USB does not recognize devices in XP

Hope someone can help. I have a Dell 1150 Inspiron Notebook with Windows XP Pro. The computer lost the ability to read USB devices all of a sudden. When I plug a USB device into the slot, I get a power light on the device, but the device (external HD) does not show up. I have tried other devices on the computer to no avail. I have tried the devices on other computers and they read fine, so it's not the devices. I re-installed the USB controllers and ran the Dell diagnostic utility and found no problems. I am not sure what to do next outside of re-installing XP. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

XP Pro SP1

PeteC,

I did perform the re-install of the drivers using the method you asked about. The funny thing is that I am getting power to the USB ports, but the computer is not recognizing the devices I plug into them. Can it be a motherboard issue?

 

Did you run the sfc /scannow?

The SP question could apply as well. If your device is USB2 and you only have USB1.x, nothing good will happen and USB2 support was added a while after XP first shipped.

Are the problem devices the kind that take power from the USB port or do they have an external power supply?

If your case has USB ports front and rear and you've only been using one set (front or rear) then try the other set. It can certainly be a power issue or a problem with the ports and the other set may work.

 

Ran File Checker...

Ran SFC, no difference. I have a laptop with only two rear ports. My computer has USB 2.0, and the devices are USB 2.0 as well. Mind you, all was well just yesterday, then it all of a sudden stopped working. I had plugged another device into the second port, and my computer shut off. When I powered it back on, the USB ports would not recognize any devices, even though the devices would receive power as indicated by their lights. I also plugged in a device with an external power supply to no avail. Can the ports be fried and still have power going to them or do you think it is a driver issue? I am going to check the Intel website and see if they have any issues with that particular motherboard.

 

System Restore

 

I know bro!

Dude, I wish I had system restore active. That would have been option #1. Thanks though.

 

Too bad. Actually, I was kind of expecting an answer like that but you never know. Sometimes it's the simple things we overlook. I don't really know what to say now. My guess would be that it's a software related problem but who knows for sure?

When you removed the USB controllers in device manager; did you enable the show hidden devices thing (in device manager click view>show hidden devices)? If not, maybe you could try that and then remove them. Maybe do this in safemode? Sorry, but that's about all I can think of right now. Anybody else?

 

Thanks

Thanks Zander. I'm still searching for an answer.