all usb ports not communicating

[Guest]

I have 4 usb ports, computer not communicating anything plugged into them
BUT the green light on my memory card reader is on. It was all working before
a recent thunder and lightning storm. How can I reset them to communicate

 

[Guest]

Are the USB ports integrated on the motherboard? In other words are the USB
ports on the tower or are they external? Did you install these USB ports
yourself? In any case the thing to try would be to look in the device
manager to see if your USB is in fact installed. The USB ports will appear
under Universal Serial Bus Controllers in your device manager. If they do
not show up, or if there are some funky question marks or exclamation points
then you might have a problem with them.

In some cases you might have to reinstall the ports. In other cases you
might have to enable the USB ports on in the system BIOS. In a worst case
scenario you could even pick up a new PCI card for the USB. This might be
desireable if you have older USB ports and want to take advantage of the USB
2.0 speeds.

Let us know how it turns out or if you need more help!

 

[Guest]

They are internal and show as working properly in device manager. Is it
possible a surge from lightning poppedsomething inside? They are still
providing the power to the usb devices, just not any communication.

 

[Guest]

What type of computer is it? Is there any USB ports that work? Do you even
have one USB device that works such as a mouse? USB devices are a pain
sometimes. On some of the old Compaqs the USB functionality was hit and miss
just because they sucked.

Hardware failure is always a possibility in any given situation, but it is
hard to say that is what is happening in this situation. Hardware failure or
"something popping inside" is kind of tricky to troubleshoot via newsgroup
posts. I assume you tried all of the ports and multiple USB devices. When
you plug a USB device into the computer also check device manager to see if
that device shows up there. You could try removing all of your USB entries
in device manager and reboot the computer. When they get reinstalled you
could try the USB devices again.

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

I have 4 usb ports, computer not communicating anything plugged into them
BUT the green light on my memory card reader is on. It was all working
before
a recent thunder and lightning storm. How can I reset them to communicate

Simply remove the USB Ports in Control Panel, Make sure no devices are
connected to them, and reboot. Windows will redetect the USB ports. Plug
in your devices again. Please post back if this helps or not.

Bobby

 

[NoStop]

After sticking his head out from his XP firewall, philber had this to say:

They are internal and show as working properly in device manager. Is it
possible a surge from lightning poppedsomething inside? They are still
providing the power to the usb devices, just not any communication.

I doubt very much that it has anything to do with lightning, the phase of
the moon or your horoscope. It has to do with XP being a p.o.s. when it
comes to USB. I've seen other computers that have experienced the same
problem as you are experiencing. XP has a propensity to losing it's ability
to properly drive USB2 ports/devices. The suggestion you'll read around
here is to uninstall the USB ports and have XP re-install them. You might
be lucky and it will solve the problem. Or you might be unlucky and it will
not. It is a total crap shoot based on the fact that MickeyMouse wrote the
USB2 drivers and made a mess of them. You might end up being forced to just
re-install this so-called operating system. When you finally get tired of
fighting to keep your machine running with XP, you might look at migrating
to a real operating system. Until then, best of luck.

 

[Guest]

I have done that twice. All are re-installed in device manager but still no
communication. I have 4 ports on 2 separate cards. I am using a clone

 

[Malke]

I have done that twice. All are re-installed in device manager but
still no communication. I have 4 ports on 2 separate cards. I am using
a clone

OK, then:

1. Uninstall the two usb pci cards from Device Manager, shut down the
machine, unplug it, and physically remove the cards. Make a note as to
which slot each pci card was in.

2. Try the cards in a different machine, one card at a time. If they
work, then you know they aren't damaged. If they don't work, they were
damaged and should be replaced.

3. If the usb pci cards were good in another machine, put one of them
back into your own computer, in a slot different than the one where it
was originally installed. Does it work? If it doesn't, then your
motherboard was damaged by the lightening strike.

4. If the usb card works, add the second one and see what happens.

Malke

 

[Sparda]

I have done that twice. All are re-installed in device manager
but still no
communication. I have 4 ports on 2 separate cards. I am using
a clone

In that case I would say they are perminantly broken, you would have
to replace the mother borad or get a PCI USB card.

 

[NoStop]

After sticking his head out from his XP firewall, Sparda had this to say:

In that case I would say they are perminantly broken, you would have
to replace the mother borad or get a PCI USB card.

I'll bet dollars to donuts there is nothing wrong with the OP's motherboard.
It is XP that has screwed up. Seen it before, too many times.