My USB ports stopped working... What must I do?

Question

My father tried to plug a speaker into his laptop via USB, through some sort of cable adaptor... Long story short, when he plugged it in, his computer immediately crashed.

We were able to get his computer running again, but his USB devices (one of which is the laptop's only access to the internet). There seems to be no power going to any of these devices, the keyboard and mouse attachments included. (Fortunately, the rest of the laptop itself seems fine.) Interestingly, Device Manager sees no problems.

Rebooting/replugging had no effect. I tried a system restore, but that did not fix the UXB ports...

I would love some assistance on this matter... It's quite important for his job. Thank you!

Answer 1

He probably shorted the +5 volt USB power connection with that adapter cable and burned the trace open on the motherboard.



Short of replacing the laptop's motherboard or having a very experienced tech repair the open power circuit, he's probably out of luck.



A workaround would be to buy a USB 2.0 card that fits in the PCMCIA or Express card slot on the laptop.



Good Luck.

Answer 2

Sometimes, even if there is a problem with the USB drivers in the Device Manager it might not show.

I recommend you to reinstall USB drivers, if the problem persists then the problem might be with the USB port and laptop needs to be sent for repair.



Visit the below link for more information:



http://notebook-solutions.blogspot.com/2009/06/usb-device-does-not-work.html

Answer 3

that is unquestionably a possibility that the USB controller bit the dirt. With a reinstall of the OS ruling out any application issues that sounds like the only reason. have you ever tried reflashing / updating your BIOS?

Answer 4

if this is something for work perhaps he should talk to someone at work