USB ports not recognized by windows

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mattbuff5 · #1 Post by **mattbuff5** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:26 pm

Within the past 2 weeks, my Thinkpas T42p has quit recognizing any an all USB devices. The weird part is that the devices are still receiving power from the USB ports but they are not being recognized from within Windows XP. I have tried all of the following to no avail:

1. Troubleshoot via PC Doctor.
2. Tested all devices for proper functionality on other PCs.
2. Uninstall/Reinstall USB drivers through device manager.
4. Ensure USB is enables in BIOS and ensured BIOS and controller were both most up-to-date through IBM
3. Reinstall Intel i855 Chipset Drivers
4. Completely scanned PC for virus/spyware with Ad-aware, webroot spysweeper, PC Tools Spyware Doctor and Spybot-Search and Destroy.

The 3 main devices I'm trying to recognize are a Dell USB Thumbdrive, Ipod Nano, and WD External USB HDD

Nothing is working!!! Any advice greatly appreciated.

#2 Post by **richk** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:39 pm

If you still have the service partion and have a USB mouse or keyboard, try to boot into that and see if a USB mouse is recognized.

ajkula66 · #3 Post by **ajkula66** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:15 pm

Welcome to the forum!

Try downloading or borrowing a copy of a "live" Linux CD and booting from it, then see what happens.

If Linux sees and enables your USBs, you have a software issue.

If not, you likely have a motherboard problem.

Good luck and let us know.

mattbuff5 · #4 Post by **mattbuff5** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:10 pm

Thank for the info. Rick. I booted directly into rescue and recovery on the service partition and got a message that told me about 5 system files were corrupt - rndismp.sys, usb8023.sys, oembios,bin, oembios.dat, oembios.sig .... could be some correlation?!?! anyways, the usb mouse did not work while booted there.

Also, thanks ajk... i will try to boot into linux via cd tomorrow and let you know.

matt

jamiphar · #5 Post by **jamiphar** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:40 pm

I've had a similar thing happen on my dad's HP a while back, it had stopped recognizing his wireless keyboard. To fix it, I had to delete certain USB registry entries. To do this, first unplug all USB devices, then click on start, click run, type regedit and press enter. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\

Look for folders with "0000" in the title and delete them. Then close regedit and try the USB devices again. See this screenshot.

Hopefully this will help!

mattbuff5 · #6 Post by **mattbuff5** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:55 pm

jamiphar - i don't have any folder under the usb folder in the registry...see this pic

jamiphar · #7 Post by **jamiphar** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:01 am

mattbuff5 wrote:jamiphar - i don't have any folder under the usb folder in the registry...see this pic

All right. Have you tried booting from a Linux CD yet? If you don't have one, you can download the Ubuntu 7.10 live CD here: http://famteam.com/james/iso/ubuntu7.10.iso

Like George said, if the USB works when you're running Linux, it's definitely a software problem.

Moderator edit: Corrected URL by deleting period at the end

mattbuff5 · #8 Post by **mattbuff5** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:49 am

Yes, i tried this morning to use a USB mouse with an Ubuntu LiveCD. NO LUCK!!

Also, I actually have 2 identical T42p 2372-HTU machines, so I swapped hard drives on the machines.

Machine 1 (with bad USBs) - Now has machine 2's hard drive (with good usbs) and the USBs still do not work on machine 1. And vice-versa, the USBs still work in Machine 2, with Machine 1's hard drive. So I think I can safely conclude it isn't OS related.

Tonight, I am going to do I side-by-side comparison of the BIOS, Embedded controller and chipset drivers to ensure all are identical. After that I think it will be safe to say there is a hardware malfunction in the USB ports or the system board. Which leads to my next question.

If it is hardware related, can the USB ports only be replaced by replacing the entire system board?

jamiphar · #9 Post by **jamiphar** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:55 am

Replacing the board would probably be the only solution. Unless you can find a bad solder joint on the jacks or some other simple problem.

ajkula66 · #10 Post by **ajkula66** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:55 am

You're looking at a mobo repair/replacement. It would be very rare that both ports go haywire just like that. There is more to that picture, and from my experience on some other machines, it's the chipset itself that has wacked out...

