Using USB ports on computers and laptops has many advantages, since they can be used to connect additional peripheral equipment or external storage media. But it is often possible to meet situations when one or even all of the USB ports on a computer do not work. What is the reason for such a problem and how to solve it by the simplest methods, if only it is not a physical breakdown, then we will consider.
USB ports do not work: possible situations and causes
Let's start with the simplest. Suppose one port is not functioning. Indeed, the cause may be physical damage to it. But after all, due to the same impact, absolutely all available ports cannot fail. We do not take into account situations with a short to the case, since the appearance of such moments is extremely unlikely. From here the simplest conclusion suggests itself: a failure occurred somewhere at the software level. But on which one? As practice shows, among the possible causes of this phenomenon, the most common are the following:
- Disabled port controller state
- Obsolete or missing driver
- Incorrect USB configuration parameters in BIOS;
- automatic shutdown of devices to save power consumption.
What should I do if only one port fails?
So, based on the above reasons, we will look for a solution for each specific case. Consider a situation where USB ports do not work on Windows 7 or in any other modifications. What can be done first?
First, you need to call the standard "Device Manager" and go to the USB controllers section in it. Please note that there may be several identical devices (Generic USB Hub, USB root hub, etc.) in the list. If some USB ports do not work, you need to check each controller through the PCM menu for its on state.
If any of the devices is turned off, it should be turned on using the appropriate item. Please note that this activation option may not work, if only because the device was not initially turned on in the primary input / output system. This will not be said directly, but in the descriptive part in the properties of the controller it will be indicated that the device is not connected, although the user can be firmly convinced of the opposite.
Controller Driver Update
But the situations can be completely different, therefore, if some USB ports do not work on a laptop or a stationary computer terminal, even after turning on the controllers responsible for them, it makes sense to check the status of the driver.
Unfortunately, the “Device Manager”, in fact, like the whole Windows system, never signals such things, so you will have to manually check the release date of the currently used control software.
But even if you find that the drivers used are too old, and that’s why USB ports do not work, there is no point in updating them using the system’s system (anyway, there is nothing new in its database, and in the end you will receive a message that the most suitable driver is already installed).
In such cases, it is better to immediately turn to the help of automated programs for finding and updating drivers like Driver Booster. In this way, you will update the drivers for the described controllers, and for the rest of the equipment.
Note: the system can only indicate a broken or missing driver, marking the corresponding device with a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark. This will be a direct signal that necessary software must be installed for the device to function correctly.
Power check
Another reason that USB ports do not work (one or more) in Windows may be that there is a power limit for using USB devices, when the device simply shuts down for reasons of economy.
To correct the situation, in the properties of each existing Generic USB Hub device on the power management tab, uncheck the box to enable it to be disabled, and then save the changes.
What to do if USB ports do not work (none of them are available)?
However, the problem can be much more serious. Separately, it is worth considering a situation where, even after completing all the above steps, the USB ports still do not work, and none of the available ones. This situation suggests that their use is disabled at the primary level in the BIOS. To fix the problem, at startup you should enter the BIOS settings and use the USB Configuration parameters, which are usually located in the Advanced options section.
If at least one component is set to Disabled, you need to enable it (set the Enabled parameter for it), save the changes on exit (F10), and after restarting the computer, check the operability of the ports that were previously not functioning.
Removing USB controller drivers
Finally, let's see what measures can be taken if options for working with power, replacing drivers, or turning on devices using various methods did not give the expected result. In such a situation, one can act, it is believed, quite tough by removing through the "Task Manager" from the system absolutely all devices that have at least the slightest relation to USB.
Indeed, this can be done without problems. But keep in mind that with such actions, the same USB mice or keyboards will immediately stop working. This is normal, and there is nothing wrong with such a situation. Next, you will need to reboot the system (sometimes it will be necessary to forcefully do this using a long press on the power button), but when restarting, Windows will automatically detect the available controllers and then install the necessary drivers for them. It is possible that such a technique will work, because in a sense it is akin to the first installation of the system when it selects drivers from its own directory (database).
Do not like this option? Boot from the disk or flash drive containing the DriverPack Solution package and install the necessary software using it (if you wish or need, using the same set of drivers you can immediately update to the most current state, but for this you need to be connected to Internet).
Instead of an afterword
You can put an end to this. As already mentioned, physical breakdowns were not considered here, as well as the impact of viral destructive threats. It remains to add that in some cases the connected devices may not be detected or may not work just because they are included in the wrong port (for example, USB 3.0 is required, and the connection is made via USB 2.0). In the same way, one should not discount the possible problems with the connected devices themselves, when the same flash drives are not recognized due to damage to the file system on them.