA ) and the controller
has a limited amount of bandwidth. Many USB devices can be called
"Heavy Demand" types and overloads may simply cause all devices on
the Root Hub to stop working. The OS is supposed to issue warnings
when overloads occur but this doesn't always happen. This problem is
more common on motherboards with a single Enhanced ( USB 2.0 )
controller. It doesn't take very many devices to overload in this setup.

 

[the wharf rat]

I am having continual problems with USB ports stopping working at random.
Sometimes it is the port itself, so swapping the accessory to another port
fixes the problem. But sometimes the accessory itself seems to stop as
whichever port it is plugged into it does not work. Usually the problem
randomly fixes itself a few days later.

I had *exactly* the same problem. After a week of trying new
devices (including a midnight trip to walmart when I was convinced my
mouse had died...) and driver upgrades downgrades and rollbacks I found
a bios setting for USB 2.0 voltage: low med hi and maximum. I set it to
maximum and voila! no more problems...

 

[AlexB]

Make sure there are such files in this folder:

Directory of C:\Windows\Inf
angelusb.inf angelusb.PNF
irstusb.inf irstusb.PNF
stusb2ir.inf stusb2ir.PNF
usb.inf usb.PNF
usbccid.inf usbccid.PNF
usbcir.inf usbcir.PNF
usbport.inf usbport.PNF
usbprint.inf usbprint.PNF
usbstor.inf usbstor.PNF
usbvideo.inf usbvideo.PNF
wceusbsh.inf wceusbsh.PNF
wdma_usb.inf wdma_usb.PNF
winusb.inf winusb.PNF
26 File(s) 1,113,306 bytes
3 Dir(s) 53,645,410,304 bytes free
[usbhub]

Make sure there are such drivers:
Directory Windows\System32\drivers\
usb8023.sys USBAUDIO.sys
USBCAMD.sys USBCAMD2.sys
usbccgp.sys usbcir.sys
usbd.sys usbehci.sys
usbhub.sys usbohci.sys
usbport.sys usbprint.sys
USBSTOR.SYS usbuhci.sys
14 File(s) 857,472 bytes

In one of my Vistas 6 files were missing in the first directory and one
driver in second.

Although I fixed that it did not resolve the story completely. I had this
problem for many years in XP and then in Vista.

What I ended up doing after a person from another forum suggested me to do
was to purchase a Belkin Internal 5-Port USB PCI card. He purchased
Belkin's. I did not quite trust the maker but went for his pointer. It
resolved the eissue completely. I removed a firewire PCI card in the back
that I never used and plugged in Belkin. It isntalled itself and I've never
had any problems since.

This card and similar cards by other makers allow for the 5-th USB port to
be engaged. It is not exposed to the elements. It faces the internals of the
computer. However, if you have a floppy you do not need you can buy another
External USB card (not PCI) and mount it up front ripping off the floppy
drive. Thus you will have 8 fully functional USB ports and they will all
work.

I did it on 2 machines so far. I do not need to use the 5th, internal port.
I now have plenty.

 

[AlexB]

OK rat, I got you here. I could not leave that idiotic post of yours
unanswered but that thread appears to be locked up for good.

Not that simple. Those rats came mostly from Asia in huge numbers and
carried plague endemic to Central Asian Steppes. Those places still are
endemic for plague. Some sporadic cases are an annual reality. In Russia and
Kazakhstan there are microbiological centers specifically devoted to control
the problem.

The birth rates of rats when are left for themselves are regulated by pretty
much the same conditions like locust's. They are also dependent on the
available habitat, meaning the number of settlements. As the population grew
the epidemic was waiting to happen.

The rats proliferated because of poor sanitary conditions. You rats are
ultimately responsible for the persecution of the Jews since the burghers
thought that the Jews caused the plague by witchcraft.

I doubt the cats were a major part of the equation. This is another idiotic
illusion of yours. One has to have armies of cats to control an avalanche of
hungry rats. Rats when on a move are known to eat people alive, let alone
cats.

On the way to Europe the swath of your ancestors crossed Russia and the
Ukraine. There was no comparable epidemics in there although the rats were
infected and not because of the cats being present (allegedly). The reason
for the lack of major outbreak was that the population in those countries at
that time was very sparse and the epidemics could not catch up. A threshold
density of people is necessary for an outbreak. The population in those
countries was below that threshold. This process is described my math models
with simple differential equations.

Again, you proved your ignorance and idiotic disposition.

What you think was a factor is like trying to combat moving locust with a
few canaries.

Actually, the problem there was that city-dwellers killed cats
because they assumed that they were invariably witch's familiars. Without
predators the rat population boomed and then crashed. The rat fleas
deserted
their defunct hosts for the closest available warm body, which was usually
human. Unfortunately some of the fleas carried plague bacteria.

So you see it wasn't the rat's fault at all. Just another case of
people choosing biased personal opinion and superstition over observable
reality. Not that anyone we know does that hmmmmmm alex?

I had *exactly* the same problem. After a week of trying new
devices (including a midnight trip to walmart when I was convinced my
mouse had died...) and driver upgrades downgrades and rollbacks I found
a bios setting for USB 2.0 voltage: low med hi and maximum. I set it to
maximum and voila! no more problems...

Are you sure your midnight trip for for the mouse? You perhaps ate it alive
while still at home!

You must have gone there for a bottle of Jack Daniels, rodent.

Now, that problem of yours is easy to solve. Check out my posts. This is how
higher species resolve their problems.

 

[Chuck]

The same thing can occur on various P/Cs due to BIOS settings, or an
outmoded BIOS version.