All USB ports fail when booting into Windows

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
6,271
323
126
I just plugged and unplugged an iphone 5 from my PC earlier via the USB lightning cable and I heard a bunch of system beeps over and over again (the sound you get when a usb device is being plugged in and unplugged repeatedly). Then all the USB ports appeared to have died in my computer.

When I boot into Windows all USB devices appear to work for a few seconds and then turn off (for example keyboard lights up then off, and optical mouse light turns on for a few seconds then turns off, external hard drive lights up and off).

When I am booting into BIOS all USB devices work fine including mouse and keyboard and I can browse BIOS with no issues.

When I use a Windows installation disc to boot into Install Windows or Repair, the USB devices have a similar pattern like going into Windows (light up for a second then light off).

Does this seem like I need a new motherboard? Seems like the USB drivers that Windows reads must have gotten corrupt or something right? I can't use any USB devices in Windows and I can't even install Windows from Cold Boot since USB devices aren't working in these environments.
 
May 11, 2008
19,306
1,131
126
You might still have a PS/2 port. Connect a keyboard to it and use the alt/ tab arrow keys to move around.

It could also be that windows is suspending your usb ports for some reason. Do you have any usb power save options in your bios setup ?

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-fix-annoying-windows-usb-problem.htm

Open Control Panel
Go to: Hardware and Sound->Power Options
Find your preferred power plan and click “Change plan settings”
Click “Change advanced power settings”
A dialog box similar to the example in the graphic below will open
Find the entry “USB settings” and expand it
Expand the entry “USB selective suspend setting”
Use the drop-down menu to disable or re-enable the setting as shown in the graphic below
Click "OK"
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,545
236
106
Since the USB ports work in the BIOS, and stop shortly after Windows loads, this is a software problem, not a hardware one. I am sure your motherboard is fine.

Let us know how the above options work for you.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
17,580
9,272
136
Try a Linux distro live CD to see whether the USB ports work then?

I'm inclined to agree with ketchup79 though.
 

John Connor

Lifer
Nov 30, 2012
22,840
617
121
It could be the chipset driver. Use a PS/2 connected mouse and keyboard or if you use just a keyboard navagate with the arrow keys and use SHIFT, ALT and ENTER, etc. Get into device manager and remove the chipset driver and reinstall.

I agree, this is NOT a hardware problem since things are fine in BIOS. It's a software problem.

The utility from Nirsoft called USBdeview could help too. But I wouldn't delete the mouse and keyboard drivers. Just everything else that was connected to the PC.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
 

tommo123

Platinum Member
Sep 25, 2005
2,617
48
91
if it's not win8, any usb probs i had were cleared by deleting the stupid infcache.1 file (have to change security settings on it) and then reconnecting usb devices. might not be your thing but worth a shot?