USB stopped working...

[smitty0476]

Windows 8.1, surface pro

I have been using usb since purchasing this pro a couple weeks ago.
No issues at all.
now the surface wont recognize any of my usb 2.0 devices.

I used a microsoft wireless mouse (wireless notebook optical mouse 2000) for the first time the other day, so hard to say if that was the time the rest stopped working or not.
after trying all other usb devices, and seeing they are not recognized when I plug them in... the last one, the mouse, is the only one the surface recognizes.

I am in remote northen vietnam right now... using GPS to navigate and I need to be able to plug my garmin in... good timing for this!

Any help???

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

You don't see or hear anything at all when you plug something in?

I suppose you have totally restarted?

 

[smitty0476]

thanks!
yes... have restarted many times. tried different devices, different cables.
everything was working fine for a month... then for no reason, no worky
i am fully updated, have not made changes in hardware or updates that would affect usb
not sure if there is just a usb driver i can install?
my mouse still works, but thats the last thing i need working
thx

 

[leeshor]

I have seen this problem when there have been a lot of devices installed in "a" USB port. The system gets confused. This happens on desktops too. My suggestion would be to go to the device manager and using the pull down menu, display hidden devices. Find the USB devices no longer in use and remove them then restart again.

Are you using some security software that may be blocking new devices? Some do have that ability.

 

[malberttoo]

I have seen this problem when there have been a lot of devices installed in "a" USB port. The system gets confused. This happens on desktops too. My suggestion would be to go to the device manager and using the pull down menu, display hidden devices. Find the USB devices no longer in use and remove them then restart again.

Are you using some security software that may be blocking new devices? Some do have that ability.

That was partly my thought as well, check out Device Manager, see if anything's happening when you're plugging anything in. Remove anything from the list that you're not using.

 

[smitty0476]

thanks guys.
Strange... now my devices recognize that they are connected... I get connection notice on both go pro and garmin... but devices not recognized by windows.
I uninstalled all hidden usb devices and usb root hubs as mentioned. No change.
I also uninstalled the microsoft mouse which was plugged in for the first time around the time the first problems with usb device detection started.

And as I'm writing this... i thought I better check again, after another restart, before posting... and they are now being recognized!
Random. After deleting unused devices and mouse, there was no change. I'll take it.

much thanks for your help guys... hopefully there wont be anymore posts on this thread

Smitty

 

[racand]

Coincidentally, I'm on a bicycle trip in Taiwan and can't get my usb drive to work. I'm also trying to plug in my garmin which previously worked. I've tried uninstalling drivers but one of the drivers I try to uninstall freezes the computer and I have to reboot. I can't get anything to work. Any other suggestions?

 

[Gerke]

I had this problem after installing an usb cardreader from Belkin. I had to remove the driver and reinstall the original usb driver from Microsoft. This solved my problem.

 

[smitty0476]

Coincidentally, I'm on a bicycle trip in Taiwan and can't get my usb drive to work. I'm also trying to plug in my garmin which previously worked. I've tried uninstalling drivers but one of the drivers I try to uninstall freezes the computer and I have to reboot. I can't get anything to work. Any other suggestions?

I am not sure if the HID mouse install was the trigger or not.... but I am not going to use it again while on this trip.
I did as the gurus suggested.... device manager, show hidden devices, uninstall everything that showed up as hidden.
Restart.... try again.

Also... I may have not ejected devices every time when i unplugged them, that could have been another issue. So if you fix it... make sure to eject the device.

 

[racand]

I uninstalled all the hidden USB items and have the following left after rebooting. It still doesn't work to connect. What do I need to install? FYI, the USB worked for a flash drive but like you mentioned I didn't always eject the device. Thanks for your help.

 

[Gerke]

Remove the Generic USB Hub, thats not standard. Also remove all USB Composite Devices, not standard also. Last remove USB Root Hub (not the xHCI) which is also not standard. Then reboot and all should work fine afterwards

 

[racand]

I uninstalled all that you mentioned except when I tried to uninstall the last USB composite device it froze up on me and I had to reboot. When it came back up everything was back and it didn't work. I then uninstalled everything but the last USB composite device and reboot and again everything was back and I couldn't connect my Garmin. Very strange!