Question Some USB devices are not detected anymore in Windows 10. How to troubleshoot?

Tony Henrich

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Mar 18, 2014
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I have a USB flash drive and a USB headset that used to work on my Windows 10 and not anymore. I have another USB Flash drive which works but the other flash drive doesn't work on the same port. I have tried all the other free USB ports (6 of them) and none detected these devices. Device Manager doesn't show any warnings. The headset doesn't show up under 'Audio inputs and outputs' nor under 'Sound, video and game controllers'. These two devices work fine on another computer. Also when I boot Windows, sometimes the keyboard doesn't work and if I reboot again it works, even though the keyboard does work in the multiboot menu and the BIOS when I have the keyboard issue not working inside Windows. This suggests the keyboard issue is related to Windows? I have updated all the drivers in Windows using Driver Easy tool but this didn't help anything.

I am not sure if this is a motherboard issue with USB ports going flaky or it's a Windows issue where a Windows update caused issues. I tried 'good' ports where other USB devices work fine with these two devices and they still weren't detected. The MB is about 4-5 years old. I was thinking of getting another same MB but I have to be certain it's the MB issue and not Windows.
The MB is Asus X79-Deluxe on Windows 10 build 17763.437

Any ideas?
 
what brand headset is it? Since its USB it might have software you are meant to run with it?

I am not sure how you troubleshoot a USB drive, I have one that stopped working with one install of windows 10, and yet same USB now works on that PC after I clean installed windows earlier this year.

Also when I boot Windows, sometimes the keyboard doesn't work and if I reboot again it works,

this does indicate a driver problem but its easily solved, turn off Fast startup
what it shows is a driver in PC isn't built to cope with the new WIn 10 power modes.

Unlike other versions of windows, when you turn PC off with Win 10 installed, it doesn't turn off. It goes into a hibernate state, the computer puts a copy of all open drivers + the windows kernel into ram, so when you start PC up, its already half loaded and provided drivers built for mode, PC is much faster to load on restart.

There are Asmedia USB drivers that might help on the Asus web site. https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/X79DELUXE/HelpDesk_Download/
Win 10 does have USB drivers built in but these might help solve issues. Or you have them already... might want to run Driverview (set it to hide windows drivers) to see if you have this installed already
 
what brand headset is it? Since its USB it might have software you are meant to run with it?

I am not sure how you troubleshoot a USB drive, I have one that stopped working with one install of windows 10, and yet same USB now works on that PC after I clean installed windows earlier this year.



this does indicate a driver problem but its easily solved, turn off Fast startup
what it shows is a driver in PC isn't built to cope with the new WIn 10 power modes.

Unlike other versions of windows, when you turn PC off with Win 10 installed, it doesn't turn off. It goes into a hibernate state, the computer puts a copy of all open drivers + the windows kernel into ram, so when you start PC up, its already half loaded and provided drivers built for mode, PC is much faster to load on restart.

There are Asmedia USB drivers that might help on the Asus web site. https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/X79DELUXE/HelpDesk_Download/
Win 10 does have USB drivers built in but these might help solve issues. Or you have them already... might want to run Driverview (set it to hide windows drivers) to see if you have this installed already

No software is needed to run with the headset. It runs fine on another computer without software. I haven't modern headsets needing software.

Disabling fast startup didn't help. Also if worked before when fast startup was on, why these devices would suddenly stop? Unless fast startup itself changed in how it works.

Anyway I installed a second Windows on the same machine and pretty much it behaved the same way. Which means it's most probably a hardware issue.
 
was the 2nd version of windows, 10 again?

I don't want to say its the motherboard but windows really doesn't have any control over if USB ports work before it starts.

curious if booting off an Ubuntu live USB and seeing if USB devices are seen by it will tell us anything. If 2 different operating systems can't get USB to work, its likely the motherboard

Which bios are you on? latest is 4805, there are only 3 on the list though. It might help.