USB ports not working after multiple crashes

[Tegewaldt]

Hello Sevenforums

prologue:
A problem recently arose whilst trying to get my desktop to BOOT properly. There is a problem with the Graphics card needing to be "wiggled and tensioned" into a "golden spot" where all PCI-e pins magically touch and connect, so that the system will run. Often when this happens, the system will then hang/freeze shortly after, because the card properly wasn't seated that well after all.

Now able to consistently boot, i am now faced with the problem of not being able to use any of my USB ports. At the BIOS screen and system loadup screen, my mouse and keyboard will light up and work flawlessly.

But when i get to the welcome screen, both devices will "switch off", but still receive power as indicated by a few LED's.
i can use a standard PS/2 keyboard, though it should only serve to get my primary devices working with the system again.

I wonder what could be the cause of this? Searching other forums i assume it's a Software/driver issue, but if that's the case, then i have no idea how to fix it

Thank you in advance

-Tegewaldt

 

[paul1149]

I suppose you need to reinstall the chipset driver. Go to Device Manager and see what it is, and download it before uninstalling the existing one.

But my guess is the driver degradation is due to the graphics hardware problem. You are lucky you haven't fried the motherboard. I would probably try contact cleaner on the card, or a different card to isolate the problem.

 

[Tegewaldt]

Could using a pci-e extension cable help solve the contact problem?
Image here; http://www.buyincoins.com/images/show/pci-e-extension-cable-16x.jpg

Also, from device manager how do I find out which driver and chipset i have/need?

And thank you for your help and
support!

 

[GokAy]

Perhaps a System Restore to a date prior to the issue will help.

 

[paul1149]

Could using a pci-e extension cable help solve the contact problem?
Image here; http://www.buyincoins.com/images/show/pci-e-extension-cable-16x.jpg

Also, from device manager how do I find out which driver and chipset i have/need?

That would be weird, but you never know.

System Restore is a good idea, worth trying first.

Open DM and look for anything that looks like a chipset. If there's an onboard graphics driver you can uninstall it. Often the chipset will be part of it. Look on the manufacturer site for newer drivers. If there's nothing, you can uninstall related System devices and let them reinstall themselves on the next boot.

 

[wasnotwas]

re: after a freeze, USB mouse + KB working at boot but not when Windows has started - don't know if this will be of any use, but I had the same problem recently.

I was experimenting with various (unsupported) Linux distros in VMware on Windows 7 host, and now and then the system would lock up - needing a hard reset. On restart after a freeze-up, mouse + KB were 'on' at boot but 'off' when Windows started. With no mouse or KB, this naturally meant another hard reset, which seemed to compound the problem. This puzzled me - I even managed to replicate the issue a few times.

By trial and error, I discovered that after a freeze/USB problem, if instead of using the reset switch I powered off the box at the psu mains switch and pressed the front panel on switch to drain any residual power, then the pc restarted without the USB/mouse problem.

I realise that hard resets, and flipping the mains switch is not good practice, but I got mouse + KB control back. Still a mystery.

 

[GokAy]

Wasnotwas, good idea: I would try a CMOS reset in this case (should check motherboard manual).