Or is it 5? Do I count the hill of mutant ants I ran into when trying to clear the corner for the new shrubs?
And do we go by my calendar…which says it’s not tomorrow until you’ve been to bed? Or does the new day start at midnight.
After posting last night, I walked into the office to reinstall the AVG antivirus software so I could sleep soundly…wiggled my trackball to get the screen saver to quit. And nothing happened. I tapped the keyboard. Got my screen back. But there was no reaction to the trackball.
8:13 AM PT Yipes. CJ’s already posted. I do need help. Badly. Give me a minute to finish composing this. I’m operating on very little sleep so the typos are rampant.
So…back to problem. What it boils down to is…my USB ports have gone spontaneously dead. I replaced my USB trackball with my older PS2 trackball, so I have functionality, but no printer, scanner or any other USB device. I have:
1) checked all the devices on another computer. They’re all functioning properly.
2) uninstalled and reinstalled the USB ports…several times. The computer seems to think the ports are functioning properly, but I can’t get anything to work.
3) I’ve checked the internet, found nothing beyond what I’ve already checked except for a registry fix which I’m disinclined to try since the discussion in question was dealing with a Win2K machine and I’m XP.
It could be a mobo problem, but I’m not really inclining that way, since right before it happened, I’d been doing a lot of installing and uninstalling and rerecognizing of scanners which are notoriously problematic creatures. I’m wondering if somehow I’ve screwed up the … shoot, what to do they call them? It’s been too long since I’ve had to mess with them…IRQs? Please…if anyone has any notions, I’m so tired at the moment I can’t think straight. I was up until, I dunno, four or five in the AM trying to sort this out.
…has never been more appropriate!
P.S. I did remember to install the AVG software.
Oh…additional info: the devices are not even being recognized. Nothing is showing up in device manager when the USB devices are connected and I don’t get that “ding dong” sound that a device has been connected.
In my poking and prodding around device manager, I say something called the “Plug and Play software device enumerator. Anyone know what that is?
I’ve found this in the internet, of course ;), it seems to be useful.
It uses the regedit tool but imho it is harmless.
First step, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Create a restore point and name it something like “Before USB Fix”. This is to bail you out if something goes wrong during the following process and makes things worse.
Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG
————————– Use text after this line ——————————–
REGEDIT4
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]”DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES”=”1″
————————– Use text before this line ——————————–
Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.
Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn’t uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.
When this is done, reboot TWICE.
Reconnect the USB devices and see if they’re recognized properly.
NOTE: If you have a USB keyboard and/or mouse, you’ll have to modify the instructions and leave enough parts for those to function. I don’t have one yet, so I haven’t had time to modify the instructions.
Thanks. If it turns out the ports are working, I’ll try this. Playing with the registry doesn’t freak me. Haven’t done it with XP before, but I did it with 98 quite a bit. If you make a mistake…that’s why gawd invented backups! :D
I have a USB trackball…it was my first indication of just wrong everything had gone and is what I use to see if the USB port had resurrected. I’m using an old PS2 at the moment.
First step is to shut down computer and then unplug it from the wall for a few minutes. Then plug it back in and restart and see what happens.
Yup. Excellent advice. It was the first thing I tried, but it’s always good to be reminded. Thanks
I found this on the Microsoft Technet Forum. It has a wizard that might help? You’ve already done part of what the article says to do.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900
Another question: Are you getting any error messages?
Nope. Nothing. Not even the “ding dong” sound of a USB port being connected. Everything was running fine. I went to my laptop to update the site, came in and blooey. Nothing worked. I really don’t get it.
Now, the 3570 scanner that was at least coming alive and recognized on my Dell laptop has gone totally silent.
Anyway…going to check out the site. Thanks!
I’m totally no help to you. I think those things still run on smoke, mirrors and hamsters on treadmills.
But I did ask somewhere close by and a very nice person said this: My personal response to such a problem would be to install a PCI card which provides separate USB ports: I would suspect a hardware problem, not a software problem.
Thanks. I actually have one of those. I have six USB ports on the machine. Two native to the MOBO, two inthe front that came with the lava lamp case and two in the back that are an added card. They all went out at once.
You know…it wasn’t a PCI card. I thought it was. It was USB ports that plugged right into the MOBO, so a PCI card might work. I’ll look into one of those. Thanks!
I also suspect a hardware problem. We do frequent (daily or hourly) backups to a network server and keep an Intel-based iMac around as an emergency fallback machine. It’s set up using Bootcamp to run Windows XP if any of the Windows machines fail in addition to standing in for the Macintosh machines.
Have you done a check to see if maybe a slightly changed filename exists for the tax data? Something beginning with a ~ usually is a giveaway, and if there’s any way to see that, renaming it to its original name “might” bring it back. I don’t know if that’ll work, but it seems mmberry has a good link. I hope it works.
