- Jul 11, 2002
- 2,262
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It seems that a static shock has killed my motherboard's USB ports.
Details: I walked into my home office on a dry morning. Logged onto my machine after overnight sleep. Everything woke fine. Then I touched the mouse, which is mostly metal, and received a nice zap of static electricity (I blame my sweater/slippers and the carpet in the living room). The mouse immediately stopped working. I rebooted, and none of the USB ports on my motherboard work (including all USB2.0 and 3.0, front and back). My keyboard is PS/2, so that's working, and I plugged my mouse into my Rosewill media hub, which also works. I reinstalled drivers for the motherboard's USB, but still getting nothing out of those ports. All other hardware is working fine. Getting a weird "Unknown Device" in the USB section of Device Manager though that wasn't there before, but I'm assuming that's referring to the devices that I still have plugged into the USB3/0 ports on the back of the machine that no longer seem to be functioning. FWIW, the error message is: "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" Device manager shows the "Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Hub," "Host Controller," and "Root Hub" all working fine with up-to-date drivers.
Is the USB fried? Anything I can do? I've gotten shocked by my mouse LOTS of times before and never had this happen. Thanks in advance!
Edit: I can confirm that power and data are still properly passing through the "dead" ports, as I am still able to light my backlit keyboard, which doesn't work through PS/2 alone, and requires a separate USB plug. Also, information is being sent via USB from my APC to windows through one of the "dead" ports, as I'm able to use the monitoring tool in realtime as always. But the ports won't recognize any mouse, game controller, headset, or any other USB device. I'm stumped!
Another edit: It seems the 2xUSB2.0 ports on the front work fine. But the USB3.0 on the front and back will pass power and data, but won't control any devices (see previous edit). Is it possible that the USB3.0 controller on the motherboard is somehow fried, but will still allow the ports to pass power and receive data? If so, would the only fix be a new motherboard?
Last edit/Solution: I'm an idiot. I've kind of figured all along it was just a build up static electricity, and that I should shut down, unplug, and hold the power button for 10 seconds to discharge. But I was also assuming that if that was the problem, the ports wouldn't work at all,m and as stated above, they were "sort of" working. Anyway, I shut down, unplugged, held the power button for 10 seconds, and voila. Everything back to normal. Moral of the story: Your first answer is usually the correct one. Oh, and ground yourself before you touch your metal mouse when you've been shuffling around on carpet...
Details: I walked into my home office on a dry morning. Logged onto my machine after overnight sleep. Everything woke fine. Then I touched the mouse, which is mostly metal, and received a nice zap of static electricity (I blame my sweater/slippers and the carpet in the living room). The mouse immediately stopped working. I rebooted, and none of the USB ports on my motherboard work (including all USB2.0 and 3.0, front and back). My keyboard is PS/2, so that's working, and I plugged my mouse into my Rosewill media hub, which also works. I reinstalled drivers for the motherboard's USB, but still getting nothing out of those ports. All other hardware is working fine. Getting a weird "Unknown Device" in the USB section of Device Manager though that wasn't there before, but I'm assuming that's referring to the devices that I still have plugged into the USB3/0 ports on the back of the machine that no longer seem to be functioning. FWIW, the error message is: "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" Device manager shows the "Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Hub," "Host Controller," and "Root Hub" all working fine with up-to-date drivers.
Is the USB fried? Anything I can do? I've gotten shocked by my mouse LOTS of times before and never had this happen. Thanks in advance!
Edit: I can confirm that power and data are still properly passing through the "dead" ports, as I am still able to light my backlit keyboard, which doesn't work through PS/2 alone, and requires a separate USB plug. Also, information is being sent via USB from my APC to windows through one of the "dead" ports, as I'm able to use the monitoring tool in realtime as always. But the ports won't recognize any mouse, game controller, headset, or any other USB device. I'm stumped!
Another edit: It seems the 2xUSB2.0 ports on the front work fine. But the USB3.0 on the front and back will pass power and data, but won't control any devices (see previous edit). Is it possible that the USB3.0 controller on the motherboard is somehow fried, but will still allow the ports to pass power and receive data? If so, would the only fix be a new motherboard?
Last edit/Solution: I'm an idiot. I've kind of figured all along it was just a build up static electricity, and that I should shut down, unplug, and hold the power button for 10 seconds to discharge. But I was also assuming that if that was the problem, the ports wouldn't work at all,m and as stated above, they were "sort of" working. Anyway, I shut down, unplugged, held the power button for 10 seconds, and voila. Everything back to normal. Moral of the story: Your first answer is usually the correct one. Oh, and ground yourself before you touch your metal mouse when you've been shuffling around on carpet...
Last edited:
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