Problems with USB

[SCRawl]

Okay, I'm having enough problems with this that another look from the experts is in order. Feel free to make any suggestions that you might have.

My desktop (which is an HP product -- C2D-era), which runs WinXP-Media Center Edition, has developed an annoying habit of failing to recognize my USB devices (such as thumb drives or my iPod). Plugging/de-plugging the device will occasionally yield good results, but I've usually had to reboot the system and/or delete/re-install the USB Root Hubs in Device Manager to get anywhere.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Is it likely to be fixed by reinstalling the operating system?

[General Zod]

No guarantee this will solve your problems, but you might try uninstalling the USB ports from the control panel. Go under control panel > system > hardware tab > device manager.

Scroll down the list it gives you and there should be an option for universal serial bus controllers. Right-click and uninstall the ones it gives you options for. It will re-detect them again automatically on reboot and this might clear up some of your issues.

[tchizek]

I have also had some luck with adding a USB hub between the flaky ports and the devices.

Sometimes the hub with work but the devices plugged directly into the USB port on the computer will fail.

I had a Dell box that exhibited similar symptoms that you describe (devices lost/not detected, sometimes unplug and replug would work sometimes not, sometimes uninstall/reinstall would work sometimes not) I put a hub in and the problems stopped.

(For complete disclosure I am a programmer and the machine was a development box that had some non-standard development USB devices attached. However since it was not these devices that were failing when the problems happened this solution may work for you)

[SCRawl]

No guarantee this will solve your problems, but you might try uninstalling the USB ports from the control panel. Go under control panel > system > hardware tab > device manager.

A quicker way (in case you were interested): right-click "My Computer", select "Manage", and then select "Device Manager".

Scroll down the list it gives you and there should be an option for universal serial bus controllers. Right-click and uninstall the ones it gives you options for. It will re-detect them again automatically on reboot and this might clear up some of your issues.

As I said in the OP, I've had to uninstall the USB Root Hubs as a part of my attempts to correct things in the past. The only other things I could try to axe are called "Intel(R) ICH8 Family USB Universal Host Controller - xxxx" (where xxxx is a four-digit number; there are seven such devices, including two which are labelled "USB2 Enhanced Host Controller"). The rest are all "USB Root Hub". Anyways, were you suggesting that I try to uninstall those Controllers, too?

Sometimes the hub with work but the devices plugged directly into the USB port on the computer will fail.

I've tried de-plugging and re-plugging in the hub and directly into the computer, and only rarely will this help. But I do appreciate the suggestion.