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USB ports & XP shutdown

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by joe_gremlin

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I've encountered a strange problem with USB ports that I've not seen before. This is an HP laptop running XP Pro SPII. The user connects an optical mouse to one of two different USB ports on one side of the computer. Until I arrived, he didn't even know there were USB ports on the other side of the machine.

For about a week now, sometime during the session, the USB ports appear to shut off and the mouse stops working. The trackpad still works but the mouse does not. Unplugging and reconnecting the mouse has no effect (ports are dead). Once this happens, the machine will hang on shutdown and requires a power button hard shutdown. After reboot, the ports work fine and the machine has no trouble with shutdown so long as the ports are still working.

So far, I've noticed that when the mouse quits, the port it's plugged into is dead and the port right next to it is dead. But the ports on the other side of the machine are still live. I've disabled all the USB power managament but the problem presists.

My first guess would be hardware failure but the fact that reboot restores the ports makes me think software. Anyone seen this before? Any suggestions on where to look?

5 replies

by Former member

1). Bios, go into the bios and make sure that "Lagacy" is marked "enable".

2). Make sure that you have the update version of your bios, from your computer makers site.

3). All USB function client driver registry keys are under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\USB\FunctionDrivers. The last USB function client driver registry settings choose the default FunctionDriver at boot-time. You can override the default in Platform.reg.

4) Make sure that you have all of the available updates to your system.
Hope this helps you.

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

by oh smeg

And not restarting when the system comes out of Power Saving Mode.

As you didn't say what else is connected on that side? It's possible that the Ports are being overloaded with a too heavy power drain that is causing the problem as well. You need to look inside the Ports to check that there is nothing stuck or jammed in there causing a short or something similar as well as look at the actual plugs that go in there. If you see any damaged items replace them as required.

Col

by joe_gremlin

Oops, I forgot to specify that. There is nothing else being used by any of the ports. The USB mouse is the only thing that is connected to any of the usb ports. Once in a while, he will connect a USB all in one printer long enough to scan a document. I also forgot to mention that the laptop runs on AC power most of the time.

UPDATE: I spoke to the user again today, now when USB stops working, it's all the ports not just the ones on the side. The client has decided to replace the laptop as it's not worth investing a lot of billable troubleshooting hours and/or hardware repairs in this one. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions with this.

by rob miners

Some USB Adapters may get disconnected after a little while. A possible reason that could cause this problem is that in Windows XP there is an option that allows the Computer to turn off a USB device to save power. To disable this option:

1: Right click My Computer, select properties
2: Click the Hardware Tab and press Device Manager button
3: Expand the universal Serial Bus Controllers
4: Double click on the USB Root Hub
5: Select the Power Management Tab and un-check the "allow the computer to turn off the device to Save Power

If you have more than one USB Root Hub, then you should apply the steps to each one of them.

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