usb ports not working in xp pro

MaDMaCKeM wrote:
> would it be possible on the other vostro pc to copy the usb driver files
> across on to the fubarred drive?
> if it is possible what files would i need?
> or would i need to delete files and let windows do its thing? again what
> files would need to go?
>
> "MaDMaCKeM" wrote:
>
>> I have a dell vostro 200 pc with 2.2ghz c2d processor and 2 gig ram, with a
>> mirror raid array. all of my usb ports stop responding when windows boots, as
>> soon as the graphic appears the ports go off. i have been able to get into
>> bios and dos no probs but the pc has no ps2 ports so i cant access windows!!
>> i dont know of any way i can get into windows - safe mode is no good either,
>> the same thing happens.
>> i have tried the main drive in another vostro identical to mine and its the
>> same there so i know it isnt the hardware, its definately a windows problem.
>> any ideas would be helpful.

OK. What changed ? At one time the box worked, right ? Then
you changed something. Undo whatever you changed.

This doesn't sound like a driver problem necessarily. It could
be a resource problem, where some things conflicted, and then
there was no way to load a driver. Copying over a driver isn't
going to help, if the good driver that is already there, has
no way to load due to a resource issue.

Based on the info given so far, I don't know if I could
explain what is going on. But when you tell us the story
of all the stuff you've done to the machine leading up to
this point, maybe things will be clearer.

Did you buy this from Ebay, already fubarred ? Or are
you the original owner ? If you're the original owner,
then you'll have all the history to share with us.

Paul

Hi Paul,
Tha computer was bought new from dell, and belongs to my golf club.
They have had dell technician out who replaced the mobo and usb ports, but
its still the same.
Basically it is used as an office pc with 2 client pcs that access it for
competition entrys only. we regularly make backups of handicaps and results
etc on usb flash drives until recently when it would not recognise any and
would just display new hardware found and insert the disc that came with your
product etc, and would then fail to install the device after asking it to do
it automaticaly.
Dell suggested swapping usb devices around which is where it went wrong and
now nothing is detected at all so we cant access the pc as there are no ps2
sockets.
The only software installed is office, sage accounts, mcafee AV and golf
club management stuff. the computer gets left on and is only restarted when
prompted to by windows after updates etc.

"Paul" wrote:

> MaDMaCKeM wrote:
> > would it be possible on the other vostro pc to copy the usb driver files
> > across on to the fubarred drive?
> > if it is possible what files would i need?
> > or would i need to delete files and let windows do its thing? again what
> > files would need to go?
> >
> > "MaDMaCKeM" wrote:
> >
> >> I have a dell vostro 200 pc with 2.2ghz c2d processor and 2 gig ram, with a
> >> mirror raid array. all of my usb ports stop responding when windows boots, as
> >> soon as the graphic appears the ports go off. i have been able to get into
> >> bios and dos no probs but the pc has no ps2 ports so i cant access windows!!
> >> i dont know of any way i can get into windows - safe mode is no good either,
> >> the same thing happens.
> >> i have tried the main drive in another vostro identical to mine and its the
> >> same there so i know it isnt the hardware, its definately a windows problem.
> >> any ideas would be helpful.
>
> OK. What changed ? At one time the box worked, right ? Then
> you changed something. Undo whatever you changed.
>
> This doesn't sound like a driver problem necessarily. It could
> be a resource problem, where some things conflicted, and then
> there was no way to load a driver. Copying over a driver isn't
> going to help, if the good driver that is already there, has
> no way to load due to a resource issue.
>
> Based on the info given so far, I don't know if I could
> explain what is going on. But when you tell us the story
> of all the stuff you've done to the machine leading up to
> this point, maybe things will be clearer.
>
> Did you buy this from Ebay, already fubarred ? Or are
> you the original owner ? If you're the original owner,
> then you'll have all the history to share with us.
>
> Paul
>

MaDMaCKeM wrote:
> Hi Paul,
> Tha computer was bought new from dell, and belongs to my golf club.
> They have had dell technician out who replaced the mobo and usb ports, but
> its still the same.
> Basically it is used as an office pc with 2 client pcs that access it for
> competition entrys only. we regularly make backups of handicaps and results
> etc on usb flash drives until recently when it would not recognise any and
> would just display new hardware found and insert the disc that came with your
> product etc, and would then fail to install the device after asking it to do
> it automaticaly.
> Dell suggested swapping usb devices around which is where it went wrong and
> now nothing is detected at all so we cant access the pc as there are no ps2
> sockets.
> The only software installed is office, sage accounts, mcafee AV and golf
> club management stuff. the computer gets left on and is only restarted when
> prompted to by windows after updates etc.

