10 tips to fix dead USB port
Did
you plug a USB drive into your computer yesterday, but today it doesn't
show up? Yet that drive works in the other USB ports on your computer.
The problem may be the port! This is one of those computer issues that
happens so rarely, we tend to blame the USB drive itself; just plug it
in somewhere else and carry on.
However, USB
devices are still on the rise in popularity and show no signs of slowing
down. USB flash drives, USBgers for your phone, USB to connect your
iPod, USB coffee warmers, USB is everywhere! So you NEEDyour ports
working. Here's what you can do to check out your USB port and some tips
on fixing it.
Physical examination
The
first thing that you want to do is to see if the USB port is physically
damaged. A simple test is to put your USB Flash Drive into the port and
see if it wiggles up and down really easily. Be gentle doing this! You
don't want to create a hardware problem if you don't already have one.
If you're not sure how sturdy the USB port should be, do the same thing
in a port that you know works and compare the two. If it is definitely
loose, you'll probably want to move right to the end of this articlewe
talk about dealing with USB port hardware issues. If not, follow the
steps we have here.
Restart computer
Before
you get carried away with Device Manager, try the old tech support
standby - turn it off and turn it on again. Sometimes that works by
forcing the operating system to scan for hardware,the USB port, and
makes it work again. If that doesn't work, then it's time to get into
Device Manager.
Check Device Manager
You can launch
the Device Manager in a few different ways, but here's the quickest
one: Click on the Start menu and type devmgmt.msc then hit Enter. Device
Manager should start up right away. You'll see the following window:
Device
Manager: Device Manager showsthe categories of devices that can be
installed in your computer. At this point in time, you want to look at
the Universal Serial Bus controllers entries. Click on the arrow head to
expand the selection. You will see somethingthe window below:
USB
controllers: This might not make much sense to you, but there is some
useful information here. Seeit says Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series
Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller? That is the specific type
of USB Host Controller for my computer. The key words are USB Host
Controller. Find those in your Device Manager. If you cannot find any,
this may be our problem.
Click on the Scan for
hardware changes button in the toolbar. You can see it highlighted in
the image below. This will force your computer to checkof your hardware
again. If you're lucky, this will pick up the USB port, and you'll see a
USB Host Controller in the list. If not, then the problem isn't fixed
yet.
Scan for hardware changes:here, things
get a little tougher. You'll still be working in Device Manager for now.
If you are working with a desktop computer, with your mouse and
keyboard plugged into USB ports, you may need to manually force a
restart with the following steps. Uninstalling the USB Host Controllers
will disable your USB devices.
Under the
Universal Serial Bus controllers heading, you will right-click on the
first USB Host Controller. That will bring up a small menuthis one:
Uninstall
USB host controllers: Click on Uninstall. Repeat that process for any
remaining USB Host Controller. Now restart the computer. This will force
the computer to poll for these controllers and, hopefully, pick up the
one that isn't responding.
While you're in the
Device Manager, did it seemthere were an awful lot of devices installed
that might no longer be in your computer? Sometimes the drivers stay
lingering on your computer, long after the device is gone. This is a
good time to clean those out, and we have just the article on easily
removing old driversWindows.
Did that work for you? No? Let's go deeper then.
Disable
Selective Suspend feature: The USB Selective Suspend Feature is a power
saving setting in Windows. What it does is suspend power being sent to a
USB device, in order to save battery life of the computer. This is a
good feature in theory, but on rare occasions the feature does not wake
up the USB Device. If that's the case, then it would appear that your
port is dead. You can disable the USB Selective Suspend Feature through a
registry key. It's a good idea to do this on any computer that always
has power to it, such as a server or desktop computer. You might not
want to do this with your laptop, but if you do, you'll be able to turn
it on again easily.
To get to the Registry
Editor, click on Start and then enter regedit in the Search box and hit
your Enter key. The Registry Editor window will open. It looksthis, if
you haven't seen it before:
Registry Editor:
Navigate to the Disable Selective Suspend key by clicking on
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, then Current Control Set, then
services, then USB.it says Disable Selective Suspend in the right-hand
window, right-click and click Modify. In the Value Data field enter the
number 1. This will disable the selective suspend feature and power will
go to your USB ports constantly.
If the USB
key doesn't exist in your registry, it's easy to create it. Just
navigate to the services key, and in the toolbar click on Edit > New
> Key. Call it USB.
Edit New Key: In the
USB key, right-click in the right-hand window. You'll only have the New
option. Click on that and DWORD (32-bit) Value. It may just be called
DWORD Value on your system. Name the new value Disable Selective
Suspend. Justabove, right-click and click Modify. In the Value Data
field enter the number
1. There! You have disabled the selective suspend feature. You may need to restart your computer for the setting to be applied.
This
is a good time to mention that if you ever feel the need to block your
USB portsworking, there is a tool to help with that. It's called USB
Manager and we have a short article on how it works.
Is your dead USB port working now? No? Then you might well consider that the USB port is physically damaged.
Fix
damaged hardware: If it's still not working, it may very well be a
hardware issue. USB ports are pretty fragile and USB Flash Drives can
act as levers on them, wreaking havoc on the electrical connectors
inside. This is seen very often in laptops,the user will pack up the
laptop and not disconnect the USB Flash Drive. It can usually be fixed.
The takeaway
There
are several ways to try to repair your USB port. Hopefully, it's just
operating system or driver related as that's the easiest and cheapest
fix. Don't dismay if it is a hardware problem - those can be fixed
fairly simply and inexpensively too. The point is, it can be fixed.
