USb devices stop working

[mckillwashere]

Hey guys/girls

Im having a slight issue with one of my machines I cant track down the cause.

My USB mouse and keyboard will randomly stop working. After a reboot they work fine for a few minutes then they will stop functioning. We have tried drivers and chipset drivers. any other Ideas?

 

[TVeblen]

I would first check in the BIOS to be sure the USB settings have not changed. You could also try resetting BIOS defaults to see if it makes any difference.

While in the BIOS check the voltage readings for any anomalies.

What I'd be concerned about is the southbridge chip, which controls the USB ports. If the chip were failing you would get those sorts of problems. Some motherboards around the time of the intel P4 had grounding problems on the southbridge bus. If you are of that vintage check for dust, hair, or loose connections.

And a failing power supply can be a cause too. The motherboard logic is to cut off the circuit if there is an over-voltage draw, and if the peripherals are drawing more than the circuit can provide (while functioning normally) the logic could be cutting out.

EDIT: Also, if either USB device is shorting or over-drawing current, that will cause the circuit to cut out too.

 

[gregrocker]

Is it only with the keyboard and mouse? How about other USB devices?

Do they cut out together or separately?

Have you tried another keyboard or mouse?

 

[mckillwashere]

Sorry about the late reply.
@Tveblen - In the end we determined it hardware failure. I wish I could have checked the BIOS, its kind of hard when the computer is close to eight hours away via Plane .
@GregRocker - Yep we had tried a known working mouse and keyboard.

In the end I did something stupid and changed the permissions on the system32/drivers to our administrator account and it made one of the two unknown devices work, however it wouldnt install any of the attached devices.

In the end I determined it to either be Hardware failure or Os corruption since it wouldnt even install Windows updates without failure.
Given the pc has just been giving us issues and is relativity new were replacing it.

Thanks for all your help mates

 

[TVeblen]

Good to hear that you've got a solution.
Long distance diagnostics can drive you crazy!