Solved NO Sound video and game controllers, then lost USB ports

[djpieper]

A friend of mine has an Acer desktop, i5, 3rd gen. Several months ago the sound stopped working. I checked Device Manager and found No Sound, video and game controllers. I downloaded the drivers from Acer for the Realtek and installed it. Still no Sound, video and game controllers. I bought and installed a new PCI sound card still no Sound, video and game controllers. As I was working on the computer, the USB keyboard stopped working. I rebooted and got it back. The next time I rebooted, I lost the USB keyboard and mouse. I tried a different USB mouse and different USB ports and none of the USB ports worked. At that point, I went and got a glass of wine.

I spent hours looking for suggestions on the web but none of the suggestions worked. Could the motherboard be going out? Does anyone have any suggestions.

 

[rvcjew]

Sounds like a power draw issue is that sound gone when using game controllers or is that just what it is saying? At this point try resetting the USB stack.

Refreshing the USB Stack
a. - Device Manager –

b. Expand USB Serial Controllers - RIGHT CLICK on EVERYTHING and UNINSTALL all except the category itself. (If you have a USB keyboard/mouse do it last then unfortunately reboot the pc via the power button, as the keyboard/mouse will be gone. you can avoid this if you have a ps\2 port and keyboard to use to do this)

c. REBOOT the computer. This refreshes the drive and the USB stack

 

[djpieper]

The sound went out months ago along with no sound controllers in Device manager. I will uninstall the USB. I have a PS2 keyboard and mouse. Do you think the sound and USB are related? If so, what would cause both to go out?

 

[rvcjew]

Do you have same issue in safe mode as in no controllers seen?

 

[djpieper]

At this point, I have not tried safe mode. When I left, the USB keyboard and mouse stopped working. I have a PS2 mouse and keyboard now and will see if I can get into safe mode with that.

 

[rvcjew]

Alright, await your update.

 

[djpieper]

I found could use the USB keyboard in the bios but not in safe mode. Once I got into windows and I tried to type the password, the keyboard would not work. I used the restore partition to restore windows and it choked on installing drivers. It kept advising to restart in order to reinstall windows. I assume it maybe a motherboard issue. Do you think there is anything else I can try?

 

[rvcjew]

it still seems like a usb stack issue to me that pertains to drivers you might be out of luck at this point and have to do a repair install. Was restore partition trying to factory image the computer as in to factory state and when it gets to a point is says its installed drivers and just freezes? or is it a system restore your trying to do?

 

[djpieper]

I was using the restore partition to reset to factory image when I got the "setup is starting services" then I get the error message "windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart installation. I restart and continue to get the same error over and over again. :-(

 

[rvcjew]

I would try a live usb/cd of ubuntu or something similar so you can see if the sound and usb issue is with windows or your hardware is going out.

 

[djpieper]

I took the hard drive out and copied all the user files off. I put the hard drive back into the box and did a complete reset to factory image. It took a long time but it finally reinstalled windows and I now have no problems with either the sound or the USB ports. Thanks for your feedback and assistance.

 

[rvcjew]

Good to hear, yeah usb stack and drivers can be a pain sometimes that's why you make system backups if you got the external space to spare.