USB port problem

[Talint]

My USB ports don't work right. They apparently never have.

Almost three years ago now, I built my first custom box. And everything worked out perfectly. Except for the USB ports. And I didn't really notice until I started using wireless.

What basically winds up happening: The USB port "restarts" itself. For whatever reason, whatever is plugged into it will stop working for a second or two, and proceed to start working again. This isn't a problem for something like a USB mouse or whatever, but my connection drops on wireless; I have to go through a rather tumultuous process to get it reconnected. Especially annoying when it happens on FFXI.

I'm probably stretching by asking here, since I can't seem to find any help articles on what I've described. It's a weird problem, and I don't know where the root cause of it might be. Any diagnoses? And more importantly, any way to fix the problem? If you need system info, I'll happy to oblige.

[Cephius]

Try moving the USB headers to different ports on your motherboard. Refer to your motherboard documentation on if there's any specific header you should be using before others. Most motherboards have more than one place to hook up USB ports to, so the first thing I'd suggest is to try a different one.

[Talint]

Actually, the USB ports I'm having issues are on the motherboard itself.

The case USB ports seem to be functioning correctly, although I rarely use them for anything more than plugging in flash drives. I'll see if I have the same problems there.

For reference, the motherboard is a: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (MS-7125)

[Talint]

Nope. USB ports on the case seem to fizz out too. Though I noticed it seemed to be about 12 hours after a reboot.

It's not a WinXP thing, since the same thing happened to me in Win7. Maybe it's something in the BIOS?

[Blubbartron]

If it's something on the motherboard itself, you might want to check the website of the manufacturer for new BIOS versions. They'll generally have notes about things that are fixed, and it's possible your issue was addressed long ago.

[Talint]

If it's something on the motherboard itself, you might want to check the website of the manufacturer for new BIOS versions. They'll generally have notes about things that are fixed, and it's possible your issue was addressed long ago.

Yeah, I just did that. Though according to the updates notes, the only thing that was fixed was:
-Logo now shown in full
We'll see though. Maybe it was ninja fixed. Oh well. My motherboard has a nice new logo when staring up now!

I'll have an answer in 12 hours or so!

[Talint]

Updated BIOS, thought I was in the clear after 12 hours, but at the 24 hour mark, looks like things still reset.

I'm out of ideas at this point. I have no idea what the problem could be.

[Mafai]

check the power management settings on all ur USB devices in device manager. see attachment

[Talint]

Oh, hey, they were checked. I'll flick them off now.

How embarrassing! Let's hope that does the trick.

[Talint]

Nope, no go. Ports still seem to fizz out. :/

[Resin]

Another test you could do would be to pick up an inexpensive PCI USB card that gives you 2 or 4 more ports on the back of the computer. If those exhibit the same behavior, I'd point to an OS problem, but if they work normally, then I'd say it's more likely a motherboard problem.

Another test you could check would be to see if the BIOS allows you to set the USB ports to 1.1 mode and see if that does anything.

[Talint]

Another test you could do would be to pick up an inexpensive PCI USB card that gives you 2 or 4 more ports on the back of the computer. If those exhibit the same behavior, I'd point to an OS problem, but if they work normally, then I'd say it's more likely a motherboard problem.

Another test you could check would be to see if the BIOS allows you to set the USB ports to 1.1 mode and see if that does anything.

I'm fairly certain it's not an OS problem, since Win7 exhibited the same USB problem when I installed it. The PCI USB card isn't a bad idea though. I used to have one around here somewhere.