USB Ports Not Working - Comments Page 1

That reminds me!! :) It's almost time for my semi-annual computer house-cleaning. I probably should make it a quarterly endeavor. I had exactly the problem you described with both USB ports mounted on the front face of my old Dell Dimension and a thorough cleaning with a can of compressed air cured them both. I strongly suspect that some cat hair or sheet rock dust (or both) found it's way in there.

I like to use this program on these problems
USBDeview from
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

Here's another tip: Your USB device may draw more power than the USB port can supply.

I've had intermittent problems with my iPod not being recognized correctly when I connect it to my laptop. I discovered the problem: insuffient power.

When I plug the iPod into my USB ports on the PCMCIA adapter, the PCMCIA adapter's USB port can't supply the power needed by the iPod. The iPod works fine if I plug it into a powered USB hub which is connected to the PCMCIA adapter.

(I use a 2 port USB2.0 PCMCIA adapter since my old laptop only has the slower USB 1.0 ports.)

Port #1 of two ports on my G4 laptop suddenly stopped working while surfing. I switched my modem cable to port #2 to see if I could reconnect online and it worked fine. I retested port #1 and still nothing worked. This isolated the problem to a single malfunctioning port.

I was using an unpowered 4-port USB expander at the time the problem developed. I unplugged the modem cable from the expander and plugged it directly into the non-functioning port. It worked. Then I reattached the port expander with a full load of equipment attached and everything started working again. This leads me to believe that I had too much of a power draw on the port at one time and it just shut down for some reason. I seem to have restarted it by trying it with fewer peripherals plugged in. Once restarted it seemed to do fine.

I have many of the same problems with my USB,s.My worst problem is that my external Harddrive(Seagate Free Agent) would not work.I tried all the tricks mentioned and another 20 not mentioned.
None worked.The drive would work ok when frist started in the morning.But when I shut the computer down and came back to work on it again the drive would not work or anything else connected to the USB,s.I checked the device manager and it did not reconize any of my USB devices.The solution I found was to disconect the A.C. input and let the computer set for about 15 min.When I turn back on it all worked.

When I got a new drive I decided to have a clean install of XP Pro. I selected the new drive in BIOS and was off to the races. A short while later I discovered that my printer was nowhere to be found. After much head scratching I discovered that two USB ports were not working - but only when booting from the new drive! If I booted from the original then all was well. Since I had a port extender in hand I used it and never found out why this happened.

I have given up on getting my XP computer to recognize things like USB jump drives. It seems to do OK with USB hard drives and mice, but not flash drives. I have tried all the suggestions, including deleting the USB stuff from Device Manager and letting it rediscover (BTW, mine says Hubs and controllers, but not ports...). I have also tried to limit drives lower than H, because Windows used to need at least two letters below H to accept a plug in. I quit. I now dowload stuff on my wife's Vista computer and copy them from a shared drive. Who'd have thought Vist a would come to the rescue.....

I have tried all suggested above and the problem is there. I have lost up to 4 flash drives (USB). My mobile phone also cannot connect to my pc because the USB is bad, infact, I cant charge my phone battery because the USB is bad. Please any further advice?

The cable connecting a front USB port to the motherboard contains 4 wires - 2 for power and 2 for data (the outside 2 for power and the centre 2 for data). These wire are usually bunched together. Data is transmitted much better if the 2 data wires are separated from the power wires, and twisted together (as in "twisted pair"). This "twisting" cancels interference which greatly improves data transmission. This can often resolve problematic front USB ports.

I have an HP Officejet Pro L7480 printer plugged in to a USB port on my Dell Dimension 5000. When it is switched on other USB devices that I plug in are not recognised (USB sticks, hard drives etc.). If I switch off or disconnect the printer then all is well. Irritating but manageable once one has identified this behaviour.

I've had this toshiba laptop for about 3 months and the 2 usb ports i usually connect my usb mouse and speakers to doesnt seem to work anymore. ive tried everything here- the restarting the computer, taking the battery out, running device manager and re-installing all the controllers- but still device manager still says everythings working properly and my mouse and speakers dont work. ive used these 2 on my desktop and they work fine. i haven't opened up my laptop yet, i dont really want to but will if it comes down to it. the weird part is a few times when i start up my computer, my speakers and mouse actually do work, but as soon as windows starts up both the mouse and speakers shut off. please help!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like a job for System Restore. See http://askbobrankin.com/system_restore.html

I had an on-going problem with USB ports not working. Tried rolling back, updating and re-installing drivers with no luck. Finally I was able to fix the issue by disconnecting the power cable from the PC. I didn't realize this but apparently USB ports can get corrupted and can fail, but on my machine they always have a current even if the PC is powered down, so the corrupted pots would never re-set. Unplugging the PC then powering back up did the job!

I have tried restarting my computer and unplugging it, nothing. I have tried so much and it's so hard to do everything when I have a USB mouse and a USB network adapter so I can't install new drivers or update the drivers online... I need help!

Running a Dell Demension 2400 desk top computer and having trouble loading and setting up a ham radio programing system for a new radio. Everythng seemed to load ok but when I attempt to start logging all the data and click READ, it says attempt failed. I look at my comm port info and it shows only 2 ports #1 and #3, one in use and the other one is my printer. The program calls for comm port #4 but it doesn't show in my system any place. I thought I had lots comm ports in my computer but can't find any more..How can I get to or install a #4 comm port?. Thanks in advance, Mac/David

Hi Bob, great web site that you maintain !
My USB's are quite strange, I have a wireless network adapter connected to USB, one web cam, key board, the mouse and an external drive. If I add anything else, the the wireless network adapter stops working. Is there a limit to how many USB's I can have?
thanks for your advices

Gus

My Dell Dimension 2400 would not recognize a Kingston card reader but if it did open, the computer would freeze. I changed the battery in my Dell and now it works with the card reader.

hello
i have a TV external card (usb 2.0)
i want it be pluged for ever to one of my usb ports & it must not be needed for me to unplug it.
but each time i turn off then on my computer windows XP says that its not connected
what can i do??
thanks

when i connect my usb mouse the pc gets stuck and lan disconnects automatically..i don't know what is the problem..i have never heard this kind of problem..how can a usb device disconnects network?please help me to solve this problem

i am running windows xp I try to install a pci usb card, but a message say "this hardware no pass the windows logo test. y get another and the same; no pass windows logo test. What i need to find a usb that pass windows logo test ?

EDITOR'S NOTE: It probably doesn't matter. Proceed with the installation and see if the device works.

the mouse stop working if i do that. i had a problem to fix my pc.when i click do it any way, boom..everything stop.