Do Usb Ports Randomly die on old computers?

dgood · Post by **dgood** » Sat May 26, 2007 11:30 am

So my old athlon xp computer with my kt333 ultra motherboard and athlon xp 2200+ doesn't seem to have working usb ports. I've plugged a buch of thingis into them and nothing will register that goes for the built in one s and the ones I plugged into the motherboard on brackets or front ports. None of them work. THe rest of the computer works fine. Any ideas? I can't plug in a thumb drive, a mouse (only to ps/2) or my playstation controller adapter (for my ddr pads I know sad.)

maj0r_pawnage · Post by **maj0r_pawnage** » Sat May 26, 2007 11:39 am

haha ddr pads but idk

Darkstar · Post by **Darkstar** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:32 pm

I have had them die before...
what does it say about them in the device manager? anything?

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:44 pm

I have had usb devices die but not the usb ports, but i guess i havent had a motherboard that old.

camaroguy1998 · Post by **camaroguy1998** » Sat May 26, 2007 3:15 pm

If both internal and external USB ports are dead check your Device Manager and see if it even lists the ports and the controller.
But it sounds like the controller may have gone south(Gone Bad) or the drivers are corrupted!

You might try reloading the USB drivers for the mobo!

dgood · Post by **dgood** » Sat May 26, 2007 7:20 pm

I'll get on that tommarow lol good idea, never had them just not work lol. Its in my crawl space hooked up to a tv. so I'd have to bring it in to work on it. I'm too tired today from 3 hours of volleyball and some mountain biking on the mountain near here. Thanks for the tips so far.

Zelig · Post by **Zelig** » Sat May 26, 2007 8:52 pm

Yeah, as others have mentioned, it could be a software problem, I'd probably just boot up in Knoppix, and see if your USB devices work there.

That being said, I've seen almost everything imaginable die in various computers. I have an Athlon XP where the CPU fan header on the motherboard died, every other fan header still works fine though, so I had to get an extender for the cpu fan, and play around a bit with speedfan to get the rpm related to the temp when plugged into a different header instead.

dgood · Post by **dgood** » Thu May 31, 2007 12:07 am

booted up linux live cd tried it no luck on usb ports, no power even going to them it seems. tried the ones on the mobo and the ones I had plugged into extra slots. No go on either. they don't show up in device manager on either. Appears I'm SOL the usb controller must have just gone out on me. then again i've had this computer since 8th grade so it's served me for 5 years and still runs games well and hell still can use it fine. just no usb for me. so I guess the only medium for file transfer is network and or cds etc. might be getting a different mobo/processor for it anyway. but only if it's free. It's one of my extras I only occasionally fold it when it's on and play with linux on it. thanks for the input guys.

camaroguy1998 · Post by **camaroguy1998** » Thu May 31, 2007 12:55 am

dgood wrote:booted up linux live cd tried it no luck on usb ports, no power even going to them it seems. tried the ones on the mobo and the ones I had plugged into extra slots. No go on either. they don't show up in device manager on either. Appears I'm SOL the usb controller must have just gone out on me. then again i've had this computer since 8th grade so it's served me for 5 years and still runs games well and hell still can use it fine. just no usb for me. so I guess the only medium for file transfer is network and or cds etc. might be getting a different mobo/processor for it anyway. but only if it's free. It's one of my extras I only occasionally fold it when it's on and play with linux on it. thanks for the input guys.

You said "ones Plugged Into Extra Slots" what do you mean by that?
Do you have a separate PCI / USB card?

If you dont, you can try that if USB is really needed!

dgood · Post by **dgood** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:50 am

no I have a bracket that came with the motherboard that I plugg into the extra usb outputs off the motherboard and then screwed the bracket into a pci slot area so you can access them out the back. Such as a D-Bracket for MSI motherboards.

camaroguy1998 · Post by **camaroguy1998** » Thu May 31, 2007 12:02 pm

dgood wrote:no I have a bracket that came with the motherboard that I plugg into the extra usb outputs off the motherboard and then screwed the bracket into a pci slot area so you can access them out the back. Such as a D-Bracket for MSI motherboards.

Ok I see!
As I said you can get a PCI based USB card and that should work if you need USB!

dgood · Post by **dgood** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:08 pm

yeah i'll do that if I ever get rid of this that computer. I doubt I ever will though. It runs all dx9 games except sm 3.0 ones. Thinking about ocing the procesor on it also just for the hell of it.