Oh, we have the tax data. Just no printer access. The computer’s not dead (yet) I’m working on it now. It’s only the USB ports that seem to have wiped out. I set the printer up on a laptop that’s in the network and pointed the desktop to it and we got the tax stuff done, but I’ve still got the problem. Hope that site of MM’s works! Going there now.
Thanks!
Phew, well, at least you have the tax data, so Carolyn can stop panicking, and you can continue troubleshooting.
Is there a USB section on the BIOS screen at computer startup (not sure whether your computer would be F1 or Del or the other variants for entering)? I deliberately disabled some of my USB ports on the BIOS on one of my computers because I was trying to use too many IRQs and periodically had my multi-function cause the computer to BSoD.
- S
I haven’t seen any posts since 1234 so I don’t know if you guys are still fighting the Good Fight… howsomever, something which works for me occasionally is to do a true shutdown/cold start. This is useful on both laptops and desktops, BTW. Shut down normally, then unplug the beast (in the case of laptops, remove ALL batteries). Press & hold the power button for 30 seocnds. Now plug back in/reinstall batteries for laptops ansd start up normally. Neither desktops nor laptops actually power down fully when shut down. The above drains all retained power in the system and sort of “blows its nose” (pardon the techspeak!). If your laptop has a ‘reset’ button, it does the same thing. This may properly reload your USB drivers, which seem to be at the heart of the adventure. The timing of this seems not coincidental–I doubt hardware problems unless you let the smoke out of something whilst fixing the scanner issue–always a possibility, but IMO doubtful.
Good luck!
Jeff.
Hold it down after unplugging? Intrusting. Seriously intrusting. That’s a new one on me. I’ll go in and try this one before going to bed. It’s one that will either work or not.
thanks
Oh, meant also to say: CJ asked about ‘numeration.’ This is a process during startup of the USB drivers where it “calls the roll.” Devices which are plugged in are supposed to chime in and get their noses counted. Even though USB is hot-pluggable, a problem in numeration can cause problems later.
Jeff
Again very intrustin’. USB is quite a technology. It manifests as such a simple thing, and when I think of how long I’ve just assumed they’ll work and they have…obviously, when they go wrong, they go very wrong.
Can you post a picture of your device manager? I have a few ideas, but I’d like to see what the status of your devices are, so if you can expand each of the categories that would be great.
let me see about this tomorrow. There’s nothing really showing up there. No question marks no nothing. At least as far as the USB devices are concerned and the USB controllers are happy as ticks. But I’ll do that.
Starters: shut down the computer, unplug the power cord, wait a minute or two, turn it back on and reboot–this actually worked for several people.
Have you tried reinstalling/updating the drivers? Could you possibly have removed them when you were uninstalling the scanner software?
Have you told Device Manager to show hidden devices (under View), or are they still not showing up even when not hidden? Have you uninstalled all the devices in USB Controllers, Storage Volumes, and yellow question marks with entries, and then rebooted TWICE?
some similar problems:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/29406305/usb-ports-problem.aspx
Suggests: entering BIOS on startup, disabling USBs and then re-enabling them again from BIOS, same as Sandor suggests. Also gave warnings about registry cleaners causing trouble—better to manually edit/remove the specific problem entries than to use a wholesale registry cleaner.
http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-xp/usb-port-not-detected-by-windows-xp/141452.html
Suggests: BIOS dis/enable again; if that doesn’t work, make sure you have updated versions of the BIOS and EFI files; could be a hardware failure with the actual USB controller chips or connections (which would suck).
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=101&threadID=219129&start=0
(has a bunch of threads on similar problems; I just read one)
Best of luck!
Lots of useful suggestions. I honestly didn’t find a real USB reference in the bios. I know it has to be there, but I’ve got to get into this when I have a clear head. I’ve been operating on a whole two hours of bad sleep. I did flash it with the newest stable version.
More tomorrow everyone. I can’t thank you enough!
When crisis is over I have a question about getting
computer parts with lava lamps.(???)
Tee Hee…check out my old journal entry:
http://www.janefancher.com/htmfiles/boxes/WriteBox/journalDec.htm
I hope things are all better now. Have the issues been discovered and dispatched?
I wish… I think the mobo is on its way out of this world. It’s only a year old. Grrr….When it dies, I think I’ll go back to building my own.
This may be a slightly left field suggestion, but if you can borrow/download a Linux LIVE CD, it will boot and run from the CD drive without touching the C: Drive.
If linux sees all your USB ports, the problem is Windows. It is safe, running completely from the CD and a re-boot will take you back to the standard boot up again.
