All USB ports failing - help!

[Mehen]

Trying to fix this computer. Getting intermittent pauses on all USB devices (device just stops working for a second or two.)
It does this for mice, keyboards, or any other USB device you plug in. (And I have tried 2 different keyboards and 3 differnet mice.)

It does this in XP as well as even browsing the BIOS - so I don't think it is a windows problem or a hard drive problem.

Is the motherboard dying?!?

This is my boss's boss's home computer that was brought into work. Somehow it was given to me to fix
Since it is a P4, I think I might have to tell them to just get a new computer.

It's like going to the doctor for a cough, and the doctor tells you that you have cancer and one week to live.

[degrub]

see if you can drop in a USB card on the PCI bus.

Is the system log showing anything ?

[Marshmallowman]

Could be worth checking power management, I used to get that kid of behaviour if I set my computer to laptop rather than always on.

Incidently a MS windows update a few weeks ago totally borked a lot of my usb devices I had to rollback that update and block it from trying to install in future. (i think was some kind of nvidia usb filter?)

[Mehen]

Interesting. I found a PCI 2 port USB card here at work, plugged it in - and it seems to be working fine!

I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling of the USB devices from device manager to no avail. Other ports just won't work properly.

So what does this mean... motherboard problem?

I'll have to find out how many USB devices they use, I might just have to get a 4-port USB PCI card for them and call it a day. Or tell them to buy a USB hub.

More tomorrow... shift is over and I'm going home.

[WxDude]

It might be one of the connectors is broken and shorting out pins intermittantly. I had a few ports on my compute that the kids broke the plastic support for the pins. One pins got bent and then I started to get messages about too much power used on the USB ports. The ports would shutdown afterwards. Take a look. That might be the problem. If so, disable the onboard ports and put in the 4 port card like you suggest.

[Claymonkey]

You said you uninstalled the devices. Did you uninstall the usb controllers in device manager? If it isn't a hardware issue doing that will completely reset them.

[Elie]

That's Microsoft's way of saying..."hey it's time to upgrade to Windows 7" all of a sudden various components in our PC will fail one after the other until we upgrade hehe

[Mehen]

You said you uninstalled the devices. Did you uninstall the usb controllers in device manager? If it isn't a hardware issue doing that will completely reset them.

Yup, in device manager.

I'll physically look at the ports to see what I can see. But it happens with every single port, (ones on the back panel as well as the ones going to the front panel.

Just found out that apparently she is having CDROM issues as well... hrmm... I'll have to check that out later.

I think you're right Elie, I should just tell her to get a new PC + Win7.

[Mehen]

Gonna try throwing in a different HDD+brand new OS install and seeing if it has the same issues. That way I can at least tell if its hardware or software. (with the exception of it being the HDD causing this)

CDROM issues are similar. Intermittent. Although it is more like intermittent working as opposed to intermittently not working.

[Mehen]

I know statistically I shouldn't be judging based on one PC, however, DONT BUY AN eMACHINE!.

The CDROM and USB flakiness are completely unrelated. This computer is just a failure.
I figured it must've been some motherboard or OS issue since it was having multiple similar issues. So I tested the CDROM in another computer - same issue. CDROM needs to be replaced AND it is having USB issues.

This computer is only 2 years old and hardly ever used.

Still haven't narrowed down the USB problem, but I think I can get around that by just ordering a PCI USB card.