USB Ports Power on but Don't Function

[MDE]

My Aunt has been having problems with the USB ports on her HP\Compaq laptop, "out of the blue," USB just stopped working. When she plugs a device in, it gets power and the computer senses that there's a device there, but it can't identify the device. She has completely formatted and reinstalled Windows XP from scratch adn still has the same problem. I'm starting to think that she plugged something in that drew too much power from a USB port and blew the controller or something. Any ideas?

 

[alzan]

If it's under warranty she could probably get the systemboard replaced, which would probably cure the problem. Before going that route though, if you can get access to the laptop, boot it and go into BIOS and see what settings are available for the USB ports, it could be that one of those settings got changed and that caused the problem. If you can't get access to it, you could probably get the manual for it online and it might tell you what settings are available and you could walk her through fixing the problem.

alzan

 

[MDE]

The mouse apparently works until Windows boots up, even after a format. There aren't any settings in the BIOS that I could find that would affect USB. I'm thoroughly stumped.

 

[montag451]

Try uninstalling the USB controller in hardware devices.

See if it reinstalls itself when it reboots (should do theoretically).

post back.

 

[MDE]

I tried a Knoppix live CD and no dice, it's a hardware issue.