msi motherboard front usb ports not working

I have a msi pm8m2-v mother board. The front 2 usb ports don’t work. Originally the pc ran xp but now i have installed windows 7 64 bit on it (after I bought a new pc, thinking that I could not fix this msi pc- but I did). The bios is dated 28/7/2005 (up to date).
I did find a suggestion on the net to cut the usboc wire, which I did. Briefly this worked as could see a usb stick until the screen started wavering and the computer crashed. I then resoldered the usboc wire back in to the plug (jusb1) and the pc now works again, but still with the front usb ports not working.
The motherboard is in a generic case built by a local shop in 2005.
I have reset the bios a few times
I have tried jusb2 but to no avail
An old floppy disk drive is still attached. I did disconnect this to see if this might reduce the “load” If this was an issue, but it made no difference.
I have tried driver boost but and it suggests a new via raid driver, but I’m not sure if it installs correctly as it keeps suggesting the same thing.
Has anyone got any ideas on how to get the front usb ports working?

 

I assume the rear USB ports are working ok?

Did the front USB work before you installed Win 7? If so, in Device Manager, expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers and right click on USB Root Hub. In the properties section of the menu you get, go to Power Management, and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Do this for all Root Hubs shown. I'm given to understand this can sometimes correct USB issues that popped up after upgrading to Win 7.

If they were not working in XP either, you can try to install the chipset drivers from MSI for the board. Sometimes motherboards can be finicky when it comes to drivers . . . I've had issues like this with VIA chipsets, though not specifically the USB. The site does not list 7 under it's supported OS, but the drivers for Vista 64 bit should work fine.

I see you have already tried the other USB header. It's possible the case ports themselves might be defective. I've had that issue when dealing with cheaper cases.

Good luck - let us know how it's going.

 

Oh . . . and welcome to Major Geeks!

 

i tried what you said. it didn't work.i have tested the voltages from the 2 usb ports via a lead that i stripped back and then put my multimeter on after plugging into the two usb ports. the voltages seemed ok ie/ vcc to gnd. i tried installing the msi downloads with respect to the msi pm8m2-v but none of them worked and i'm not sure exactly which one i should choose. attached is a view of my usb configuration from the hardware manager perspective. i have 4 rear usb ports which are all working.

 

Hmmm . . . It sounds like the motherboard front USB headers have failed. A bad USB port can sometimes still supply voltage but not read data.

I am unsure what else to try. I have had some success with buggy hardware by "uninstalling" it in device manager, rebooting, then letting windows find the "new" hardware and install drivers for it . . . though I don't recall having done it with USB. It may be worth a try.

 

thanks for the reply,
wrt uninstalling, I'm not sure what to uninstall as everything looks the same in the device manager with respect to the usb ports. i did uninstall one item and it froze my wireless keyboard temporarily, but it did come back. i have got the old fashioned keyboard which plugs into the circular port and the old fashioned mouse which the db9 plug. i just tried it on the back of the msi pc and it is not recognised

 

Did the wireless keyboard come back after a reboot? If so, that is to be expected. The OS found the USB resource you "uninstalled" and installed the drivers for it.

Oh - You never specified - did the USB ports work under XP? If not, then I doubt it's a driver issue and the USB headers have failed. but if they did work, then uninstalling USB in device manager might be worth a try.

If it were me, I'd uninstall everything under the Universal Serial Bus controllers list in Device Manager and reboot. Windows should find "new hardware" and install drivers for it. Uninstalling hardware in Device Manager has resolved some weird issues with network hardware and optical drives for me, so it's a reasonable action to take if you still suspect it is a driver issue.

At any rate (unless you have a corrupted windows installation) it shouldn't hurt anything. Windows will find the USB hardware just like it did when you originally installed the operating system.

 

how do i prevent accidentally deleting the wireless keyboard first?. i might try it with my round pin keyboard as a precaution. there doesn't seem to be any way to identify what matches my wireless keyboard.