[tvinayak]

Hello everyone,

I have a Dell Precision 360 system running Win XP Pro SP2. As of last night my
USB ports have stopped working inexplicably. Device manager reports good health
for all of the following:

Universal Serial Bus Controllers
- Inter® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2
- Inter® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4
- Inter® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7
- Inter® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE
- Inter® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DD
- USB Root Hub
- USB Root Hub
- USB Root Hub
- USB Root Hub
- USB Root Hub

I have a Pocket PC an iPod and external hard drive and a digital camera
connected to the computer and none of those connections works anymore. I notice
that my iPod is still charging though so the physical connection seems to be
working. However when I plug in any of the devices into the computer the computer
does not respond at all by recognizing them. I see no errors in the Events Log
either. I have tried uninstalling the host controllers and USB hubs in normal
and safe mode (while disconnecting all peripherals).

I have tried several options trying to ressurect the ports including:
- updating BIOS from A06 to A08
- Installing latest Intel Chipset software
- Uninstalling and Re-installing the USB controllers (from Hardware Devices
list)

The ports are still "hot" though in the sense that if I plug in my iPod it
charges.

What could have gone wrong all of a sudden?

thanks
Tony

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did you ever get this worked out? Have you tried turning off the USB ports in BIOS and rebooting, then turning them back on.

[gerryf]

did you ever get this worked out? Have you tried turning off the USB ports in BIOS and rebooting, then turning them back on.

[KCSys]

I have a machine here that is experiencing the exact same problem as the OP!

The motherboard in question is a Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G

Thus far I have tried with no success:
Repair install of Windows XP;

Delete and reinstall the drivers for the usb;

at the command prompt typing set devmgr_show_details=1 and set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 then running devmgmt.msc and choosing "view" show hidden. Which then displays every USB device that was installed on the machine. I deleted all of them, then rebooted, and again no effect;

Tried Manually updating the drivers;

Set bios to only use USB 1.1;

Updated motherboard BIOS to latest version;

Cursing at the machine;

backing up, deleting and installing registry keys from a machine with working USB.

I've even repeated a few of these steps numerous times to no effect (I once read the definition of insanity is trying the same procedure over and over and expecting different results heh).

When I plug any usb device in, there is absolutely no indication from the OS that something has been plugged in.

As mentioned by the OP the device manager lists the USB hubs just fine and says the devices are working properly. I do suspect that there has been some kind of software installation/corruption that has perhaps locked out the USB ports, but after hours of searching through various sites, have found nothing to solve this.

Any tips/suggestions would be much appreciated. Total Wipe is a very last resort I'm afraid.

Thanks
D

[Immortalarena]

If you know the device works on another machine try Start>Run>MSCONFIG and make sure normal startup is selected then reboot the machine, this will make sure that they are all loaded. If that does not work try the diagnostics startup. Hope that helps

[KCSys]

Thanks for that, unfortunately it did not help In fact the issue isn't just with my USB jump drive, its any usb device at all.

Its as if XP is ignoring any of the USB ports from the motherboard.

I tried actually putting in a PCI card with 4 USB 2.0 ports on it. whenever I plugged anything into one of those ports, the whole machine just locked up. (disabled the USB from the motherboard before I tried this, and the new usb root hub showed up in device manager just fine).

I was thinking of trying gasoline and matches, but I'll save that one for later

Cheers
D

[KCSys]

Status Update.

I took an image of the hard drive, then wiped out the partition completely, and installed a fresh new install of Windows XP Pro w/SP2.

Upon completion of the install, tried connecting a USB device and the exact same effect.

I guess mystery is solved. Something must have damaged the motherboard and caused the USB subsystem to no longer function.

thanks for the advice.

Cheers
D

[Syrous]

I have the same problem.The device reconizes that the device is pluged in but the computer dose not.I had tried most the stuff on this forum and others but to no avail.I did a system recovery as a last resort....the USB ports still dont work and I have lost all my stuff

Edited by Syrous, 08 February 2008 - 08:14 PM.

[Cap-n_Geech]

I have this same problem. Just started out of nowhere.
I have noticed that if I leave a flash drive plugged in when I do a power off restart, the drive will show up and can be used.
However if I unplug it, the system will never see it again when plugged back in.

This is true for all drives except for the IPOD. The system never sees the IPOD.

[DeeSue]

Has ANYONE found a solution to this? It happened to me about 6 weeks ago. All ports went "poof." Yes, device mgr recognizes them. THe only way I can use flash drive/camera/etc. is to "remove/uninstall" the hub in device magr and reboot WITH the device (camera/flashdrive) PLUGGED in. BUt once remove the camera or flash, the port is again rendered useless and NO devices plugged back into the port (ALL USB ports on the PC, that is... 4 in back, 2 up front) after unplugging them will be recognized.
This is a royal pain. My PC is purring along just fine in all other aspects.

Dell Optiplex 260 XP2 Pro SP2.
I can copy and paste some more system info if needed, but I am HOPING SOMEone out there has solved this problem, as it seems many other folks are having the same issues.
HELP???!!! :-)

[moggy9]

Hi all,

I wopuld like to thank this forum for sorting my problem of USB ports that stoped working. I had look at multiple forums, downloaded drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled, done restore xp, reinstalled xp, done repair xp, looked at device manager, went to seagate and done check on motherboard, and still to no avail!!!! Then I followed the posting on this forum that suggested that it might be as simple as disconnectiong the mains powere for half hour or so the re-starting. I am up and running again!!!

Thanks very much, Moggy

[portable hard drives]

If you are changing devices regularly on USB ports it is possible that the ports have physically worn out and are no longer making connection. If this is the case it would be more cost efficient to replace the motherboard because replacing the actual ports involves a lot of work de-soldering and resoldering etc and can be a mess if the wrong person does it.

Thanks and Regards
Portable hard drives

[migo007]

Hi,

I too want to thank this forum!

I tried lots of things, but the thing that worked was simply cutting off the main power for half an hour and restarting.

migo007

[11264]

I have to say that I read much before I will do costly things, such as reformatting a hard drive, or replacing a board. I just found this site, and read through one page and problem solved. I unplugged my puter over nite, and my USB ports are all working again. Simple is better, and most of the time less expensive.

DES

[coreyjbook]

Does everyone with this problem have a dell

[coreyjbook]

I have to say that I read much before I will do costly things, such as reformatting a hard drive, or replacing a board. I just found this site, and read through one page and problem solved. I unplugged my puter over nite, and my USB ports are all working again. Simple is better, and most of the time less expensive.

DES

what is a puter