2 USB ports died in a 30-minute span(!?)

[domino66]

I have a 3-month old Asus Zenbook UX501 with 3 USB 3.0 ports. Here's what happened yesterday:

• 
  - My wired mouse plugged into one of the ports stopped working and its 'power' lights went off
  - I plugged it into the other USB port located on that side of the laptop; it worked for about 20 minutes, and then that port died.
  - 5 seconds after the 2nd port died, the laptop performed an unprompted hard reboot. Now I got concerned; this was def unusual. FWIW, on the reboot it installed a bunch of W10 updates (strange that I wasn't warned that updates were ready / would be installed on next reboot).

Those 2 USB ports don't work anymore, even after multiple reboots.
I uninstalled / reinstalled the "USB Root Hub (xHCI" thing in the Device Manager that one webpage suggested; no change.
Strangely, when I plug certain devices into the 2 'dead' ports (e.g. my bluetooth headset, and an old ipod), their 'charging' LED lights up...suggesting that there's SOME power going to those ports and they're not completely dead (!?) But when I plug my wired mouse or wireless Logitech mouse receiver in, they don't work and laptop doesn't seem to recognize anything plugged in at all.

Help? Laptop is still under warranty, but I REALLY don't want to go that route.

1. Any way to test whether this is a hardware / mobo issue? Is it fishy that it's the two USB ports on the right-side of my laptop that are the ones that died...does it point to some mobo hardware thing?

2. What does it mean that the 'dead' USB ports seem to charge on some devices, but that mice plugged into them don't work at all? (Note that I'm not POSITIVE that any charging is actually going on; only that the LED is illuminated).

 

[Im Spartacus]

Have you tried to do a system restore to before the updates you received, type system restore into the search menu on start and press enter. To see if the ports return to normal. more than likely bad drivers have been loaded.

 

[domino66]

Hm, OK maybe -- will the system restore restore EVERYTHING to my laptop's state before the update? (I may have updated files I wouldn't want rolled back to previous versions).

But before I do that, it seems rather unlikely this is the case, because the USB ports died BEFORE any of the updates were installed. As described in my OP, there was no indication there were even updates to be installed...then 1 port died mysteriously. Followed by a 2nd port 30 mins later. And only THEN did the system do an auto hard restart. So no drivers were updated prior to the USB ports dying. Your explanation would only make sense if some drivers were updated in the background BEFORE the restart/updates-installing Windows splash screens...that's now how it works, is it?

(Moreover, only 2 of the 3 USB ports died; the 3rd (on the other side of the laptop) is fine...for now -- would a driver update kill only TWO of the 3 ports?)

 

[Im Spartacus]

Well I think you have a windows 10 driver issue with your USB ports, Windows 10 updates are automatic with no warning your USB ports may have become non responsive from an update you may not have been aware of.
Have you checked your drivers in device manager. click on control panel, then select device manager. click on universal bus controllers. you may have a driver issue where it not working properly. You may also find a lenovo driver instead of a ASUS driver I've seen this on a Toshiba laptop of a friend with keyboard issues.
If you see a strange yellow symbol beside driver
if you find any driver issues you can click on uninstall the driver when you reboot the driver might be install correctly you could try that first. I wanted to make as easy as I could for you.
System restore is reversible as every-time you use it a restore point is created you can even create your own restore point naming it USBPORTFIX. . Although I usually clone the drive and work with the clone before I go further in case system restore goes wrong but I never had it go wrong but others have. So back it all up if you wish.

 

[Im Spartacus]

Then again if your Asus is only 3 months old you could take it to a ASUS repair shop or to where you bought it would be covered under warranty tell them to back up everything before they fix it an restore all you files.

 

[greens]

It would be a LOT easier to just... go ahead and boot to the bios and see if the USB ports work there. If they work there, its probably software related.

If they don't work in the BIOS then we know it is hardware related.

It is important to diagnose and replicate the issue before we take action!

 

[domino66]

It would be a LOT easier to just... go ahead and boot to the bios and see if the USB ports work there. If they work there, its probably software related.

If they don't work in the BIOS then we know it is hardware related.

It is important to diagnose and replicate the issue before we take action!

Are you talking about simply entering the BIOS configuration menu? I'm pretty sure I know how to do that...you're saying that a USB device should work 'normally' while I'm in that BIOS menu screen?

 

[greens]

It would be a LOT easier to just... go ahead and boot to the bios and see if the USB ports work there. If they work there, its probably software related.

If they don't work in the BIOS then we know it is hardware related.

It is important to diagnose and replicate the issue before we take action!

