USB Port Issue - Power Surge on Hub Port

I have a dell xps 15 9550. I plug a 4 port usb hub into the usb port as i use wireless mouse, and use keyboard and thus need a lot of usb hubs. I never had an issue at all. Just recently i had to charge a poweradd... this is a piece that charges your iphone. Thus in order to charge the poweradd, you need to connect it to an outlet. I had thought you could charge it to a usb port on your laptop.. .first off can you do this or not? Well the thing was i wasn't even sure which cable to plug into it as when i used a cable to plug into it and then tried to plug into outlet, it didn't work. It felt like that was not the cable to connect to the poweradd as it didn't fit. But i tried anyway. I then decided to plug it into one of those port hubs , i only had one available. Well not only did it not work, i got a message power surge on hub port message and my 4 port hub immediately stopped working.


I unplugged the 4 port hub and then plugged it back in and it didn't work. After a while, i got message that the usb port didn't work and to click okay. Says device is not working properly. But after a while it does work. My issue now is everytime i turn on my laptop, i cannot use my wireless mouse or anything else connected to the 4 port hub because it doesn't work at first. However after you wait for a few minutes, it would have that same message of the device is not working properly. You wait a bit, then it doesn't work. Then finally it shows the same or similar message and now it works.


The thing is did i damage my usb port on my dell xps 15 9550 laptop? Or did i only damage the 4 port hub? Because if its the 4 port hub, i would just buy a new one. However, i think its the actual port? Does anyone know how to fix this issue? Did i damage my computer? How do i fix this issue?





Also there are 2 usb ports on the laptop. I never used the one on the left side of it though. So if the right one got damaged, does that mean i could only use the one on the left? The left one is not convenient since its right next to the charger plug in. Also if my 4 port hub is damaged etc, do i risk damaging the other port on the left?




Also what happens if both usb ports no longer work on the laptop? Then how would you be able to use a laptop? Could a repair shop fix a usb port?

The previous post was from a few week ago. But in addition to that, my questions are now this



So whenever my laptop turns on, i would sometimes get the message device is not working properly on a certain usb port. Many times i would get that message either early on when i start laptop or later on just suddenly later on anytime Its the 3rd hub on the 4 port usb hub and it was the one that i tried to plug in the iphone recharger in etc which you not suppose to because it takes a lot of power. The other ports seem to work fine. But when i press the button to turn the 3rd usb port off and then power it back on, usually it works. I know this because i always have a usb flash drive stuck to the 3rd port etc.




I want to know, is there any chance the 3rd usb port could cause any damage to my laptop? For example i noticed that my dell xps 15 9550 laptop seems to sometimes not load when i start it up where i have to power it on again. Or it does load up but it takes a very long time to load. Back then it didn't have this issue. But when i plugged the iphone charger into it, i already seem to have that problem already.




But is there a chance that this 4 port usb where the 3rd port is somewhat not functioning correctly, is there any chance it could damage the laptop or not? The thing is im thinking only stick a the usb stick into that 3rd port and do not put anything else in that port? The files in that usb flash drive is there whenever i check it. But im wondering if i should buy a new 4 port usb because of this? Or is this not necessary at all? Again, my main concern is could this usb hub potentionally damage my laptop since its always connected to it since i need the ports for my mouse, keyboard, usb flash drive etc.



Thanks

The first thing you need to do is to unplug all USB devices from your laptop, except for the mouse and the keyboard. Also unplug all USB hubs. Now try the mouse and the keyboard in different USB ports, moving them around. If both the mouse and the keyboard work in all USB ports, then you probably don't have any damage to the laptop. You can further check this by going into Device Manager in Windows and seeing if any of the USB listings have error triangles next to them. And you can right-click on a USB listing in Device manager, then choose Properties. It will tell you if the device (that is, the USB port) is working correctly.

If by chance the mouse or keyboard don't work, find another mouse or keyboard. If, say, the mouse works in one port but not in another, then the non-working port may be bad. Or maybe a driver got corrupted somehow. But if everything shows up good in Device Manager, then that is likely not the case.

I suspect that all of the above will show that it is in good condition. If so, then I think one of your USB hubs or other devices is damaged. In that case, buy another USB hub. And make sure it is a powered hub, that is, that it has its own power supply. Those hubs are better than the ones which draw all of their power from the USB port they are plugged into.