HELP: USB Problem On XP

I have a Tyan S2099 mainboard and have been having USB problems for awhile. I have 2 USB 2.0 ports in the front of my computer, and one of these will not respond when I connect a device. The other one will sometimes cause the machine to lock up.

I opened device manager (Windows XP) and then "USB controllers", and I see an "unknown device". When I look at the driver for this device, I see that there is "none installed". Could this be the cause of the problem?

 

Yes, there are several possibilities, and "bad hardware" obliterates all other options.

Open up the case, trace the facia's USB ports back to the motherboard and pull out the plug and inspect to see that wire-connectors are present. The motherboard's plug might also have a bent of missing pin. Those pins might be hand-straightened, but they can also easily be broken off.

The USB connector-block will have one row of 4 pins and a parallel row of 3 pins - one corner pin WILL be missing on the motherboard block. That's normal. But NOT 2 missing pins.

There's a chance that the USB cable's connector is flipped backwards, so simply turning it around might produce working results.

Finally, there's the Driver Issue, and hopefully you can locate the proper USB drivers IF NEEDED on the Tyan support site. (Windows since 2000 and XP have included satisfactory generic USB drivers but perhaps some motherboards use alternatives that would benefit from a specific USB driver.)

That "unknown device" error is definitely saying, "This driver isn't working for some reason" - bad software? Or is it Good Software that detects a hardware error? Either way... I'd inspect the motherboard's connector, the USB cable's connector and see if Tyan supplies a specific USB driver. (If they don't, then you're facing a Hardware Problem.)

Finally, there's a chance the case-facia's USB ports are bad, period. And well, not even my blowtorch fixes those.

 

Your Motherboard will have a COM Port on it, too. This is the same size as the motherboard's USB plug-in block, too, but COM ports will have 8 pins - two parallel rows of 4 pins.

These should NOT have a USB connector plugged into them. There are manuals that say "This could damage the USB ports if electricity is applied."

 

All pins on USB labeled connections on MB are present. Theere is no discoloration anywhere that I can see on the MB printed circuits, so nothing burnt. Tested wires from the MB to the ports (connectors), and all 4 wires have continuity.

Pretty sure it's a software issue. Went to the TYAN website but don't know which driver to install, and how to do it. Can you guide me?
Attached is a screenshot of my device manager with USB opened. What driver am I looking for? Appreciate any specific help. I had tried to install a driver a few days ago, but it wouldn't install. Was looking for some kind of "inf" file.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=208374&d=1391471490

 

from your screenshot, the software end looks fine. It could be those front ports that ChristineBCW mentions at the end of her first post. I noticed that it only lists 7 USB devices and there should be 8.

Apparently those USB ports are surface mounted and unless you're good at micro-soldering, it looks like you'll need to replace the mobo to correct the issue.

I had to do that with my computer because when I got it, I had problems with all of the USB ports. Two were 1.1 when they were supposed to be 2.0 and one wouldn't recognize any device connected to it.

 

Here's the Tyan Driver Page for the S2099, and I do see USB 2.0 Drivers listed as the bottom entry. I'm rather surprised that an 845-era board would list specific drivers BUT there's also a chance that this is a generic set because this page offers drivers for much older Windows versions, too.

If these drivers don't solve the problem, then I'd vote "hardware problem" - that's about your own choice.

If you want to go further, find a USB-2.0 facia-cable from another motherboard (or perhaps one of those back-panel ports 3 & 4 and plug that into the motherboard and see if that's a better connection. If that works, then you know the case's USB front panel connectors are 'bad'.

If this alternative set behaves the same, then it's the motherboard's connector that is probably bad.