Lost rear-panel USB ports after reformatting and reinstalling XP SP2

[996GT2]

I recently reformatted and reinstalled Windows XP SP2...however, even after I had installed the nForce drivers for my MSI K9N Platinum, the 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back of the motherboard refuse to work. When I try to plug a device into one of these ports (e.g. a flash drive or my Creative Zen), Windows just pops up with an error message that says "one of the devices plugged into this computer has malfunctioned" or something to that extent. However, all the other ports (1 front panel port, 2 top panel ports, 2 rear PCI bracket ports) work perfectly.

How should I go about correcting this problem? Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Try going into Device Manager, expanding the tree of USB controllers, right-clicking the USB controllers and uninstalling them so Windows can rediscover them. Any good?

 

[996GT2]

Nope, I uninstalled all the controllers, rebooted, and Windows reinstalled the drivers upon reboot and gave me the "your hardware is installed and ready to use" message. When iI plugged my Zen Vision M into the back port, however, it just gave me the "one of your devices had malfunctioned" messages again...then I tried a flash drive, and it was not recognized in explorer.

 

[mechBgon]

If you plug in a USB mouse on those ports, does that work?

 

[996GT2]

Yeah my mouse works fine in one of the back ports...but nothing else does apparently

 

[mechBgon]

If your Windows disc is pre-SP1, it's recommended that you do not install your motherboard drivers until after you've installed Service Pack 2, or your USB 2.0 may not 2.0 for you. Would this possibly have been the issue, or is your Windows disc already at SP1 or SP2 level?

 

[996GT2]

It was at SP2 level before I installed my nForce drivers

 

[dclive]

If your mouse works back there, then it sounds like a device driver issue. Post the setup*.* files in c:\windows somewhere that we can get to it so we can see what's actually happening:

1. Note the time (type TIME and press enter on your PC)
2. Plug in the device, get the error msg
3. Note the time again (type TIME and press enter on your PC)
4. Give us all the above times - down to the second - , plus the zipfile with the setup*.* files.

 

[996GT2]

Hmm...the problem seems to have fixed itself...maybe it just needed a reboot or two after I plugged in my mouse to the back port or something.

Aah the mysteries of Windows

Thanks to everyone for the advice though

 

[cubby1223]

I stopped by one of the local businesses a couple weeks ago to check one computer - best I can tell static electricity caused the usb ports to stop working. A couple power cycles and they magically began working again.