USB ports no longer working

rosawoodsii · 21 Apr 2016

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop which has an ELAN touchpad. Since I detest touchpads, I've always used a mouse instead. Today, my mouse stopped working. I checked the batteries, they're good; even changed the batteries. The mouse won't work. So, I plugged in a wired mouse that I know works. That's not recognized either. Okay...then I plugged in, one after another, three different flash drives in two different ports. Not recognized.

When I go into Device Manager, it says USB hub, controllers, etc, are all working properly, but obviously they're not. I've rebooted twice, but that doesn't clear the problem either. I'm not sure what to do at this point.

ThrashZone · 21 Apr 2016

Hi,
If it has batteries it would be a Bluetooth device not a usb device although it uses a usb port the signal is not working anymore.
How to fix ?
Try a wired mouse ?

Mellon Head · 22 Apr 2016

When you plug the wired mouse in, can you see the mouse in Device Manager? It will be an HID device and be listed like this:

Note the HID devices, and then the line with my actual mouse. Your actual mouse may not show up like that. It may only show as a HID device.

One thing that you could try is to reinstall the USB drivers if you haven't already.

alphanumeric · 24 Apr 2016

Power down, unplug the power pack and remove the battery. Also unplug all USB devices. Now press and hold the power button say 5 seconds or so. This will completely drain any residual power left in the system. Now put the battery back in, plug the power pack in. Boot up and see if it works now. I would test with the wired mouse first. USB ports have an overcurrent protection circuit that when tripped, requires a complete power removal to reset.

rosawoodsii · 25 Apr 2016

Hmm. Never got any notices of replies. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

The USB devices are now working---sporadically--after I powered down for the fourth time and left the computer off for a half hour. I'm going to do the powerdown recommended by alphanumeric and hope that clears it up. If not, I'll reinstall the USB device drivers, but...exactly how do I do that?

alphanumeric · 25 Apr 2016

USB drivers are universal and included with Windows, as far as I know. One way to force the reinstall is to go to the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section in Device Manager and right click - uninstall what's listed. That could be tricky as your mouse is going to stop working at some point. Other than that, reinstalling your chip-set drivers maybe?

rosawoodsii · 25 Apr 2016

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
If it has batteries it would be a Bluetooth device not a usb device although it uses a usb port the signal is not working anymore.
How to fix ?
Try a wired mouse ?

I am curious enough about this that I had to respond. My Toshiba doesn't have Bluetooth. I've used battery powered USB mouse since they came out, and when I bought this one, it said nothing about Bluetooth. So, why do you think that all battery powered mice are Bluetooth?

Layback Bear · 25 Apr 2016

Knowing exactly what mouse you are using would help.

This is a good read for some extra info.

Wireless Mice / Wired Mice: Optical, Laser, Bluetooth, Nano and USB Options for Notebook & Desktops | Verbatim

Not all wireless mouse are Bluetooth.

ThrashZone · 25 Apr 2016

Hi,
Yea wireless it's still not a usb wired mouse which has been advised to test one with the usb port.

alphanumeric · 26 Apr 2016

There is true blue-tooth and proprietary blue-tooth. My Logitech keyboards and mice are advertised as Blue-tooth but won't work with anything other than the unifying receiver that comes with them. Logitech uses their own proprietary communication. As far as the PC is concerned though, they appear as a wired device. The Unifying receiver just emulates the normal signals a standard USB mouse or keyboard sends to the PC. It has no idea if they are wireless or not. No special drivers needed. The bonus to that is they work in the BIOS, and on other devices like my Raspberry Pi. The downside is I can't link them directly to the Blue-tooth receiver in my laptop, I have to use the Unifying receiver dongle. If I install the unifying software I get battery status and I can link and unlink devices. It's not needed for normal use though.

In my earlier post, I recommended using the Wired mouse first, in case it was the wireless mouse that caused the USB ports to shut down in the first place. Namely the USB receiver. If it's failing and shorting out the ports you don't want to plug it in until you know they are working with something else, like a standard USB mouse. Then plug it in and see what happens. If they go down again chuck that mouse in the bin.