USB Ports not working

Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 with Microsoft XP Home Edition. I have 4 USB ports and none of them work!
This computer just went thru a Malware clean up process! It is Malware free now thanks to chaslang!
chaslang said I should try this forum for help. Any help with this issue would be great! Sorry, but I'm not a Major Geek and I do not know a lot about fixing computers! If anyone tells me to do something I will need instructions on how to do it!
Just trying to fix this myself so I don't have to pay a arm and a leg to take it to a shop!
Thanks

 

Is there a Yellow Mark over the USB device, in Device manager, or does it state "Unknown Device"? Have you tried doing a Internet update on it, or using the Dell Support site, to pull the driver for the USB?

http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/Product/inspiron-1501
Dell FTP site for your model http://ftp.dell.com/Browse_For_Drivers/Laptops/Inspiron/Inspiron 1501/

 

I've got a Dell Precision M70 that had the same issues. I replaced the system board — not terribly difficult with the Service Manual in front of you (yours is attached).

Ebay has your system board for either $33.96 with free shipping or $75.00 + $6.00 shipping here.

 

The first step I tried was doing the Windows update. It showed 4 updates for my system. The first update was BIOS. As it was updating my computer restarted and a black screen showed up and it says......

Broadcom UNDI PXE-2.1 v2.10
Copyright (C) 2000-2006 Broadcom Corporation
Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation
All rights reserved.
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM.
Operating System not found

I'm guessing this is something bad!:cry
And under operating system not found is a cursor flashing!
Not sure if I should turn it off and try rebooting. I will wait for advice before I do that!
Thanks

 

I'm guessing that your MBR (Master Boot Record) was corrupted by the malware. Do you have a/the Windows Installation CD?

 

I have 1 that says Operating System and 1 that says Drivers and Utilities and a few other disc!

 

You should be good to go then. Try the Windows Repair first, before doing a full install; if the disk gives you that option.

 

Sorry to sound stupid but how do I do a Windows Repair or a full install.
How do I get the disc to start?

 

You have to go into the bios first, then choose the boot device, to be the DVD drive, then exit saving your changes. When the system boots, it will ask you to press <enter> to boot the CD/DVD, then follow the instructions.

BTW, the more questions you ask, the more we charge, or at least I do, in cases of certain micro-brew beers.

 

IF the computer boots into BIOS (Dell logo, bar that moves across screen) press F2 to enter setup. On left, use arrow keys to select boot sequence, hit enter. On right, use up or down arrows to select CD/DVD drive, press enter or spacebar to enable it (if it's not already enabled) and press letter U to move CD/DVD drive above hard drive. Save the changes and exit according to instructions on screen but before exiting open CD/DVD tray and insert the Operating System disc.

On next reboot, press a key to boot from CD when told. Windows Setup will load files and start Windows. When asked what you want to do, type R or r for repair. A new screen will come up asking which version of Windows you want to log into — IMPORTANT — if "1C:\Windows" shows in the upper left, type 1 and press enter. If it doesn't or you get some type of error message, you're faced with wiping or formatting the drive and starting over from scratch by re-installing Windows, the drivers and your apps.

If "1C:\Windows" DOES appear and you've pressed 1 and enter, then enter the Administrative password and press enter. A Command console will open.

Now we're going to try to repair the MBR (Master Boot Record):

1.) At the first "C:\>" prompt, type fixboot and press Enter. Type Y or y to confirm and press Enter.
2.) At the next "C:\>" prompt, type fixmbr and press Enter. A warning will show. Type Y or y to confirm and press Enter.
3.) Again, at the next "C:\>" prompt, type fixboot and press Enter. Type Y or y to confirm and press Enter. — fixboot HAS to be run twice.
4.) At the next "C:\>" prompt, type exit and press Enter. The computer will restart.

If we were successful, you'll get the screen "Press any key to boot from CD" but, this time don't and then Windows XP SHOULD boot normally. If we weren't successful in fixing the MBR, then as I stated earlier in this post, you're going to have to start over from scratch.

Malware is such a PITA.

 

I think the repair kinda worked! The computer is kinda working now! I click on Internet Explorer and it goes to my home page. Than I tried to go to majorgeeks.com and it says..... "The requested key was not found in any active activation context." After that I typed majorgeeks.com in the google toolbar than my page froze.
Also I have some new Icons>>>>>>>>>>
BIOS.BAK
FLASHABL.ROM
MFC42.DLL
MSVCP60.DLL
MSVCRT.DLL
PHLASH
PHLASH
PHLASHLC.DLL
PHLASHNT
WINPHLASH
WINPHLASH(THIS ONE IS A HELP MENU)

I try to update my Antivirus and the computer freezes.

@plodr-- I checked the BIOS and the first boot device is the hard drive! Thank you for all the help so far........looks like I will still need some help!

@mdonah-- Thank you for the step by step instructions, but I must of did something wrong cause I never got the prompt to follow these instructions

Now we're going to try to repair the MBR (Master Boot Record):

1.) At the first "C:\>" prompt, type fixboot and press Enter. Type Y or y to confirm and press Enter.
2.) At the next "C:\>" prompt, type fixmbr and press Enter. A warning will show. Type Y or y to confirm and press Enter.
3.) Again, at the next "C:\>" prompt, type fixboot and press Enter. Type Y or y to confirm and press Enter. — fixboot HAS to be run twice.
4.) At the next "C:\>" prompt, type exit and press Enter. The computer will restart
Is this something I still need to do?

@brownizs-- Thank you for your help, sorry I have too many questions! LOL
As long as I can keep asking questions I have no problem picking up some micro-brews! Let me know what kind you like and I will send you a case of it!

The other error I get is.........
Virus and spyware definitions couldn't be updated.
This app couldn't check for virus and spyware definition updates. Check your Internet or network connection and try again.
Click Help for more information about this problem.

Error code: 0x80244019
Error description: The definition updates couldn't be installed. Please try again later.

I am connected to the Internet, so I don't know why it's saying i'm not connected.`

Let me know what I should next! Thanks

 

It seems that the Windows repair did not work. So I tried to reset back to factory settings, but ctrl + f11 is not working either! Does anyone know how I can fix ctrl + f11 or is there another way to restore the computer?

 

Plodr confirmed what I stated in my previous post. You're going to have to start over from scratch. Also, I'm sorry about my error in the step-by-step instructions. It should have read "C:\WINDOWS>" prompt instead of "C:\>" prompt. :-o

 

I tried something different before doing the reinstall! It had an old version of Internet Explorer (I think it was IE6), so I loaded Internet Explorer 8 from a CD and now it works! But back to the original problem.... the USB ports still do not work. I updated all the updates. Than I went to Dell and it had 2 updates, but it will not finish loading the update! Any ideas what I can do now?

Also do I need to unistall the old version of IE or did it unistall when I loaded IE8?