AboutRider Expertise With 20 years experience I can answer almost any question about Intel computers ror build, restore, backup, configure, OS problems, Hardware issures. Setup of hardware components, repair, remove and replace. Trouble shooting hardware/driver issues.
Qwner of DIY Computer Repair and autor of the DIY Computer Repair E-Book
Experience I have been a hardware/os tech for over 20 years, I also own a web site for the do it yourselfer with over 170 articles.
Education/Credentials AAS Electronics Engineering Technology, MCSE, A , HP/IBM/Compaq hardware repair ceritfications
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I recently began having trouble with my USB ports. While installing a game on my PC, I allowed the PC to idle. When I went to check on the installation process and when the screen turned back on, only the wallpaper was showing. I preformed a restart, however, when it had finished, my mouse would not respond. To confirm this was not an isolated problem, I plug in my flash drive and there was no response. It seems that all my USB ports no longer work.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Grant
Answer USB ports are controlled by the BIOS, to start your trouble shooting you need to restart your computer and go into the BIOS setup. Different comptuers use different publishers to write thier BIOS programs so you will need to look in the manual that came with your comptuer to find the keypress that will take you into the BIOS setup (Some computer manufactures have it on the screen at startup but it may flash by too fast to read it) or go to the manufactures web site and get the info.
Once in the BIOS setup you need to find the USB section, for AMI and Pheonix BIOS the USB settings are under the Advanced section. When you get to the USB section see if it is disabled, if it is then enable it and save then restart, if it is enabled then I would say the USB controler on the motherboard has failed.
If you enabled the USB selection in the BIOS, restart. Are your usb ports available?
Yes, done.
No?
You can navagate around your Desktop in Windows with what is called the X-Keys, if you have access to another computer it would be faster to read and print the list from there, if you don't have access to another computer you can press F1 and bing up help, from there type in the search box 'X-Keys' this will find the help on the X-keys and then you can navagate around the desktop.
Open the control panele from the Start button, navagate to 'System' under the 'Hardware' tab navagate to 'Device Manager' open it, go to the right Window and navagte down to the USB controllers at the bottom.
This is where it gets sticky, you do not have any usb ports active, to see if it is a hardware problem you will have to uninstall all the usb devices, do them all with out restarting.
Once you have uninstalled all the USB devices you can either plug in another USB device or restart. If you plug in a usb device you should get the 'New Hardware found' Wizard. If you restart once you log on you should get the 'New Hardware found' wizard.
If you do not get the 'New Hardware found' Wizard I would say your USB controller has failed.
If you get the 'New Hardware found' Wizard let it install the drivers and see if you USB devices work, if they do you have fixed your problem, if not the the USB controller has failed.
If after all this the USB prots are still dead you have some options:
1) Send the motherboard back to the manufacture for repair (I would only go this route if it was still under warranty)
