USB ports provide power but do not recognize any USB device

[toie25]

The 4 USB ports on my Dell Inspiron 9200 (running Windows XP Home SP2) no longer recognize any USB devices attached. This started occurring after my computer refused to come back from Standby Mode. I eventually forced the computer out of Stand By mode by clicking the power button and typing on the keyboard at the same time.

I then attached my Maxtor 4 Mini USB External HD and noticed that my USB ports no longer recognized devices that were attached. However, all devices are provided power through the ports, and all of the devices work on other computers.

I tried the following to help resolve the issue:
1. Attached Mouse, provided power but did not recognize the device. Hardware wizard does not even come up.
2. Attached 3 USB flash drives to each port and they were not recognized either.
3. Uninstalled all USB Root Hub Devices and rebooted. No change.
4. Uninstalled all USB Controllers and rebooted. No change.
5. Installed a logitech mouse driver which is the same as the mouse installed. Mouse was still not recognized.
6. Re-flashed the BIOS. No change
7. Ran Dell Diagnostic utility and no issues found with the USB ports or controllers

I'm at a loss, and do not know what to try from here. I'm wary to think that the ports are dead as they are still providing power and the no diagnostic is finding a conflict or issue with the ports.

Does anyone think that any of the following things have any merit?

1. Replace the HD with another HD and see if the USB ports are working with the new OS on the new HD?
2. Backing up all files and reinstalling the OS?

Please provide any suggestions that you have for me, I really don't want to reinstall the OS, but if that is my only option then I'll have to do it. Thanks in advance.

 

[theland10]

I'm having the same problem with a system running Windows XP Pro SP3. All my USB ports just randomly stopped working. My main external hard-drive disconnected, then reconnected but windows said there was an error installing the device click for details. At this point my USB mouse was still working. So I thought, ok let's just restart the computer to see if that fixes the issue with my hard-drive. After restarting, none of my ports worked anymore, but all still supply power. I also tried uninstalling the root hub devices and rebooting to have windows auto-detect them to no avail. My only possible explanation as of currently is that we both have dying motherboards.

The OS shows that the ports are working fine no matter what manner I view them in. Sisoft Sandra Lite, Device Manager, System Properties, etc.

 

[Guest]

Hiya. I work in IT support and recently saw a similar problem happening with our HP workstations... In fact, after trying quite a few things we realised that if we unplugged the power for a few minutes, and plugged it back in again - the USB ports mysteriously started working again. We've managed to narrow it down to one USB external hard drive which was somehow 'short-circuiting' (for lack of a better word) the USB ports. Hope this helps somewhat, but I don't have an explanation...

 

[trentini]

Same problem here. All 6 USB ports have power ( I can charge my cell phone ) but nothing happens inside Windows XP.

But I dont know if it has to do with SP3 or if my USB ports just died when my ATI POWER SUPPLY died too. The power supply did not burn out.. it just stopped working. Then I replaced and now I dont remeber exactly when the ports stopped working... because just after that I installed Windows XP SP3 here.. Im at a total lost...

One thing that makes me imagine the USB ports are dead on the motherboard is because I installed UBUNTU from CD and it did not recognize the USB MOUSE... so I think I wont have USB anymore, at least not with the ones provided with the motherboard.

Trentini

 

[lawltime]

I had this problem on a customers Inspiron 1720. The fix for this machine was simply enabling External USB in bios. It was set to off but was able to power my mp3 player. Good luck.

 

[xenith881]

The 4 USB ports on my Dell Inspiron 9200 (running Windows XP Home SP2) no longer recognize any USB devices attached. This started occurring after my computer refused to come back from Standby Mode. I eventually forced the computer out of Stand By mode by clicking the power button and typing on the keyboard at the same time.

I then attached my Maxtor 4 Mini USB External HD and noticed that my USB ports no longer recognized devices that were attached. However, all devices are provided power through the ports, and all of the devices work on other computers.

I tried the following to help resolve the issue:
1. Attached Mouse, provided power but did not recognize the device. Hardware wizard does not even come up.
2. Attached 3 USB flash drives to each port and they were not recognized either.
3. Uninstalled all USB Root Hub Devices and rebooted. No change.
4. Uninstalled all USB Controllers and rebooted. No change.
5. Installed a logitech mouse driver which is the same as the mouse installed. Mouse was still not recognized.
6. Re-flashed the BIOS. No change
7. Ran Dell Diagnostic utility and no issues found with the USB ports or controllers

I'm at a loss, and do not know what to try from here. I'm wary to think that the ports are dead as they are still providing power and the no diagnostic is finding a conflict or issue with the ports.

Does anyone think that any of the following things have any merit?

1. Replace the HD with another HD and see if the USB ports are working with the new OS on the new HD?
2. Backing up all files and reinstalling the OS?

Please provide any suggestions that you have for me, I really don't want to reinstall the OS, but if that is my only option then I'll have to do it. Thanks in advance.

I recently had a problem with my HP Pavilion dv7t-4000 where the two usb ports on the right front side of my computer would provide power but not recognize anything that I plugged in, therefore nothing would work. I will simply give the short version of this fustrating situation. I had to take the cover off of my laptop (the piece of metal around the keyboard that has the touch pad built in). And there is a "cable" that runs from those usb ports to the motherboard of the laptop. All I had to do was unplug it, and then plug it back in apparently. So after months of fustration and research, I did it the hard way and went looking for a physical solution myself.

Here is a picture to hopefully make it easier to understand.
http/img4.imageshack.us/img4/5557/dscf6062f.jpg

When looking at this image the usb ports with the chip, are at the bottom right hand side of the picture, simply follow the cable to where they plug in, and thats what I had to plug back in, apparently it got dislodged part way or when I got my laptop back from repair it hadn't been done correctly. It doesn't matter because I can't prove anything, but I hope this helps somebody.

Also, I'm sure the reason my 3rd usb port, the one on the left side of the computer, worked because it hooks directly into the motherboard, so in theory, any usb ports that operated remotely on a chip separate from the mother board could encounter this problem.

This a relatively simple task (if you have the patience to keep track of 100+ screws, exaggeration but still...), however if you are afraid of messing something up, simply take this suggestion to someone who knows what they are doing when taking apart a laptop and have them re plug the cable back in for you.

Hope this helps!
Good luck.

 

[Zoroff]

A quickie basic thing to checkup that I just experienced is to make sure that the USB cable is actually inserted properly.

I just had one of my USB ports providing power but not noticing any devices connected to it.
When I was checking where my mouse and keyboard was connected I pushed on the offending
USB connector in question and noticed that it was not completely seated but slightly askew.
After that fix it works fine again.

A bit embarrassing to almost miss the basic rules of computer fixing i.e. Is it not blown to bits? Is it on? Is it actually connected correctly or just supposed to be?

 

[kelmend]

thankuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu for the mysterious solution,ur da besttt it really worked
\

 

[sub7forhire]

Im prettt sure it has to do with your bios configuration