USB Controller Help

ibky

Hey,

Recently my USB controller decided it was tired of detecting connected devices and stopped doing it. You may imagine that this makes me very sad. I checked the device manager, and there are no exclamation or question marks. I checked the properties of all the controllers and root hubs, and they all claimed to be working fine, without conflicts. I'm on Windows XP and have SP2.

Anyone have an idea of what's causing this, or what can be done? There are 4 USB ports on the back and two on the side; all refuse to cooperate. In fact, if I so much as plug something into a side port, the computer freezes half the time.

Also, on a possibly unrelated note - sometimes the computer refuses to boot normally. That is, it won't respond to having the power button pressed, and I have to unplug it from the wall and plug it back in for it to start up. Could these problems be related?

Argh. I don't know what to do. Any help is appreciated.

wunderbar

Sounds to me like your Motherboard is dying, possibly caused by a faulty power supply(although that one I'm not sure of)

Definitely sounds like your Motherboard is dying though.

DrFrylock

They could be related, or not. The fact that both sound like a problem somewhere on the motherboard doesn't necessarily mean they are. I have a computer where one of the USB ports on the board doesn't work. I don't know why. Otherwise it runs fine. The power supply could be involved, but that's a barely-educated guess.

If you're out to fix both problems, a motherboard replacement will probably be a good bet as to how to do it. Otherwise, buy a USB PCI card.

ibky

I'm not extremely tech literate, so would it be a good idea to get someone else to do the motherboard replacement, if I went that route? I've performed minor surgeries before (changing graphics card or power supply, adding RAM or a DVD drive) but replacing a motherboard sounds riskier for me. Also, would I have to get a new copy of Windows?

I'd be more confident replacing the USB card, and it's a lot cheaper. But then I worry that the booting problem might be more serious than I give it credit for. Hmm.

Thanks for the replies so far!

DrFrylock

Well, you probably don't have a USB card in your computer. You probably have a couple of ports soldered to the motherboard. If your ports ARE on a card, then the problems likely aren't related, and just replace the card. Otherwise pop in a USB PCI card that will add another controller (this one working), and if you get confused you can disable the onboard ones in your CMOS setup.

ibky

Ah, you were right, the ports are soldered onto the motherboard. I'll go pick up a USB card sometime this week.

Another question, however - now that it's apparent my motherboard is wonky, are other problems likely to continue springing up until I finally get the cash to have it replaced? Once they start to fail in one way, do they fail all over?