USB ports stopped working, please help!

[mdrollas]

My sister wanted to use a Motorola picture/ringtone software but found out it the software doesn't work with SP2. She then tried to uninstall SP2 and the machine wouldn't boot propoerly (there is a blue screen in start up saying some files are missing and the missing files must be reinstalled). Anyways, I formated the HD and installed a fresh copy of XP (sp1 then downloaded and installed sp2 ) and discovered the usb ports wouldn't work. None of them. Can anyone help? Thanks

Dell 400SC (intel 875p mobo), 2.8ghz, 1g ram, 80gb Hitachi HD, Radeon 9100 video card.

Thanks

 

[Dahak]

The first thing I would check is if you have installed the chipset drivers for the i875 motherboard. the latest are available Here
If you have done that, check in device manager and see if there are any unknown usb controllers. if so uninstall them and install the chipset drivers linked above, and reboot. If you have SP1 or higher installed, it will install the proper usb 2.0 drivers for the ports.

 

[mdrollas]

Thank you for your advice

I did go into device manager and on one of the usb root hub thing there was a yellow question mark beside it. I uninstalled it and re-installed the intel driver. Upon restart, the computer automatically reintalled the driver for the usb root hub, but still non of the USB device I plugged in worked. (a flash drive, webcam and a USB wifi adapter) I can see the usb ports are POWERED, so I guess its not a hardware problem?

thanks again!

 

[mdrollas]

My attemps to fix it
1st. Downloaded Intel's newest Mobo driver - doesn't work
2nd. Uninstalled all the USB device in device manager - doesn't work
3rd. Flashed with newest BIOS - doesn't work

The usb ports can power the device (cuz I can see the lights blinking on my flash drive) but WinXp won't recongnize it.

Thanks a million for any suggestions

 

[cecco]

I had that happen to me once after I selected the Turbo option on my Soyo motherboard. It turns out that the BIOS disabled my on board USB controller. All I had to do was enable it again and everything worked fine.

 

[mdrollas]

Turns out the USB controller chip on the mobo was dead. The cell phone data cable sent a current to the chip and killed it. Called dell and they RMAed me a new mobo overnight.

thanks for all the help