All PCs, whether desktop or portable, incorporate USB ports because they are the universal way to connect external devices. However, there are times when the USB ports do not work properly or deliver poor performance and become a real headache, so in this article we are going to tell you what to do if you have a problem with the USB ports in your team. so, by going through this article USB Ports Not Working windows 11, 10 or 7 problems are soved easily.
The symptoms that you may suffer and that indicate that a USB port does not work as it should be several: from not recognizing any connected device until it does not work at all, going through poor performance, especially when storage units are connected to it. The causes can be diverse as well, going through hardware failures until they are simply too dirty, so let’s see what we can do about it.
Solutions to a problem USB Ports Not Working
First of all, the first thing to know is if the problem is in the USB port or is it the device itself. To do this, we can try to connect it to another port to see if that is how it works or connect it to another computer. If the device is detected normally on another port or on another computer, then it is clear that we have the problem on that port.
Restart the system
Although it is usually one of the first things that come to mind when we encounter an error of this type, it is worth remembering that we can restart our computer to see if the problem is solved. Restarting or turning the computer off and on again can cause a specific error to be solved and when the system is started again with all the services and drivers, everything will work correctly again.
Check the physical status of the USB port
- Dirty port
In that case, we can try to clean the USB port that does not work well, since the accumulation of dust or any other dirt can be the cause of our problem. With a blower we can try to remove any type of dirt from the USB port that does not work, restart the computer and check if the problems have been solved.
- Damaged USB port
If not, then we may have a hardware problem, that is, that the USB has failed, or that the software that controls it is the one that is not able to recognize the device that we have connected. In the first case, replacing a USB port that does not work is not an easy task, since they usually come soldered to the motherboard. Therefore, the only solution would be to replace the entire motherboard.
Taking into account that most of the external devices that we connect to a USB port of the PC need power from it, if when connecting a device to a port it does nothing, it is possible that there is damage in the power supply of the port. Some of the symptoms of this type of damage is seeing that the connected device does nothing, reboots or hangs without any explanation, they make a lot of noise and of course, they smell like burning.
Malware or virus on the computer
It is possible that the failure of a USB port on our computer is related to a virus or malware that has lodged on our computer. We could even find that a USB port stops working when we connect a specific device, and it may be the device itself that is infected and not the computer. Therefore, it is convenient to try to connect other USB devices in that same port to see if it fails with all of them or with only one.
In this case, the ideal would be to try to clean the device in question, although it never hurts to carry out a complete analysis of our computer to see if we have any virus or malware that may be causing a failure in one or more USB ports of the computer.
Error code 43
If the system shows us an error window referring to code 43, it is important to know that this error refers to a specific hardware problem in the device that is connected via the USB cable. Therefore, this means that there is a bad connection or the cable is damaged and hence the device cannot be recognized. In this case, we can do a test by connecting the same device with another cable to check if the problem is resolved.
However, on some occasions, we can also avoid this code 43 error by deactivating the universal bus controller and power saving from the system device manager.
Obsolete driver or driver
But first of all, we can check if the driver that controls our USB port that does not work is correctly updated. To do this, we open the Windows Device Manager, look for the universal serial bus drivers and deploy that option.
There we will find the Microsoft Host Controller, which is on which we have to click with the right mouse button to later select the option Uninstall the device from the contextual menu. If we have more host controllers, we must repeat the process with each one of them and once we have all eliminated, we restart the computer so that Windows can install them again and check if the problem is solved.
If we do not find any USB host controller in the Device Manager, then we must go to the top menu option Action> Search for hardware changes and wait for the system to verify the hardware of our computer to verify that the USB driver appears.
Disable USB Selective Suspend feature
If the problem still continues and the USB port does not work, we can try to disable the USB selective suspend function, since it is possible that the power settings are overriding the USB driver and this is causing it to not work properly. Let us remember that USB selective suspension is an energy saving setting that has the ability to reduce the use of our laptop’s battery by making a kind of cut in the equipment’s power supply.
Having this function active on the computer means that the USB controller of the same can be overridden and that therefore, the USB port may not work as it should. Therefore, we can try to disable it and see if the problem disappears.
To do this, we open the Control Panel and go to Hardware and Sound> Power Options. Now we enter Change plan settings and then Change advanced power settings.
From the Power Options window, we look for the USB Configuration option, we expand and within USB Selective Suspension Configuration we deactivate the property. If we have a laptop, we will have the option of deactivating this option both when we are using the battery and when we have the equipment directly connected to the power. Finally, we restart the computer and check if the USB port that does not work is already able to detect a device connected to it.
What do Windows say about the USB port that gives poor performance?
There are times when the fault for problems or poor performance is not the USB port itself but the drivers, and this can especially happen after installing the operating system, after updating the chipset drivers (when installing the operating system, the Chipset drivers containing them in the USB controller are usually also installed automatically) or after Windows Update, so you don’t have to see what the operating system recognizes when you plug the device into the device’s USB port.
To do this you must open the Device Manager (right click on the Start button -> Device Manager) and in the window that opens, check what appears under the “Universal serial bus controllers” section.
If any of the items in this section have a yellow exclamation mark or a red X, there’s a problem. The simplest thing you can do is right click on the problem item and select the Uninstall option. Then restart your computer and Windows will try to install the driver again.
If that doesn’t work, make sure you don’t need to install Windows Update updates, and it doesn’t hurt to check your motherboard manufacturer’s website for updated chipset drivers. However, if the problem persists, don’t despair just yet, the USB port might not work or perform poorly and Windows might recognize it as correct.
What to do if the USB continues to perform poorly or not work?
If there’s no obvious issue with the physical port giving you poor performance or not working, it’s probably totally wrong and you need to find a solution. In this case, we recommend ditching theport or purchasing a standalone USB hub plugged into a working port.
If all the ports are causing the problem, the chipset may not function properly and you may have to replace the motherboard, although you may decide to purchase a PCI expansion card with a USB port.
Conclusion
In this article we soved the issue related to usb ports that are not working. Hope your issue is properly solved now. If instead of this you facing any other problem you can comment below. we can reach you as soon possible. THANK YOU.
