windows 7 - Black USB ports are working; blue ones aren't

08
2014-07
  • michaelb958

    My laptop (model "Dell Inspiron N5110") has four USB ports. Two of them work. Two of them don't.

    The two ports that don't work have blue interior contact surfaces, instead of black/grey. A quick web search for "blue usb port" reveals that these might be USB 3.0 ports, and the other two USB 2.0. However, the method outlined here indicates I've only got 2.0, so colour me confused.

    I've been trying various fixes for quite a while, without much success:

    • Every setting in the BIOS that could possibly be enabled is enabled (except some anti-theft thing, but I don't think that's relevant).
    • I've (re?)installed the "USB 3.0" drivers from Dell's downloads page. No dice.
    • This answer suggests finding "Unknown Device"s in Device Manager and installing drivers for them. I don't have any unknown devices displayed, so I can't do that.

    I would quite like to be able to use all four USB ports; troubleshooting assistance would be appreciated.

    • Answers
  • Linux user 867-5309

    Here is a simple way to resolve the age-old question: Is it a Windows problem, or is it bad hardware? By testing the hardware with Linux, you will quickly be able to eliminate or verify the hardware as the root of the problem.

    Boot your system with Linux on a USB flash drive; I prefer Puppy Linux for this, because it will run completely in RAM, saving you time and energy when diagnosing hardware problems. If the system won't boot with Puppy (not all systems will work with it), try booting with Ubuntu instead; I prefer 10.04.4 for hardware testing, because it uses Gnome instead of the vomit-inducing Unity interface.

    If the USB ports work under Linux, you'll know that the hardware is good and the problem must lie within Windows itself. If the USB ports don't work under Linux at all, you'll know the controller chip for those ports must be defective.

    If you don't know how to make a bootable USB flash drive with Linux, check out pendrivelinux dot com and learn some new skills.

    Best of luck with this; hope this helps you.

  • Ricky Beam

    One odd thing that has been known to work... reset the BIOS setting to default, from the BIOS setup. It sounds dumb, but that has fixed numerous issues with laptops I've used. (eg. one OS turns off a device, that another OS then cannot turn back on.)

  • disposedtrolley

    Try updating your system's BIOS and chipset drivers.

    There are additional troubleshooting instructions here.

  • user2301394

    Do you have any idea did you install/uninstall any software or Have you re-installed the Operating System? It seems like either hardware issue/driver issue. I would suggest you to scan for any missing driver.

    You can try to uninstall the driver from device manager and update the driver with latest version. You can try to plug in your mobile data cable and see mobile is charging or not. Because sometimes USB drive having hardware issue mainly with power supply.

    Hope this helps.


    • Related Question

    windows 7 - Dell XPS 17 Laptop USB SS Ports don't work until machine rebooted
  • Matt Wilko

    I have a new Dell XPS 17 laptop and have an issue that the two USB SS ports on the rear of the machine are not recognising anything when I start-up. Have tried mouse, keyboard, headset, USB display.

    If I plug a USB hub in the power light on the hub lights (presume this is hard-wired) but a mouse plugged into the hub does not light up.

    If I restart the pc the ports work fine. Also the other two USB ports work fine all the time.

    I have switched off the power saving setting on the device manager (Power management>Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power) and also in the advanced power settings (USB Settings> USB Selective suspend setting:disabled)

    I have also disabled USB powershare in the BIOS (not sure what this actually does!)

    This is becoming very annoying having to restart the machine every day before I can start work

    Running Win 7 Pro x64

    EDIT:

    I have found that setting USB Emulation to Disabled has helped the devices to be recognised during start up but they keep dropping out completely when in use

    EDIT 2:

    I contacted Dell about this issue who told me to update the BIOS driver, when I asked if I should downgrade from the factory installed A13 to the A12 posted on the dell website they said no. However there is now an A14 available on the website has anyone tried this?


    • Related Answers
  • Angel Andres

    I had the same problem:

    My rear SS USB ports would stop responding to anything I plugged into them, though they still seemed to show power output. I went to Dell's website and entered R317222.exe in their website's search bar and followed the instructions to install the new driver for the Renesas USB 3.0 Host controller.

    This fixed my problem for now...

  • zackrspv

    I had this same issue, my solution was to go Dell.com and the drivers section.

    I downloaded the newest BIOS for my motherboard (I'm on XPS L702X) and the newest Renesas USB 3.0 Host controller, and once I installed both of those, the problem went away.

    The Renesas driver is the one I think fixed it, and the download of it was named R317222.exe from Dell.com.

  • Garrett

    If the posts above didn't fix your problems, it's probably your power supply/motherboard, so try this:

    I just contacted Dell service about the same USB 3.0 issue you're talking about. They told me that a lot of those XPS 17 702x PCs that were ordered after June 2011 have a motherboard and powersupply that just can not redirect enough power to the USB ports for them to work properly. The day after I contacted them, a Dell Service Person contacted, showed up at my house and replaced both the USB 3.0 ports and installed a whole new power supply/motherboard. This happened about a week ago and I use my XPS 17 both at work and on a private basis very frequently, and haven't had any problems with my USB ports since. :)

    So my advice is to contact Dell for a replacement parts. :)