USB connectors don't work

I have 2 USB connectors and both don’t work. In device manager, both USB root hubs have a yellow exclamation point on them. I have tried removing them in device manager and letting them be reinstalled at startup. Don’t work! Staring them down doesn’t work either!
I’m only somewhat knowledgeable in computers - is this problem beyond my capacity??
My system is Pentium III Intel running Windows98SE.
Thanks for any advice.

 

Is USB enabled in the BIOS ?

 

jaclaf-I just acquired a digital camera and ran into same problem of USB's not working. Like Billy Bob said, I went into BIOS and enabled and all is well now. One thing, tho, I had no USB indicated at all in Device Manager before enabling in BIOS. May be another problem. ??

 

Thanks for your replies..

Yes, the USB devices are enabled in BIOS.
In fact, these USB ports did not show to have problems in Device Manager until I tried connecting a printer. I don't know if I did something wrong but since then, it ain't working any more and I don't seem to be able to undo the problem if I caused one.

 

Just a thought.

Are you using Win98 or Win95b. 95b STINKS in the USB area.

Also is USB built into the MB or are you using a PCI/USB adapter card ?

I have one system each way and Win98 has given me no USB problems.

OOPS !! You were posting while I was writing.

You can disregard my questions now.

BillyBob

 

A complete WAG, and maybe wait for more knowlegable folk to repy, but maybe reverse the process by disable USB in BIOS then delete from Device Manager(or from DM then BIOS), then do again? Who knows? Stranger things have happened(around here, anyway )

 

Have they ever worked? Are they physically connected properly?
bob

 

I had the same problem with a Tyan KT-133A board. The USB's were working fine one day and not the next. I tried every thing I could think of including formatting and loading a new drive with Win98 SE. All showed fine in Device Mgr. but no devices were recognized. I believe the USB controller on board failed and I returned the board to my supplier for replacement.

 

Thank you all for your answers.

The last suggestion seems the most possible since nothing else works! I will follow up on that.

 

Another way...?

My onboard USB did not work for a digital camera consistantly...
Each time would have to reconfigure.
I fianlly gave up, went out and bought a USB card, configured it, and had no more problems from it.

Yes the origianal was turned on in Bios, Yes it was configured in the Device Manager, nope it was not worth a durn and most of the time did not work.

But after I added the USB card, I did not have any more problems from it...

 

Having the USB ports visible in System Manager but with yellow ?s means that they're enabled in the BIOS (as you said) but they most likely have a driver problem. What type of motherboard are you using? I've never seen Win98 have a problem installing the drivers for onboard USB before.

 

I just got my computer back from my vendor. I had brought it in for them to check out the USB problem.
His conclusion is that my operating system (win98) is corrupt and needs to be reinstalled.

So... never like doing it but... time for a big cleanup and start again. Hopes it clears the problem!

 

Hey Jaclaf, really, its a good thing. I don't think I've ever gone for more than 6 months without a full, fresh install. Some things that can really help for a reinstall are:

1. a second partition to hold all your data: documents, mp3s, savegames, favorites, mail, address book, etc.
2. or a second hard drive always comes in handy
3. Norton Ghost. It allows you to lay down a full image of a freshly installed OS in under a minute (assuming you saved the image after installing it).

 

Hardware and software vendors (as well as "tech-support" personnel) like to recommend a reinstall to solve every problem that is not in their database of "common problems and solutions ". A reinstall is rarely required, and may NOT solve the difficulty.

Similarly, "experts" like to recommend frequent periodic reinstalls. They are rarely necessary, and almost always result in the loss of important and irreplaceable data files.

There are instances when a reinstall is required, and other instances when it may be the simplest method of fixing a problem caused by poor software design and/or programming bugs.

If you have not already done so, I suggest that you reboot into native DOS (not a DOS box), and run a diagnostic utility to see if the USB ports can be recognised and accessed properly. [There are a number of such programs which can be downloaded without cost. Try www.hotfiles.com for starters.]

If the USB ports cannot be accessed at the DOS level, you have a hardware or BIOS problem.

If the USB ports can be accessed successfully at the DOS level, then you have a Windows OS, driver, or application problem. Since you say the problem cropped up when you installed a new printer, I would suspect that the printer's "installation" program has created the problem. Try to uninstall the printer, if the software can be uninstalled, and see if that fixes the problem. Detach all USB devices, delete the USB entries in device manager, reboot, and see if the yellow arrows disappear. If they do, reinstall your USB devices one by one. If the problem recurs, replace the USB device with its defective hardware and/or software with one of another manufacturer. And let the manufacturer and vendor know why you've done so.

If you do decide to reinstall Windows, make sure that you've backed up EVERYTHING (tape is still the only practical media), so you can restore that essential file that got deleted in the process.

I agree that creating a second partition to hold all your data is a good idea. That way you can do a format c:\ followed by a reinstall of Windows --- and all your applications! --- without losing your data. Getting Windows to store your files on the d:\ partition is a little tricky, as the defaults point all over the c:\ drive, but with a little practice, you'll get it down pat.

Of course there is a totally different procedure for changing the location of "My Documents ", "My Music ", "My Photographs ", "My Email ", etc. Windows was not designed with simplicity or standardization in mind.

A second hard drive can be very handy, if you have an extra IDE or SCSI slot, and there is no master-slave incompatibility. A USB drive is a joke. If you don't already have a tape device for daily backups, you can at least make a copy of your harddrive to the second drive before doing the clean install.

I would strongly recommend against using Norton Ghost, or any Symantec program. There have been far too many major problems created by the software produced by this company in the past few years to take the risk with your most valuable data.

 

Give this link and USB evaluation utility download a try. Good luck
http://www.usb.org/faq/q1