USB Ports Not Working Vista Bugs and Problems Discuss USB Ports Not Working in the Windows Vista forums; Greetings everyone! This is my first post in this forum, and I hope the many knowledgeable folks that populate this place may be able to help me out with my ...

[DiegoSN]

Greetings everyone! This is my first post in this forum, and I hope the many knowledgeable folks that populate this place may be able to help me out with my problem. I search around first to see if someone had run across the same difficulties, but failed to find anything similar. I thank you all in advance for your input.

I own a Hewlett-Packard dv6040us laptop, which I purchased in September 2006. Earlier this year, in late February 2007, I upgraded the OS to Windows Vista Ultimate.

This laptop has 3 USB ports, two on the left side and one on the right side. A few days ago, a USB mouse that I had attached to the lone USB port on the right side stopped working, and I got the "A USB device has malfunctioned..." popup thingie. Up to that point, that mouse had been working perfectly. I tried to unplug it and then plug it in again, to no avail. I chalked it up to the USB mouse just kicking the bucket (it's just a crappy generic device that I got at some airport a while ago) and thought no more of it.

I believe that at that moment I did not have any other USB devices connected to the laptop (and if I did, then they did not seem to malfunction). However, later that day, I tried to connect my BlackBerry (not to that same port, but to one of the two ports on the left side) and noticed that it was not being recognized. In fact, as soon as I connected it, the BlackBerry screen showed the "battery being charged" symbol for a couple of seconds, and then it just went away, as if I had disconnected it.

I then tried a number of other USB devices (a Bluetooth dongle, a 4Gb SanDisk thumbdrive), all of which had been working perfectly up to that moment, and noticed to my dismay that they would not be recognized either, no matter what port I tried to plug them into.

I then tried a couple of things to see if I could fix the situation, but none have worked so far:
- I went into Device Manager and disabled all USB controllers (which are not showing any kind of malfunction icon, by the way) and enabled them again. No good.
- I went into Device Manager and uninstalled all USB controllers, rebooted and then installed them again upon being recognized. No good.
- I used System Restore to restore Vista to a restore point predating the problems. No good.

All searches around the Internet have yielded nothing close to my problem. I am now at my wits' end, and hopefully someone in this friendly forum can come up with some other possible fix that I have not tried yet.

Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to read this and any suggestion that you might have. Thanks a lot!

[Seansmit17]

Seems like the drviers vista uses for the usb are corrpted.. ive had this in xp. If you can, download some USB drivers and install them, if you cant then i think the only option is to do a repair install of vista..

oh and to VB

[Snuffy]

MS does have a standalone driver for this.. called USB 2.2 (Vista)
but I'd first try... uninstalling the USB Ports... then reboot,
normally this will correct the problem.
or try this:

Repair or update a driver
Applies to all editions of Windows Vista.
Which edition of Windows Vista am I using?

If a hardware device isn't functioning properly, or if a program or game that you're installing states that it requires newer drivers than you currently have installed, you should check Windows Update for updated drivers. If technical support personnel have asked you to install drivers from a disc or from the device manufacturer's website, you can also manually update drivers for your device.


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To update drivers using Windows Update
1. Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, and then clicking Windows Update.* If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2. In the left pane, click Check for updates.

3. To see if updated drivers are available, click View available updates. Windows Update will list any updated drivers that are available for devices installed in your computer.

4. If updates are available, click the driver that you want to install, and then click Install. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.


To manually update drivers
You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

1. Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Device Manager.* If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2. In Device Manager, locate the device you want to update, and then double-click the device name.

3. Click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver.