USB Port Suddenly Stopped Working. Others Still Work.

[scottsmith001]

Windows XP Home OS

I have been successfully using a Sony Vaio PCG-K25 lap top for the past 3 years. About 2 weeks ago, 1 of my 3 USB ports just started to not respond. It does not recognize any device that I hook up to it. The other 2 USB ports still work… except they do not recognize my scanner anymore (Microteck 3201). The scanner has also been in use for 3 years without problems. The error message is “USB Device Not Recognized”. I get this error message (or none at all) when I plug in ANY USB device to that particular port.

I have made no changes in my computer’s software, made no updates. I did a "Roll Back" of my operating system to a date when that USB port was operating. No improvement or changes after that. The scanner works on another computer (my desktop) so I know my scanner is OK.

I have uninstalled drivers for the scanner and reinstalled them. No improvement.

My device manager has the following items listed:

NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller

NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller

Standard Enhanced PCS to USB Host

Unknown Device (Nothing is plugged into this port. Its properties say that “there are no drivers installed for this device” and the wizard is unable to find a driver or roll back to a previous driver)

USB Printing Support (I have my printer plugged in)

USB Root Hub

USB Root Hub

USB Root Hub

I don’t know what to do. I have lost 1 USB port and the other 2 ports seem to not recognize my scanner anymore. Is there a driver for the USB ports? How do I get the port (the broken one) to get its brain back?

Please help me with this problem.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

scott

 

[garebo]

One option i hear a lot is to uninstall and re-install the usb drivers. but you want to make sure you have the drivers you need.
Do you have sp2 installed? Or did you install anything before your usb starting acting up? If so you could try uninstalling that, but chances are if some program caused this then the uninstall may not fix it anyway.
So it may be that you may have to end up uninstalling the usb drivers themselves.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[scottsmith001]

SP2??

 

[scottsmith001]

Or did you install anything before your usb starting acting up?"

I have made no changes in my computer’s software, made no updates.

What are the USB drivers? Is this a system software thing or a device driver? If device driver, I have already uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers for the scanner.
I dont know how/where I get actual USB hub drivers.

 

[garebo]

sp2 is win xp service pack 2. There is service pack 1 and 2.
Usb drivers are drivers for the system. The drivers you are talking about are specific to the scanner.
Some of them will come back on their own when you reboot but i am concerned about telling you to do this.
Maybe wait til someone else comes along who can spell it out better than i can. Sorry about that. If it were my pc i would just uninstall them all and keep working at it until i got them all back, lol, but i cant tell you to do that.
Just hang in a bit.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[kiddpete]

The USB drivers are specific to your motherboard. The manufacturer should have supplied a disk which contained these and other drivers. If he didn't, you should ask your tech support how to get drivers.

One approach is to 'remove' the hardware via device manager. Then, immediately run the add hardware wizard. That should reset the drivers. If it doesn't, you will need to reinstall them from the mfgr's disk.

 

[garebo]

Seems to me, though, and i could be corrected, but in some cases i think you need sp1 installed before usb2.0 will work. Not 100% sure on that, though. If i recall i had to install sp1 to get my neo2 usb2 operating.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[scottsmith001]

garebo and kiddpete:

Thanks for the response.

I have Service Pack 2. Sorry, i didnt understand sp2.

Last night, I also reinstalled the USB drivers "5.1.2600.1106" which were included in Service Pack 2 and the latest Windows critical update.

No change. I am now going to see if Sony has the drivers I need specifically for my Vaio's USB and motherboard.

Any more ideas from anyone?

 

[garebo]

Yes, go to sony and find support and downloads for your specific unit.
Personally, if i didnt have the stuff for this I would download everything that is there for your laptop and install only what you need.
You may very well find usb drivers there and you may also find a bios update that i would suggest you do. If you havent done bios upgrades we will help you, its fairly easy, you just have to make sure you are using wall power and dont pull the cord out of the wall during bios upgrade.
Download the bios upgrade and the instructions and the bios flasher as well, it could be ami or phoenix or award, whatever.
There may even be more than one bios upgrade, i would dload them all but install the newest.
Also, burn all the stuff you dload to a cd.
Sorry, dont mean to be telling you what to do, these are suggestions only.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[paparazi]

Everybody seems to have overlooked the obvious and most common cause of a single USB port going down.

Physical damage to the USB connection.

With constant in out pins get bent, the socket gets strained, if you look at the port closely you will probably see that one or more of the connections are bent or not protruding to make proper contact.

Pull out the mains lead and battery, arm yourself with a small terminal screwdriver and large sewing needle, now re-align and bend back into shape the port earthing shrowd and connection pins etc look at a good port and compare.
Martin

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