USB ports dead? software or hardware?

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frankyk

Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2004
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My friends computer is a few years old and it has a MSI K7N2 MB I believe (MS 6570) and she notes that her USB ports don't work anymore. I tried reinstalling the drivers, I looked at the connections in the hardware, I installed 2 PCI USB port cards she had and nothing worked.

Basically, whenever she starts up her computer, she right clicks my computer, goes to hardware and in device manager the USB Controller Hubs and the PCI to USB Hub or whatever it's called are both question marks.

When I put a USB flash drive in the USB ports, the ports turn my sandisk drive orange for a moment and then it goes away (basically it recognizes something was plugged in but doesn't go any further than that). I don't see any icons saying new device added and I can't see my flash drive.

What do you think is wrong with this computer? At first I thought it was just purely hardware related but I think it might be software related since the ports 'recognize' that something is being plugged in but it won't go further than that. I don't think the ports are fried but I think something needs to be done also.

Any ideas?
 
Take a look in the BIOS settings for USB. There's a chance one or another got changed by a random bit glitch. You might also look to see if there's a BIOS upgrade available for the MB while you're at it.
 
frankyk said:
Basically, whenever she starts up her computer, she right clicks my computer, goes to hardware and in device manager the USB Controller Hubs and the PCI to USB Hub or whatever it's called are both question marks.
Click to expand...

This is either a driver problem, or an IRQ problem. Double click to see the properties and see why there are question makrs. The Device Status should show you the details.

Try this
1) Remove all USB Hubs/Controllers from device manager (uninstall), and Restart
2) Go into the BIOS and disable the USB controller, Save/Exit/Power off
3) Remove the PCI USB cards you added, if any
4) Boot into windows, and make sure no other USB hubs/controllers are present in device manager, restart
5) Go into the BIOS again, and enable the USB controller, save/exit
6) Boot into Windows and reinstall the chipset drivers if Windows doesnt install it for you. Make sure SP2 is installed as well.
 
i tried those methods, didn't work.

i'm not sure wtf is going on, i think i might try to flip HDs or something but anyone else have any other ideas?

i don't think the usb will work at all since the motherboard USB drivers seem corrupted which seem to be effecting the PCI USB drivers also.
 
I'd reset the cmos.
If that doesnt work, do a quick windows install on a spare hard drive and see if it can work.
If not, its likely you are either installing the wrong chipset drivers or its damaged.
 
ok, i did the spare HD method and nothing is wrong with my hardware as with a fresh windows install on another HD, the computers USB drivers are fine.

my question is now, how the hell do i roll back or get the updated drivers for this motherboard?

freaking the chipset doesn't include usb drivers, the motherboard doesn't have any usb drivers that i can find, etc.

all i need is basically a fresh install of the usb drivers/registry, and it will work, but unfortunately at this time, the ENTIRE registry is fuxed on this computer for the USB drivers, any ideas?

EDIT: mb = msi k7n2 (ms 6570)
 
Assuming that the drivers installed are correct...

In device manager, delete all USB controllers, all of them!
Unplug all USB devices.
Shut the computer off and reset the CMOS.
Reboot, make your CMOS happy then go into Windows. All the USB controllers and any remaining devices attached should be redetected.
If it works ok, you can plug your USB devices back in and they should be redetected.

You may need a PS2 keyboard or mouse to help do this.
 
If Nenu's suggestion doesnt work, proceed with a repair install of windows. Boot to the Windows XP disc. Proceed to install windows onto the same partition that already has the installation. Setup should detect the older version and ask if you'd like to repair it. Go ahead and repair it. If the option doesn't come up, something is definately screwed up with your installation and you'd need a fresh install anyhow, hehe.
 
thanks for the suggestions guys!

i finally fixed it by deleting the registry entry for usb and then restarted the computer and windows just reinstalled the usb drivers and afterwards the usb devices started working again.
 
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