USB Ports not working

[HelplessNewbie]

The USB Ports on my Laptop have stopped working overnight. And not just one, all four of them and the one the TV-card connects to. It shouldn't be a driver problem because they appear in the Device Manager just fine, it's just that nothing I connect to the USB port is recognized (no reaction from Win XP at all, devices don't appear anywhere).
Reinstalling Windows didn't fix anything either. Is this a hardware problem? I'm quite confused, because the USB ports still have power supply (devices with LEDs turn on when connected, but other than that, no reaction).

 

[letsgetsilly]

Have you tried running in safemode? I believe safemode will continue to recognize USB devices despite turning off all extraneous apps. That might be able to tell you if you've got a hardware or software problem.

 

[cprince]

Try removing all entries under "Universal Serial Bus Controller" in device manager, then scan for hardware changes and reboot.

 

[HelplessNewbie]

I've tried both but it doesn't change anything. In Safe Mode same thing as in Normal Mode. And removing all USB entries just makes Windows reinstall them on the next startup, without any complaints, but unfortunately without any effect either.

 

[XxPrOdiGyxX]

Originally posted by: HelplessNewbie
The USB Ports on my Laptop have stopped working overnight. And not just one, all four of them and the one the TV-card connects to. It shouldn't be a driver problem because they appear in the Device Manager just fine, it's just that nothing I connect to the USB port is recognized (no reaction from Win XP at all, devices don't appear anywhere).
Reinstalling Windows didn't fix anything either. Is this a hardware problem? I'm quite confused, because the USB ports still have power supply (devices with LEDs turn on when connected, but other than that, no reaction).

If nothing seems to be working, I typically use a live cd for either Ubuntu or Knoppix and see if the drivers load correctly. A few times I have been able to diagnose a usb controller failure with this because it will outright tell you if something is fishy with the controller during the boot sequence.

 

[tehach]

Your problem sounds different, but my wife's laptop once had a problem whenever a USB device was inserted or removed. The computer didn't totally freeze (the touchpad was still active), but would no longer respond to mouse clicks. It had to be cold-booted to cure, then would start all over again with any change in a USB device.

I searched and found that a corrupt Windows Automatic Update might be the culprit. So the fix I used was:

Verify Windows Update Service Settings

* Click on Start, Run and type the following command in the open box and click OK

services.msc

* Find the Automatic Updates service and double-click on it.
* Click on the Log On Tab and make sure the "Local System Account" is selected as the logon account and the box for "allow service to interact with desktop" is UNCHECKED.
* Under the Hardware Profile section in the Log On Tab, make sure the service is enabled.
* On the General Tab, the Startup Type should be Automatic, if not, drop the box down and select Automatic.
* Under "Service Status" on the General tab, the service should be Started, click the Start button enable it.
* Repeat the steps above for the service "Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)"

Re-Register Windows Update DLLs

* Click on Start, Run, and type CMD and click ok
* In the black command window type the following command and press Enter

REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL

* Wait until you receive the "DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded" message and click OK
* Repeat the last two steps above for each of the following commands:

REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL

Remove Corrupted Windows Update Files

* At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter

net stop WuAuServ
* Still at the command prompt, type

cd c:\WINDOWS
and press Enter
* In the opened folder, type the following command and press Enter to rename the SoftwareDistribution Folder

ren SoftwareDistribution SD_OLD
* Restart the Windows Update Service by typing the following at the command prompt

net start WuAuServ

* type Exit and Press Enter to close the command prompt

Reboot Windows

* click on Start, Shut Down, and Restart to reboot Windows XP

So this is a long shot for your problem. It resolved the problem I was troubleshooting but might be different than what you are experiencing.

 

[TeacherTim2]

tehach:
Thanks for this post...it solved my problem from over here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=32&threadid=2062529

Wonder how many other people have had USB issues due to bad Windows Update installs...