This is an extremely difficult one to troubleshoot, I believe. In fact, I'm willing to bet this is the question of death. I've done a lot, tried a lot, and I'm beginning to think my USB ports are just shot for good.
Here is the history:
1) I bought a Samsung mp3 player at Radio Shack (YP-F1 XB), thinking I would save $ over an iPod (plus this had a radio)
2) Excited, I brought it home, unwrapped, and plugged it into one of my USB ports
3) The mp3 player was initially detected as a Mass Storage Device, and XP ran its default window which prompts the user how you'd like to interact with the new USB Mass Storage Device.
4) Later, while the mp3 player was still plugged, I popped in the Samsung CD which installs the Music Management software and the USB driver.
5) That's when things started to go haywire.
6) The mp3 player, after having installed the driver for it, suddenly was undetectable. I kept receiving "USB Device Not Recognized" popup windows from the bottom right toolbar.
7) This operation apparently screwed up both my USB ports somehow, because when I tried to plug in my printer, external hard drive, and blackberry, they were all "USB Device Not Recognized". On both ports.
8) That's when I called Dell Support.
---DELL DIAGNOSES MISADVENTURES BEGIN
9) Dell Support Round 1 - Support call had me verify that the 4 separate devices I was trying to connect weren't faulty. Fine. I verified that the printer, blackberry, and external drive all worked since I plugged them into another computer I have. Then, he had me check to see if there were any "yellow question marks" when viewing any of the items under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" of the Device Manager. There were none. In fact, whenever I connected a device, a new item went underneath it "Unknown Device", which, when you clicked on its Properties, showed that "No drivers are installed for this device". So the guy had me pull our my Dell utilities CDs and find the one to reinstall USB drivers - a section titled something like Notebook Utilities on the CD. So I did, and as I needed to restart, and I was on support chat, I lost my support guy.
10) Dell Support Round 2 - So, after restarting, that didn't work. I went on Dell chat support again, and after waiting 20 minutes, finally got someone. This time, after explaining my situation, they wanted me to perform a "System Restore" (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools). Fine. He explained that it would restore the entire system to a previous state in the past. Okay, that made good sense. So I went in there and specified to have my system restored to a few hours back, just before I installed the mp3 player. Restart needed, lost rep again.
11) Dell Support Round 3 - After restarting, that didn't work. I was really starting to get pissed now. So I logged unto Dell chat support again, and when I got someone (after 40 mins), I explained my current situation, and they stepped thru the same scripted recommendations, which I told him I already performed. He finally gave me an actual Dell Support number to call, 1-866-497-2661. His final recommendation, and he said that this would 100% work, was to do a System Restore. I told him I already tried that, and ended that session.
12) Dell Support Round 4 - 2am in the morning. I called the Dell support people using the hard-to-find number I was given. Was put on hold, patched thru to one person, who patched me unto another person in Canada. This person was actually pretty helpful. We tried a lot of different things:
- We went into BIOS, and she had me have CAPS, Num, and Scroll Locks on. Then she gave me this wierd key combo to strike - Alt+E, Alt+F, and Alt+B. I heard beeps every time I did one set. This, she explained, ran activities in the background which reset some utilities to factory settings.
- We went into each of the "USB Root Hub" USB items via Device Manager, and went Properties -> Power Management tab -> uncheck the "Allow computer to turn of device to save power".
- We manually uninstalled all USB items from the Device Manager, then reinstalled with the Dell Utility CD I had.
- We did a System Restore to a previous point 2 WEEKS prior.
After all that, at around 4am, she asked me "Do you have anything important on your laptop?" "Oh, crap...." I knew what that meant.
She suggested a full OS reinstall - clean install.
---DELL DIAGNOSES MISADVENTURES END
13) After a few hours backing up my files unto several CDs (Arbanak - wish I knew about that network utility), I was ready. But I decided to sleep first.
14) Next day, while at work, I began the OS clean reinstall. XP Pro SP2 (I have the Dell reinstallation CD).
15) I found some pretty good instructions on the Dell support site to step me through this. Not to hard. Booted from disc, deleted existing partition, created new partition to install OS on.
16) After the install of XP, I didn't have any internet connections, so I couldn't update XP. I decided instead to reinstall the Dell drivers for my laptop. So I installed the drivers off my CD one at a time (though I did not know which specifically I needed to install, and in what sequence...there was a recommended path of Utilities & Drivers, Chipset, Video, Audio, Network drivers. Then I installed the other application drivers (for printer, etc)
17) Anyway, after everything I did, I was able to get the following results:
TOP usb port - mouse OK, external drive NOT RECOGNIZED, printer NOT RECOGNIZED, mp3 player NOT RECOGNIZED
BOTTOM usb port - mouse OK, external drive OK, printer OK, mp3 player NOT RECOGNIZED
See? Basically errant, inconsistent behavior.
I'm hoping this forum/thread can shed some light here....
MY CURRENT STATUS:
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After the above, I actually tried an XP Repair Install, which also didn't work. I'm going to try a clean OS install again. I may have made a mistake with installing the Dell drivers, sequence of it? Not sure...
QUESTIONS FOR ALL:
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1) After a clean OS reinstall, does anyone know which drivers exactly are needed for install on a Dell 700m, and in what sequence?
2) Will purchasing the USB Hub Card do the trick?
3) Do you know what name the port on top is (Port 0?) versus the port on the bottom? Just trying to map exactly which of the 4 "Intel USB..." items and 4 "USB Root" items map to the port on top, which map to the port on the bottom.
4) When I get a "USB Device Not Recognized" and click on the balloon, how come under the USB Root, there are 5 ports listed? That's just doesnt make sense.
Nothing is ever easy.
by: garycasePosted on 2005-12-06 at 22:29:33ID: 15434139
Interesting saga with Dell. Since you've got a full backup at the moment (I presume), I would first try to use the PC Restore feature - if your laptop includes it.
Be SURE you're backed up here -- this will destroy all data on the laptop.
Restart the laptop, and while the www.dell.com is displayed at the top of the screen (you have a very short time to do this) press <Ctrl><F11>
Do you get another page with the option to restore?
If so, choose Restore, and then Confirm it. In about ten minutes your laptop should be exactly as it was when you received it from the factory.
If that works okay; then install the CD for your MP3 player -- do this BEFORE you ever plug it in. THEN plug in the player.
Post back with how this all works.
IF the USB ports still don't work after the complete restore above, then you may want to order an add-in card with USB ports -- just to confirm whether this is a USB port issue, or something more significant. These are pretty inexpensive these days, and could be useful in troubleshooting this issue. For example:
http://www.newegg.com/Prod