USB stopped working on asus laptop

March 28, 2014 5:36 AM

The usb just stopped working on my Asus zenbook UX32VD laptop, running windows 8.1. Device manager shows no problems with usb (or any devices), and I have tried plugging in several different usb devices (my mouse, flash drives) to check. The built-in touchpad still works. Can anyone suggest how I might fix it, or what has happened? Thanks.

Things I have tried:

• Uninstalling the usb devices in device manager, then restarting.
• Downloading the Intel chipset drivers from Asus's website, and reinstalling.
• Unplugging all the usb devices and restarting.
• Uninstalling Asus usb Ai charger (recommended on some forums).

I'm afraid I can't pinpoint when the trouble started exactly, since I have been using linux (m usual OS) for the past few days. Tonight when I restarted into Windows, my usb mouse wasn't working. I upgraded to Windows 8.1 a couple of months ago, mostly without problems (certainly without any usb problems).

Thanks a lot for any help.

posted by theyexpectresults to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Are they USB 2.0 or USB 3.0? 3.0 uses different drivers, which (in my experience) are sometimes less well-supported. Make sure you installed the right ones.
posted by catalytics at 6:31 AM on March 28, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks, I think they should be USB 3.0 ports. Do you have any advice on how I could reinstall the usb drivers? There aren't any usb drivers on the product page for my laptop on the asus website:
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=UX32VD&p=3&s=411

posted by theyexpectresults at 7:47 AM on March 28, 2014

I've seen many USB ports (and other ports with large numbers of connect/disconnect cycles) fail this way due to mechanical failure of the connector; either the connection inside the shroud fails or one or more of the pins that connect to the motherboard crack through. Since the driver can see the USB chip, it reports everything fine.
posted by kjs3 at 7:54 AM on March 28, 2014

Best answer: Thanks a lot for the input. I should have mentioned that I could still use the ports in linux fine, so it didn't seem to be a port failure.

I read about disabling the XHCI Pre-Boot Mode in the BIOS, and it seems to have fixed the problem. I still have no idea what triggered the problem though (I presume an update from either Microsoft or Asus).
posted by theyexpectresults at 10:19 PM on March 28, 2014