[SOLVED] USB ports mostly stopped working

[Eric Sokolowsky]

Several years ago, I built a computer with the H87M-ITX motherboard with the Intel i5-4670K CPU. Recently the USB ports mostly stopped working. I think it's a hardware problem because I have the machine dual booting in Windows and Linux and the USB devices don't work in either OS. But the keyboard and mouse, which are also USB devices, still work. I've tried all of the USB ports and they all show the same behavior (front USB2 and USB3, and rear USB2 and USB3). I'm using a graphics card so I can't plug in a PCI-Express USB card, since there is only one pcie slot. I have also tried to re-flash the BIOS but have not been successful, since it can't read the USB ports and the Internet Flash option in the BIOS seems to not work either. I've tried plugging in USB drives and a USB video camera into the machine without success. The same devices work fine in other machines.

Is there anything that might cause all of the USB ports to stop working at once, and is there any hope for fixing this machine? Buying a new motherboard for this old of a machine is prohibitively expense, just as expensive as buying a new modern motherboard. This machine is primarily for the kids to do school work so I'm not interested in spending a lot of money to fix it.

CPU: Intel i5-4670K
Motherboard: ASRock H87M-ITX (Mini ITX)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 8Gx2
SSD: Crucial MX500
GPU: EVGA Nvidia GTX 1050
PSU: CoolerMaster 500W (RS-500-PCAR-A3)
Case: CoolerMaster Mini ITX Elite 130
OS: Fedora 29 and Windows 10 Education

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Considering this is a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's best you include your specs for the system. Please include your system's specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Case:
OS: version for the OS if you're on Windows 10

Include the age of the PSU as well. Also check and see what version of BIOS you're on for your motherboard.

 

[Eric Sokolowsky]

I've updated the original post with more specs.

 

[Paperdoc]

This idea may or may not help. I have run into similar problems on occasion and concluded that it is possible for Windows to become totally confused about its many USB ports when people frequently disconnect and re-connect multiple USB devices. I believe it is because every time a USB device is plugged in, Windows loads its driver for that port, even though a driver already may have been loaded for a different port. Then Windows has to fugure out which device is where, and which driver is needed today, for each port. So I have a procedure to try to resolve that.

1. Go into Device Manager and systematically go through to all the USB devices and Remove them all.
2. Unplug all the USB devices from the system.
3. Shut down. Boot up with no USB devices connected, and it will give you errors about no keyboard and mouse. It also will clear out of Windows' Registry any info it has on USB devices because it has none.
4. Shut down, plug in your keyboard and mouse on the ports you plan for them, and plan not to change. Boot up and Windows will find the new devices and load the required drivers.
5. Shut down. Plug in ONE additional USB device and boot up so it is detected and its driver loaded.
6. Repeat Step 5 until you have managed to re-connect all the devices and they all work.

Now, I note that you say you have the SAME problem in Linux, and I really doubt that procedure would solve a Linux problem, but maybe. I don't know how Linux OS versions deal with device drivers.

 

[Eric Sokolowsky]

Thank you for your response. This sounds like a reasonable approach. I will try it.