usb ports not working in xp pro

[MaDMaCKeM]

I have a dell vostro 200 pc with 2.2ghz c2d processor and 2 gig ram, with a
mirror raid array. all of my usb ports stop responding when windows boots, as
soon as the graphic appears the ports go off. i have been able to get into
bios and dos no probs but the pc has no ps2 ports so i cant access windows!!
i dont know of any way i can get into windows - safe mode is no good either,
the same thing happens.
i have tried the main drive in another vostro identical to mine and its the
same there so i know it isnt the hardware, its definately a windows problem.
any ideas would be helpful.

 

[MaDMaCKeM]

would it be possible on the other vostro pc to copy the usb driver files
across on to the fubarred drive?
if it is possible what files would i need?
or would i need to delete files and let windows do its thing? again what
files would need to go?

 

[Paul]

would it be possible on the other vostro pc to copy the usb driver files
across on to the fubarred drive?
if it is possible what files would i need?
or would i need to delete files and let windows do its thing? again what
files would need to go?

OK. What changed ? At one time the box worked, right ? Then
you changed something. Undo whatever you changed.

This doesn't sound like a driver problem necessarily. It could
be a resource problem, where some things conflicted, and then
there was no way to load a driver. Copying over a driver isn't
going to help, if the good driver that is already there, has
no way to load due to a resource issue.

Based on the info given so far, I don't know if I could
explain what is going on. But when you tell us the story
of all the stuff you've done to the machine leading up to
this point, maybe things will be clearer.

Did you buy this from Ebay, already fubarred ? Or are
you the original owner ? If you're the original owner,
then you'll have all the history to share with us.

Paul

 

[MaDMaCKeM]

Hi Paul,
Tha computer was bought new from dell, and belongs to my golf club.
They have had dell technician out who replaced the mobo and usb ports, but
its still the same.
Basically it is used as an office pc with 2 client pcs that access it for
competition entrys only. we regularly make backups of handicaps and results
etc on usb flash drives until recently when it would not recognise any and
would just display new hardware found and insert the disc that came with your
product etc, and would then fail to install the device after asking it to do
it automaticaly.
Dell suggested swapping usb devices around which is where it went wrong and
now nothing is detected at all so we cant access the pc as there are no ps2
sockets.
The only software installed is office, sage accounts, mcafee AV and golf
club management stuff. the computer gets left on and is only restarted when
prompted to by windows after updates etc.

 

[Paul]

Hi Paul,
Tha computer was bought new from dell, and belongs to my golf club.
They have had dell technician out who replaced the mobo and usb ports, but
its still the same.
Basically it is used as an office pc with 2 client pcs that access it for
competition entrys only. we regularly make backups of handicaps and results
etc on usb flash drives until recently when it would not recognise any and
would just display new hardware found and insert the disc that came with your
product etc, and would then fail to install the device after asking it to do
it automaticaly.
Dell suggested swapping usb devices around which is where it went wrong and
now nothing is detected at all so we cant access the pc as there are no ps2
sockets.
The only software installed is office, sage accounts, mcafee AV and golf
club management stuff. the computer gets left on and is only restarted when
prompted to by windows after updates etc.

OK. You could try a repair install. That would require booting from the
WinXP install CD. Depending on the service pack level of that CD,
you'd have to reinstall any service packs not on the CD. So if the
CD was at SP1, then you'd have to reinstall SP2 afterwards. Also,
any security updates from Microsoft would have to be added (Windows Update).
But your applications would be untouched, and data files would remain intact.
(Dell may have some procedure for making recovery CDs, and I don't know
if that is quite the same as a WinXP install disc or not. If there are
any details about software CDs with a Dell, they should be worked on
the instant the machine is delivered, as later you may need them
immediately to fix something.) Did the Dell tech discuss this option
at all ? Maybe Dell can send the equivalent of a WinXP CD, so you
can do stuff like a repair install.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Also, a poster mentioned this morning, that he'd observed a driver update
from Microsoft, upsetting USB on some recent Intel (P35 based) chipset
motherboards. Post is here. Which brings up the usual warning - never
take driver updates from Windows Update. You can take security updates,
but for some reason, when a driver update is offered, at least some
of them seem to have their issues. (I think your motherboard may in
fact have an ICH9, and the USB ports would come off that. And that
would be the same Southbridge as you might find on a P35 based system.)

http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus/msg/1f82d0575dd3b5f4
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos200/en/slim_tower/om_en/html/appendix.htm