Are you talking about simply entering the BIOS configuration menu? I'm pretty sure I know how to do that...you're saying that a USB device should work 'normally' while I'm in that BIOS menu screen?

Yup. a USB keyboard should work in the BIOS. Because the BIOS doesn't care about drivers, it will tell you whether or not the ports themselves work.

Alternatively you could put a USB stick in there, and boot to the BIOS, and see if it shows up as an available drive.

Again the BIOS has its own firmware telling it how to do these things, so it doesn't care what drivers are on installed.

 

[domino66]

It would be a LOT easier to just... go ahead and boot to the bios and see if the USB ports work there. If they work there, its probably software related.

If they don't work in the BIOS then we know it is hardware related.

It is important to diagnose and replicate the issue before we take action!

Are you talking about simply entering the BIOS configuration menu? I'm pretty sure I know how to do that...you're saying that a USB device should work 'normally' while I'm in that BIOS menu screen?

Yup. a USB keyboard should work in the BIOS. Because the BIOS doesn't care about drivers, it will tell you whether or not the ports themselves work.

Alternatively you could put a USB stick in there, and boot to the BIOS, and see if it shows up as an available drive.

Again the BIOS has its own firmware telling it how to do these things, so it doesn't care what drivers are on installed.

Sorry it took me a while to try this, but in the Bios no USB device works (at least not a mouse). I mentioned this to ASUS support, and they said 'oh yeah, a USB mouse won't work to control the BIOS menu, you have to navigate it by the physical keyboard". Was this what you were suggesting? You seemed to be saying the USB ports would work in the BIOS menu...

But my USB mouse doesn't work in any of the 3 USB ports (not even the still-functioning one) in the BIOS menu...(?)

 

[greens]

I said use a USB keyboard.
A mouse may very well not work. But a keyboard should.
So should a USB stick, which would show up in a list of drives.

Things like USB mice, headsets, microphones, CD drives, mixers, etc, all depend on drivers.

USB keyboards and flash drives are legacy and should be readily seen and be usable in the BIOS.

 

[domino66]

Tried with a USB (wireless) keyboard: keyboard worked (and i could navigate the BIOS menus with it) when receiver was plugged into the 1 USB port that still works in Windows; did not work in the 2 USB ports I'm trying to troubleshoot. I have a flash drive to also try in the BIOS, but i couldn't really tell where in the BIOS menu it would 'show up' or otherwise recognize that a USB flash drive was plugged in...but regardless, the keyboard test is pretty conclusive, no?

The one part I still can't quite square, however, is the fact that the two "dead" USB ports *still charge devices like my phone / travel power stick / ipod*...so they're definitely not completely dead...they just won't recognize any device like a mouse/keyboard/flash drive that would actually let me USE them in Windows.

Your BIOS test suggests a hardware issue (right?)...but the 2nd point above suggests it's a software/drivers thing, no? Not sure where to go from here. Spoke to ASUS tech support who were predictably useless, telling me to just send it in for repair. I can't wait 1-2 weeks to get this thing back.

 

[Mister_MO]

Is it older one with haswell cpu or newer one with skylake? Older one should have those usb on io board, so it could be just loose cable or burned out board that is connecting it to mainboard, newer one have all on one board, so you are out of luck.

 

[domino66]

Uh...not sure which cpu? Here are the tech specs for my model, but that's not mentioned:
https/www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-Pro-UX501VW/specifications/

 

[Mister_MO]

This is newer one with skylake cpu, so it have just one board and nothing to unplug, so you are out of luck of trying it fix at home unless you have very good soldering skills, confidential asus schematics and components to fix it.

 

[domino66]

OK - again, I'm still not sure what to make of the fact that the "dead" ports can CHARGE THINGS...so they're not altogether dead. They just won't properly let a USB device (flash drive, mouse, keyboard, etc) connect. Is this conclusive evidence that it's a SOFTWARE/DRIVER thing? (b/c greens' BIOS tests suggested that it was instead a hardware thing...)

 

[Mister_MO]

If your keyboard don't work in bios, it is not software thing, as bios don't have drivers that can be uninstalled or go wrong. As for you still having power, usb is made out of power leads and data leads, most of time usb power is connected either directly to 5 volt supply or to control circuit, so having burned out data circuit don't automatically mean power will go out as it still partly works for your last usb.

 

[domino66]

FYI, I did a clean reinstall of Windows 10, and both USB ports are still dead, so obv a hardware thing and sending it back to Asus for repair. Aggravating for a 4-month old laptop, but what can u do.