Help! USB Ports stopped working

  • Thread starter Thread starter bjjp2
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bjjp2

All my USB Ports on desktop no longer recognize devices. I've tried
restarting a couple of times. Also tried going to earlier restore
point. Can anyone help?
 
Further info: Don't think it's a hardware issue. This happened right
after I installed a new device and driver. New device worked fine at
first. Then after I unplugged it and plugged it in again, all USB ports
stopped recognizing devices. Tried uninstalling new driver and going
back to restore point to no avail. There is a Windows support note that
sounds similar at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900/en-us

It recommends a registry edit, but the registry path it refers to is
not present.
 
I have seen this issue several times in recent weeks with customer's
machines.
The fix has been to reinstall the USB 2.0 drivers from the motherboard cd.
If the driver refuses to install or states that it is already installed you
can force it by right-clicking on the inf file and click install on the
popup menu.


--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-
 
Thanks for quick response. My Dell desktop didn't come with a
"motherboard CD." It has a "Resource CD" with various drivers, but I
don't see anything that meets that description. Are these drivers I can
get online? What would they be called? (Are they the same as "chipset"
drivers?) Thanks a bunch.
 
Most motherboard cds have a USB 2.0 driver. You would need to find out which
USB controller is used on your motherboard.

Another option would be a repair install of XP which would redetect all
hardware and reinstall the drivers, but that is a drastic step if there is
any chance of reinstalling the USB drivers only.

PS--on a couple of the machines I tried uninstalling/re-installing the
controllers but it failed to fix the problem because XP reinstalled the
corrupted drivers.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-
 
All my USB Ports on desktop no longer recognize devices. I've tried
restarting a couple of times. Also tried going to earlier restore
point. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

right-click My Computer -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> what does it
indicate at the bottom of the list for Universal Serial Bus
controller. Is the list of devices "open" or do you have to click the
+ sign to expand the list? Is there a marker (what sort?) beside any
of the USB components listed under the Universal Serial Bus controller
heading?
 
This link tells me how to uninstall the USB controllers. It then says
simply "reinstall the USB controllers." But how do I do that? Where
are they to reinstall?
Thanks for all attempts to help.
 
This link tells me how to uninstall the USB controllers. It then says
simply "reinstall the USB controllers." But how do I do that? Where
are they to reinstall?
Thanks for all attempts to help.
Click to expand...

WindowsXP will usually re-install the drivers when you restart the
computer. However, you may be asked to insert the disk(s)/CD(s) that
came wuth the computer, that contain the hardware drivers.

Is it a brand name computer? You could go to the website for that
company and see if there are USB drivers available for download.

The worse-case-scenario could be that the USB hub/ports were starting
to breakdown anyway, and it's just coincidental that they decided to
pack it in now. Two options in this case
a) if they are "on board" USB ports (i.e. straight off the mother
board), just forget about them and buy a PCI USB card
b) if they are on a PCI USB card, replace the card.

Cards are pretty cheap and it's bno great drama doing it yourself.
 
Tried everything. Gave up and got a new PCI card. New card works
perfectly. By the way, what's the "internal" USB port for?
 
Tried everything. Gave up and got a new PCI card. New card works
perfectly. By the way, what's the "internal" USB port for?
Click to expand...

The internal USB port is to connect to a front panel USB hub. You can buy USB hubs that mount in
the front panel and you use a short USB cable to connect these hubs to your internal card.
 
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