OK. You could try a repair install. That would require booting from the
WinXP install CD. Depending on the service pack level of that CD,
you'd have to reinstall any service packs not on the CD. So if the
CD was at SP1, then you'd have to reinstall SP2 afterwards. Also,
any security updates from Microsoft would have to be added (Windows Update).
But your applications would be untouched, and data files would remain intact.
(Dell may have some procedure for making recovery CDs, and I don't know
if that is quite the same as a WinXP install disc or not. If there are
any details about software CDs with a Dell, they should be worked on
the instant the machine is delivered, as later you may need them
immediately to fix something.) Did the Dell tech discuss this option
at all ? Maybe Dell can send the equivalent of a WinXP CD, so you
can do stuff like a repair install.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Also, a poster mentioned this morning, that he'd observed a driver update
from Microsoft, upsetting USB on some recent Intel (P35 based) chipset
motherboards. Post is here. Which brings up the usual warning - never
take driver updates from Windows Update. You can take security updates,
but for some reason, when a driver update is offered, at least some
of them seem to have their issues. (I think your motherboard may in
fact have an ICH9, and the USB ports would come off that. And that
would be the same Southbridge as you might find on a P35 based system.)

http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus/msg/1f82...75dd3b5
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos200/en/slim_tower/om_...html/ap

Also, once you get back into the machine, perhaps you can leave
some of the options here enabled. This might allow you to
remotely log into the machine in the future, to fix stuff.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remoteintro.mspx

In many cases, the PS/2 interface is not really gone. They just didn't
put a connector on the back for it. The SuperI/O chip may still have the
interface for it. They could fiddle the BIOS code, to ignore the PS/2 altogether
(like how dual floppy capability seems to get disabled), so could make the
pins on that chip useless. But this bit of trivia is only for the home hacker
who enjoys soldering stuff, and who doesn't mind if something gets damaged

As long as USB interfaces can be stuffed, and PS/2 ones seem to work, I
won't be buying a computer any time soon, which is missing those connectors.
I like stuff that "just works" (tm).

There are other ways to access the boot disk. For example, at least for a
FAT32 disk, I can boot my Knoppix or Ubuntu disc, and look at the files
on the drive with that. But at this point, it is unclear to me what
could be causing the problem, so you wouldn't know what to modify.
If it is a registry issue, how do you edit the registry in a foreign
environment ?

There is a page here, with various issues about USB. The
"XP asks for drivers or just want to install new hardware" item
discusses a couple mechanisms why WinXP would ask for drivers.
But since you aren't seeing that, it means the driver is
not loading for some other reason.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

Paul

>
>
>> MaDMaCKeM wrote:
>>> would it be possible on the other vostro pc to copy the usb driver files
>>> across on to the fubarred drive?
>>> if it is possible what files would i need?
>>> or would i need to delete files and let windows do its thing? again what
>>> files would need to go?
>>>
>>> "MaDMaCKeM" wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have a dell vostro 200 pc with 2.2ghz c2d processor and 2 gig ram, with a
>>>> mirror raid array. all of my usb ports stop responding when windows boots, as
>>>> soon as the graphic appears the ports go off. i have been able to get into
>>>> bios and dos no probs but the pc has no ps2 ports so i cant access windows!!
>>>> i dont know of any way i can get into windows - safe mode is no good either,
>>>> the same thing happens.
>>>> i have tried the main drive in another vostro identical to mine and its the
>>>> same there so i know it isnt the hardware, its definately a windows problem.
>>>> any ideas would be helpful.