Also, once you get back into the machine, perhaps you can leave
some of the options here enabled. This might allow you to
remotely log into the machine in the future, to fix stuff.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx

In many cases, the PS/2 interface is not really gone. They just didn't
put a connector on the back for it. The SuperI/O chip may still have the
interface for it. They could fiddle the BIOS code, to ignore the PS/2 altogether
(like how dual floppy capability seems to get disabled), so could make the
pins on that chip useless. But this bit of trivia is only for the home hacker
who enjoys soldering stuff, and who doesn't mind if something gets damaged

As long as USB interfaces can be stuffed, and PS/2 ones seem to work, I
won't be buying a computer any time soon, which is missing those connectors.
I like stuff that "just works" (tm).

There are other ways to access the boot disk. For example, at least for a
FAT32 disk, I can boot my Knoppix or Ubuntu disc, and look at the files
on the drive with that. But at this point, it is unclear to me what
could be causing the problem, so you wouldn't know what to modify.
If it is a registry issue, how do you edit the registry in a foreign
environment ?

There is a page here, with various issues about USB. The
"XP asks for drivers or just want to install new hardware" item
discusses a couple mechanisms why WinXP would ask for drivers.
But since you aren't seeing that, it means the driver is
not loading for some other reason.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

Paul

 

[smlunatick]

OK. You could try a repair install. That would require booting from the
WinXP install CD. Depending on the service pack level of that CD,
you'd have to reinstall any service packs not on the CD. So if the
CD was at SP1, then you'd have to reinstall SP2 afterwards. Also,
any security updates from Microsoft would have to be added (Windows Update).
But your applications would be untouched, and data files would remain intact.
(Dell may have some procedure for making recovery CDs, and I don't know
if that is quite the same as a WinXP install disc or not. If there are
any details about software CDs with a Dell, they should be worked on
the instant the machine is delivered, as later you may need them
immediately to fix something.) Did the Dell tech discuss this option
at all ? Maybe Dell can send the equivalent of a WinXP CD, so you
can do stuff like a repair install.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Also, a poster mentioned this morning, that he'd observed a driver update
from Microsoft, upsetting USB on some recent Intel (P35 based) chipset
motherboards. Post is here. Which brings up the usual warning - never
take driver updates from Windows Update. You can take security updates,
but for some reason, when a driver update is offered, at least some
of them seem to have their issues. (I think your motherboard may in
fact have an ICH9, and the USB ports would come off that. And that
would be the same Southbridge as you might find on a P35 based system.)

http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.c...support/edocs/systems/vos200/en/slim_tower/om...

Also, once you get back into the machine, perhaps you can leave
some of the options here enabled. This might allow you to
remotely log into the machine in the future, to fix stuff.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remotein...

In many cases, the PS/2 interface is not really gone. They just didn't
put a connector on the back for it. The SuperI/O chip may still have the
interface for it. They could fiddle the BIOS code, to ignore the PS/2 altogether
(like how dual floppy capability seems to get disabled), so could make the
pins on that chip useless. But this bit of trivia is only for the home hacker
who enjoys soldering stuff, and who doesn't mind if something gets damaged

As long as USB interfaces can be stuffed, and PS/2 ones seem to work, I
won't be buying a computer any time soon, which is missing those connectors.
I like stuff that "just works" (tm).

There are other ways to access the boot disk. For example, at least for a
FAT32 disk, I can boot my Knoppix or Ubuntu disc, and look at the files
on the drive with that. But at this point, it is unclear to me what
could be causing the problem, so you wouldn't know what to modify.
If it is a registry issue, how do you edit the registry in a foreign
environment ?

There is a page here, with various issues about USB. The
"XP asks for drivers or just want to install new hardware" item
discusses a couple mechanisms why WinXP would ask for drivers.
But since you aren't seeing that, it means the driver is
not loading for some other reason.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

    Paul






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Be careful! Dell PCs do not normally come with a full XP install CD.
Dell computers are mainly delivered with hidden Recovery partitions.
Thus a repair install is usually not posible!

 

[William J]

We had this problem and the fix is pretty simple.

1. Go into the Device Manager, Click the + at Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
2. Right-click USB Root Hub and select Properties, Open the Power Management tab.
3. Clear the check mark from "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
4. Click OK.

Repeat those steps for each "USB Root Hub" listed. This fixed the problem for us on our Vostro 200.