The most friendly is probably Ubuntu:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
or Mint:
http://linuxmint.com/
Mint looks a little more Windows-ish but both should show the hardware is working. It will also probably run the scanner from the LIVE CD
Regards, Phil S.
Perfect! That’s exactly what I need to know. I want to go try it right now, but I’m afraid I’d get into another all nighter. I’ll try it tomorrow for sure. Thanks!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900/en-us
I found this, a possible answer to disappearing USB ports. I’m not sure if it will help you, or if you like editing the registry, but maybe its not a hardware/mobo issue at least. Good Luck!
My apologies, I didn’t dive deeply enough into posted comments and thus posted redundantly. Feel free to delete these comments.
But I do sincerely wish you luck with your computer.
No problem! Redundancy is fine. Thanks so much for taking the time to look and post. I need all the help I can get! :D
Sorry I didn’t get on here sooner — your admin emails for registering here went straight to my spambox.
The enumerator is where all the rest of the ports branch out from. You need that installed and functioning as well.
Uninstalling and reinstalling the USB ports within the Device Manager won’t help if the existing drivers were somehow corrupted. If you have the driver disk for the motherboard, reinstall from there. Failing that, google your mobo manufacturer’s website and download fresh mobo drivers from there.
If that doesn’t work then the ports themselves got fried somehow, and you’ll need a pci card.
ElderGod,I love your books! Jane,while you’re poking
around,if you should see my Firefox start page would
you spank it and send it home? It ran away 2 days ago
and I can’t find it.
Oh, dear! Isn’t it a URL?
there are 2 versions of the usb standard
What machine do you have XP i get
need manufacture for board and for BIOS
when i installed my software on my computer Intel based home build there was a chipset instalation that recognized usb devises after the xp instal
in bios is there a setting for plug and play OS
if set the wrong way the bios configure devices and windows does nothing
Bill
cj may have my direct email i sent her a message a while back about helping with computers
i can’t post my email here email me i have free long distance
MCSE A+ since 1998
Thanks so much for the offer. I might well take you up on it!
I checked in the bios and the PnP was off. I tried resetting it, and that’s when I got the blue screen of death.
Also, when I mistakenly “fixed” the wrong version of XP (Long ago, I copied my previous HDD onto a backup on the system and have since deleted most of the files. WinXP repair went in and repaired that installation!) I had to reinstall the chipset. That didn’t fix the problem. Since I’m now running off a different installation, I’m actually inclining toward a spontaneous hardware combustion, even lacking pops and smoke special effects.
But I haven’t had a major computer problem to play with for a while, and never with so many helpful suggestions. I’ve now put this down as valuable learning experience.
Ah, what a difference a good night’s sleep makes.
Oh, I forgot…USB 2 and an Asus m2nbp-vm csm Mobo with um…I think a Phoenix-Award bios, but I’m running off memory here.
Jane, after you finish spanking Azure’s Firefox start page, could you please return OSGuy’s hammer? After you are done using it on your compy, I need to try it on mine.
My compy started having troubles *again* last night. After several freezes and re-boots, and not posessing said hammer, I finally gave up and went to bed. Will try JCrow’s complete shut-down / unplug trick.
Oh, noooooo! The virtual swines are out in force! Everyone put on face masks.
Isn’t that the machine you just did a total reformat on? Want me to come take a look? Maybe I can mess yours up as much as I’ve messed mine up!
A great deal of this is way over my head so I hope you won’t mind a low-tech suggestion. I was having strange computer trouble a while back and it cleared up completely after I blew the dust out of the case. Just one more thing to try/rule out, hope it helps!
Yay! nero will do an ISO. No need for yet one more program confusing my poor brain!
Jane,
You probably already thought of quick workaround on your printing needs: hook up printer to another computer such as one of the laptops on the housenet and then share the printer out from within windows. That should enable your sick computer to print over the network at least even without the USB.
I know you guys (women that is) are fairly good about hanging onto install disks, but I could see how some of the tax and other software might only be installed on the desktop…
- S
Hmmm…I was answering, then it disappeared. Wonder where it will show up. The magic of computers strikes again.
thanks! That’s exactly what I did. Unfortunately, I failed to let Carolyn know and she didn’t want to bother me with another problem. Communication is a wonderful thing. :D But we did get the taxes done.
I hang onto everything…including multiple copies of downloads…then end up redownloading anyway because I can’t find what I need! :D I have two XP Pro install disks, one for the desktop, one for upgrading my laptop. I tried so hard to keep them separate and actually filed the desktop’s to keep them straight. Then…could I find the file? Of course not. Fortunately, another set of eyes, CJ’s found it right where I thought I’d put it (for once.)
The tax software is on two computers but all the current stuff was on the one that broke. Naturally. :D