Good luck.

mattbuff5 · #11 Post by **mattbuff5** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:07 am

ajkula66 - any ideas on solutions for chipset... i updated drivers directly from intel already.

ajkula66 · #12 Post by **ajkula66** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:13 am

I'm sorry to say, no. That's why I've mentioned mobo repair or replacement...drivers are not likely to change anything at this point.

mattbuff5 · #13 Post by **mattbuff5** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:21 am

can i do any current/voltage checks with a multimeter?

jamiphar · #14 Post by **jamiphar** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:24 am

mattbuff5 wrote:can i do any current/voltage checks with a multimeter?

The only thing I can suggest is checking any fuses that are near the ports with an ohmmeter. There shouldn't be any resistance through a working fuse.

:EDIT:

On second thought, this shouldn't be the case. You said that things were still powered from the ports.

mattbuff5 · #15 Post by **mattbuff5** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:35 am

yeah, that is what confuses me. my usb devices are still getting power; for example, ipod, thumbdrive and external usb hdd...

is there a specific cable pin layout for the thinkpad usb ports, that i could check to see if the ones responsible for transporting signal are not broken?

icantux · #16 Post by **icantux** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:37 am

Hmm.. same thing happened on my T42 (2378). Both USB ports became unresponsive. Tried various means of testing - nothing. Oddly enough one program I used showed that both USB ports had power, but nothing I plugged into those ports would work (can't remember now what diagnostic program I used).

Ended up calling Lenovo to see what they'd suggest ... motherboard replacement. That's when my problems really started.

jamiphar · #17 Post by **jamiphar** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:40 am

mattbuff5 wrote:yeah, that is what confuses me. my usb devices are still getting power; for example, ipod, thumbdrive and external usb hdd...

is there a specific cable pin layout for the thinkpad usb ports, that i could check to see if the ones responsible for transporting signal are not broken?

The pin layout is the same as any other USB port. Wikipedia tells you which pin is which: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb

The two middle ones should be the data positive and negative. If there's a broken trace or a blown fuse in that path, it could be the cause. It'd be pretty unlikely that both ports would go out this way, though.

#18 Post by **richk** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:21 pm

There is a 6V 1.5a fuse on the underside of the board (F16) that supplies power. It has nothing to do with the signaling. I have replaced the fuse a couple of times when it was burned out. I have no idea which chip does the signaling. There is a 6-pin chip near there that looks right, but I cannot find a datasheet.

mattbuff5 · #19 Post by **mattbuff5** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:09 pm

so as previously discussed i had problems on my old t42p 2373 htu... well i actually own two of the exact same machines (one for me, one for the wife) she recently migrated to a new macbook pro which in turn i bricked my old thinkpad and migrated all my data to her old machine so i could have working usb ports. SAME THING IS HAPPENING TO THIS MACHINE NOW. I am stumped. Any ideas besides what was discussed above?

Also, I'm thinking of selling these two machines and getting either a newer thinkpad or possibly one of the ideapads. What could i expect to sell one of the 2373-htu machines for? Everyhting is in perfect working condition except fot the usb ports

defor · #20 Post by **defor** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:09 am

My t42p had the exact same issue when I got it a month or so ago, part of the symptoms where power on usb, but no data, and bluetooth module was recognized, but did not load as a device, regardless of power state.

same for any os loaded onto the system.

Sent it in to Lenovo for warranty repair, and planar was replaced... looks like a nasty little issue that's plaguing t42p's.

zdriver · #21 Post by **zdriver** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:34 pm

Since it is happening on both T42p notebooks now, I would suspect one of the external usb devices as the cause. Prime suspect would be your thumb drive - they are cheaply made.

A friend of mine had a bad cheap $10 usb airlink wifi card that blew up every port he tried it in before I stopped him. A costly error.

egibbs · #22 Post by **egibbs** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:48 pm

FWIW the T42 and T42p series have a history of "weak" USB ports. My T42p lunched the MB when I turned off a digital camera that was connected by USB - just shut off and refused to turn on until it went back to IBM for a new MB. Lots of others have had similar problems to yours.

Ed Gibbs

defor · #23 Post by **defor** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:25 pm

kinda the main reason I don't use anything over usb if i have any question about its cable or wiring quality, as replacing a 42/42p board is no cheap feat once it's oow.

USB ports not recognized by windows

USB ports not recognized by windows

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