On Feb 28, 11:25 am, Paul <nos... DeleteThis @needed.com> wrote:
> MaDMaCKeM wrote:
> > Hi Paul,
> > Tha computer was bought new from dell, and belongs to my golf club.
> > They have had dell technician out who replaced the mobo and usb ports, but
> > its still the same.
> > Basically it is used as an office pc with 2 client pcs that access it for
> > competition entrys only. we regularly make backups of handicaps and results
> > etc on usb  flash drives until recently when it would not recognise any and
> > would just display new hardware found and insert the disc that came with your
> > product etc, and would then fail to install the device after asking it to do
> > it automaticaly.
> > Dell suggested swapping usb devices around which is where it went wrong and
> > now nothing is detected at all so we cant access the pc as there are no ps2
> > sockets.
> > The only software installed is office, sage accounts, mcafee AV and golf
> > club management stuff. the computer gets left on and is only restarted when
> > prompted to by windows after updates etc.
>
> OK. You could try a repair install. That would require booting from the
> WinXP install CD. Depending on the service pack level of that CD,
> you'd have to reinstall any service packs not on the CD. So if the
> CD was at SP1, then you'd have to reinstall SP2 afterwards. Also,
> any security updates from Microsoft would have to be added (Windows Update).
> But your applications would be untouched, and data files would remain intact.
> (Dell may have some procedure for making recovery CDs, and I don't know
> if that is quite the same as a WinXP install disc or not. If there are
> any details about software CDs with a Dell, they should be worked on
> the instant the machine is delivered, as later you may need them
> immediately to fix something.) Did the Dell tech discuss this option
> at all ? Maybe Dell can send the equivalent of a WinXP CD, so you
> can do stuff like a repair install.
>
> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
>
> Also, a poster mentioned this morning, that he'd observed a driver update
> from Microsoft, upsetting USB on some recent Intel (P35 based) chipset
> motherboards. Post is here. Which brings up the usual warning - never
> take driver updates from Windows Update. You can take security updates,
> but for some reason, when a driver update is offered, at least some
> of them seem to have their issues. (I think your motherboard may in
> fact have an ICH9, and the USB ports would come off that. And that
> would be the same Southbridge as you might find on a P35 based system.)
>
> http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus/msg/1f8....ttp://s
>
> Also, once you get back into the machine, perhaps you can leave
> some of the options here enabled. This might allow you to
> remotely log into the machine in the future, to fix stuff.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/mobility/getstarted/remotein...
>
> In many cases, the PS/2 interface is not really gone. They just didn't
> put a connector on the back for it. The SuperI/O chip may still have the
> interface for it. They could fiddle the BIOS code, to ignore the PS/2 altogether
> (like how dual floppy capability seems to get disabled), so could make the
> pins on that chip useless. But this bit of trivia is only for the home hacker
> who enjoys soldering stuff, and who doesn't mind if something gets damaged
>
> As long as USB interfaces can be stuffed, and PS/2 ones seem to work, I
> won't be buying a computer any time soon, which is missing those connectors.
> I like stuff that "just works" (tm).
>
> There are other ways to access the boot disk. For example, at least for a
> FAT32 disk, I can boot my Knoppix or Ubuntu disc, and look at the files
> on the drive with that. But at this point, it is unclear to me what
> could be causing the problem, so you wouldn't know what to modify.
> If it is a registry issue, how do you edit the registry in a foreign
> environment ?
>
> There is a page here, with various issues about USB. The
> "XP asks for drivers or just want to install new hardware" item
> discusses a couple mechanisms why WinXP would ask for drivers.
> But since you aren't seeing that, it means the driver is
> not loading for some other reason.
>
> http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html
>
>     Paul
>
>
>
>
>
> >> MaDMaCKeM wrote:
> >>> would it be possible on the other vostro pc to copy the usb driver files
> >>> across on to the fubarred drive?  
> >>> if it is possible what files would i need?
> >>> or would i need to delete files and let windows do its thing? again what
> >>> files would need to go?
>
> >>> "MaDMaCKeM" wrote:
>
> >>>> I have a dell vostro 200 pc with 2.2ghz c2d processor and 2 gig ram, with a
> >>>> mirror raid array. all of my usb ports stop responding when windows boots, as
> >>>> soon as the graphic appears the ports go off. i have been able to get into
> >>>> bios and dos no probs but the pc has no ps2 ports so i cant access windows!!
> >>>> i dont know of any way i can get into windows - safe mode is no good either,
> >>>> the same thing happens.
> >>>> i have tried the main drive in another vostro identical to mine and its the
> >>>> same there so i know it isnt the hardware, its definately a windows problem.
> >>>> any ideas would be helpful.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Be careful! Dell PCs do not normally come with a full XP install CD.
Dell computers are mainly delivered with hidden Recovery partitions.
Thus a repair install is usually not posible!

We had this problem and the fix is pretty simple.

1. Go into the Device Manager, Click the + at Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
2. Right-click USB Root Hub and select Properties, Open the Power Management tab.
3. Clear the check mark from "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
4. Click OK.

Repeat those steps for each "USB Root Hub" listed. This fixed the problem for us on our Vostro 200.