Hi all. All of my dads system's USB ports have stopped working at all, I've tried all the ports with multiple devices, not a single one is doing anything. This is obviously a big problem. So far to fix it, I've tried restarting (obvious one), reinstalling USB drivers in winXP, and re-installing mobo drivers. None of this had any effect. The mobo in question is an Asrock K7NFs-raid. I know they're not a good brand of mobos, but it was the only socket A one I could find available when I was looking for one a while ago. Anyone have any ideas for fixing the thing? I'm loathed to keep chucking out bits of hardware from his machine whenever they have the least problem, but on this issue I can't think of anything more to do than shove yet another mobo in the system. Cheers for any ideas.
When you re-installed the drivers, did you uninstall, reboot THEN re-install then reboot? Did all USB ports stop working at the same time? Is the inside of the computer dust free... maybe there is a dust particle that conduct electricity and that it does a wrong connection inside. Some low-end motherboard, sometimes has weird stuff, like a jumper to enable/disable the USB ports... check for that, if it does have one, and the jumper is set on enable, then maybe change the jumper. Also check in the BIOS is everything is ok, or try cleaning it, and re-configure it (I'll be surprised it does anything, but it's try). It's all I can think think off, other then broken motherboard, and you maybe an internal USB card would be required.
boot into a linux livecd to see if something has gone wrong with the hardware or if it is just a windows/driver issue.
Boot into Safemode, uninstall *everything* under USB controllers in Device Manager. Reboot normally and XP should redetect all your usb stuff (as long as it's working!) Assuming it does, check in the device manager to see if any now have a conflict or anything.
Well, I did the easiest of the above, booted into an Ubuntu disc. Still no USB function whatsoever, it didn't pick up USB pen drives - so I guess that means the hardware itself is dead? Edit: And yeah, every single port seems to have ceased functioning at the same time. My money'd be on the southbridge, if I had to put it somewhere.
Been there with that particular board...... One last thing to try, as you have nothing to lose, is a BIOS flash. If the BIOS is corrupted (big Asrock problem) and cannot see the USB controller,then no software is going to see it either. Good luck, I RMA'd 5 of these..... things.
Yup, they're pieces of junk. I'm not even going to bother RMAing it though, I'd rather just stick my old NF7-S from my system into my dads box, at least I'd know it's going to work then. I'll give flashing it a go though, thanks for that hint
