Solved! Non-responsive USB ports

[kroth]

Hey everybody, I'm trying to get my mom's laptop nice and cleaned up and running properly so she has a computer when she moves.

It's an older (roughly 2005) Compaq Presario V2000. I've got everything in pretty good shape except I can't figure out the USB problem. Anytime I plug in a USB device, it is getting power, but is non-responsive and the computer does not detect new hardware.

I have tried all the ports with several different devices, all to no avail. I think it may be driver related, but I'm really not sure. I know the ports worked when it was purchased and for at least one or two years longer. If no one has any ideas I'm planning on just reformatting it, but the disk is SP2 so I don't wanna deal with that...

Anyway, help is much appreciated. Here is the dxdiag:

Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)
Phoenix NoteBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Intel Pentium 1.5 GHz
.5 Gig Ram
DX 9

Thanks

 

[frozenlead]

Download an Ubuntu disk and use it as a live CD only. This way you can check to see if the driver is at fault on a completely different OS without changing anything on your hard disk.

 

[pitstop87]

Yes i agree, trying out in a live cd environment will tell you if it's a win xp driver issue. If it is then i suggest you try uninstalling all the USB ports from Device Manager. When you reboot it should recognise the ports and automatically install the drivers for it.
If it's not a win xp issue then it's obviously a hardware fault. First of all if there are any external devices like an external hard disk attached, remove it, it could be short circuiting the ports.
If all devices are unattached then your USB hub could have been damaged due to high voltage. If you were using a cable usb modem earlier say during a lightning storm or something, the power surge could have destroyed the hub. This is a major issue and cannot be repaired. The only solution is to replace the motherboard.
A cheaper solution might be to use a PCMCIA slot expansion card with 4 USB ports. These cards are pretty cheap, and give you USB 2.0 connectivity.