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Friend's desktop PC has usb ports not working properly

B

bball1523

Senior member
My friend has a desktop PC with problematic USB ports. What happens is certain devices such as the Zune and a Sony digital camera do not work with the usb ports, while devices such as the iPhone and keyboard/mouse work fine on the same usb ports.

Here are some of his specs:

Windows Vista Home
Intel e6400 2.13 ghz
2 gb ram
nvvidia 7900 GTX

Does anyone know what the problem is and if there's a solution?

thanks
 
First of all are the drivers for the devices installed and have you tried to reinstall them?

Next try to clear the CMOS and see if that helps. Some times the CMOS can get a bit of curruption causing the USB ports and PS/2 ports to act up a bit.
 
my friend said he reinstalled the drivers from the motherboard CD and it didn't fix the problem.

How do you clear the CMOS?
 
Originally posted by: bball1523
How do you clear the CMOS?
Click to expand...
The documentation for the motherboard usually has instructions for clearing the CMOS. Usually it's a jumper on the board, sometimes a pressing the INS key on boot. The fail-safe method is to just remove the battery for a few hours.

A few other questions though: are the failing devices all being connected to the same port? Is the difference that the ones that work do not require a powered port? Do these same failing devices work with an external hub?

Athena
 
Originally posted by: Athena
Originally posted by: bball1523
How do you clear the CMOS?
Click to expand...
The documentation for the motherboard usually has instructions for clearing the CMOS. Usually it's a jumper on the board, sometimes a pressing the INS key on boot. The fail-safe method is to just remove the battery for a few hours.

A few other questions though: are the failing devices all being connected to the same port? Is the difference that the ones that work do not require a powered port? Do these same failing devices work with an external hub?

Athena
Click to expand...

These devices were all connected to the same port.

What do you mean by powered port? I think all of his usb ports are connected to the motherboard.

He hasn't tried an external hub, I figure he wouldn't want to since it would cost extra $$ and would take up more of his time, rather than trying to figure it out with his computer.
 
All (okay most) USB devices draw power from the port they're connected to, however some items draw much more power than others. I'm not so inclined to think its a power issue though; your friend's iPhone works but his Zune doesn't and the camera is somewhat irrelevant since it's more than likely running off its own battery and the USB cable is for data transfer, yes? As long as the Zune and such work in 1 or more ports, its an inconvenience but I'd say just ignore the problem.
 
Personally, what I do, is use a Powered USB Hub, say from Belkin. It connects to my USB 2.0 card in the computer and to it's power pack. I then plug my USB items into it. I also think you should always use the same USB slot / jack for the same device. Even on my computer case, I made of list of what went where. Where the USB keyboard is, where the USB Mouse is, where both Printers were at. If they need to be removed for any reason, they go back to the same spot they were in. Same with items connected to the USB hub. It just works better that way.
 
It works fine unless you care about data transfer speeds, in which case you're forcing all the data through 1 port and getting really low speeds. Otherwise, I see no issue with that approach (aside from the fact that I have 12 usb ports and only use 3 😛)
 
Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
All (okay most) USB devices draw power from the port they're connected to, however some items draw much more power than others. I'm not so inclined to think its a power issue though; your friend's iPhone works but his Zune doesn't and the camera is somewhat irrelevant since it's more than likely running off its own battery and the USB cable is for data transfer, yes? As long as the Zune and such work in 1 or more ports, its an inconvenience but I'd say just ignore the problem.
Click to expand...

The issue is the Zune and camera do not work on any usb port at all. The other items work fine. It's an odd issue. lol
 
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