USB ports on computer at work are not recognizing things plugged in

[Inchworm]

"Device Unrecognized" or something to that effect is the pop-up warning.

It isn't new things I'm plugging in either. It won't recognize printer, card reader, cameras, etc.

It WILL however recognize a Kodak camera when attached.

Running fully updated Windows XP. Kodak Easyshare is what picks up the camera. I use Fuji's FinePixViewer to edit pictures and it has something running in background that monitors ports I think.

Any ideas? I don't go back in until Tuesday, so I have time to read up on it.

:shrug:

Thanks

:hi:

[SKKY]

1. Here's what I might try...

First, are your keyboard and mouse USB? If so, and they're both working working, it may only require a simple reboot, but before you do, disconnect every USB device from the computer prior to rebooting. Once you're back up, reconnect each device one by one. If that doesn't work, give the below a shot. One thing about the below steps, if it's a work computer, your system policy my not allow you to access the Device Manager tab. If that's the case, you'll need to contact whoever manages your network or computers.

...Start--> Settings--> Control Panel--> System--> Then select the Hardware tab, then select the first button below that, Device Manager. Uninstall everything USB by right clicking and selecting remove or uninstall (except the mouse and keyboard of course), and reboot. If this doesn't work, let us know what indications you get and we can go from there. Good luck!

[ChromeFoundry]

2. Could your network admins

setup policies on your workstations so that you cannot use USB thumb drives to copy files? This is very common in places that must secure data. Maybe you should check with your Network Administrator...Do devices work on other workstations in the office?

[Inchworm]

3. Just so ya's know

It is the computer where I volunteer/work that was basically pieced together by me. Crazy huh? :P

(By pieced together I mean hard-drive swapping, CDRoms, etc.. no "guts" guts.)

The mouse and keyboard are circle connections and not USB.

I did the whole uninstall/reinstall through device manager thing with no change.

The main things that suck are now we have no printer and in order for me to upload dog/cat pics from my Fuji I have to swap the memory stick dealy from my camera to a kodak camera.

I was thinking. About the time it died our "CFO" came in on an off day to install an Intuit package, so we could maintain office information from there that jived with Quickbooks. I don't know if that has anything to do with anything... just tossing it out there.

Yhanks again guys!

:yourock:

[Inchworm]

4. Still no go.. do USB ports "go bad" ?

:)

[struggle4progress]

5. There are probably many possibilities:

A OS can disable a USB port because it draws too much current. This problem once drove me crazy on a dual-boot machine because one OS had no problem with the devices I was connecting through a hub to a single port, whereas the other OS silently objected to the current level in that port and disabled it. So if you're using a hub, try disconnecting devices from it. BTW, in my dual boot set-up, one OS recognizes ALL the USB ports, but the other OS recognizes only SOME of them: grrr!

I don't know if this is relevant but it might be. We got new computers at work once, and after a couple of months the floppy drives began to fail. Boss was getting replacement drives left and right. Real problem? Nothing to do with the drives: the batteries were cheap and funky; erratic battery performance screwed up BIOS settings, and the machines couldn't recognize the drives. For a month or so, while I waited for my new battery, I spent 3 or 4 minutes a day resetting the 9066@## BIOS

Just found this one in the googles: "In XP, after a USB port isn't used for a long while the USB driver built into the OS sets the OHCI controller to suspend. When you plug a device back in, it can sometimes fail to 'wake up' properly. This problem was supposedly fixed in SP1 but there is a related registry hack that may still be able to help" http://www.ntcompatible.com/Desperately_need_help_---_USB_Devices_Not_Recognized_t32356.html

[HappyCynic]

6. Front or rear usb?

Are they front or rear usb ports? (Or a hub plugged into the front or rear ports?) At my workplace, a couple years ago, we found that on some motherboards, the front usb ports weren't properly grounded. With a bit of static electricity build-up, it was possible to get a short and fry the motherboard just by plugging something in to the front ports. I'm not sure how widespread the problem was (or if some motherboards are still affected).

[Inchworm]

7. all rear

And we plug stuff in often. If static electricity is an issue.. it coulda happened.

:hi: