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Front USB issue on newly built computer
acevedor2:
I built the computer a few weeks ago, but to be truthful, never tested the front USB ports until this week. They work sporadically. I know the OS is installed correctly and the computer runs great - except for the front USB ports. The rear usb ports are working fine.
What do I mean by sporadically? Well, sometimes when I plug a USB item in it recognizes it and other times it doesn't. Sometimes it tells me the "USB device installed has malfunctioned, please try again and if the problme persists get a new USB device" or something along those lines.
1. The rear USB ports work fine - all the time.
2. The motherboard has been updated to the latest BIOS version.
3. I even installed the pc into a different case with different front USBs just on the off change the USB ports on the other case were bad(shorted).
4. The USB devices (external hard drives and thumb drives) that I am plugging in, work fine in my other 4 computers, just not this one.
5. I have tried both front USB headers on the MB. Same result, some times it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I get a feeling I have a bad motherboard - at least the headers. Thoughts? I can't see how it would be the OS or other hardware (RAM, CPU, etc.).
Thanks as always for the help.
Cheers!
BobA:
Sounds like you have eliminated everything but your motherboard by changing the case and making sure the devices work on other pcs. Maybe a cold solder joint on the USB pins. If it never worked I might suspect some software but the intermittant actions sure looks like a bad solder joint.
newbee:
What operating system are you using, and version?
leapinlew:
I had a motherboard that required drivers for the front USB drivers to work and the ones on the rear worked fine.
acevedor2:
Running WinXp and as far as I can tell all drivers have ben loaded. I loaded them myself off of the MB CD. I might try uninstalling all of the USB devices (hardware manager), restarting the PC and letting it find everything again. If the fronts required a separate driver I would have thought that under device manager I would see an exclamation point.