Orange County Register

The North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.

Question: I have an HP s7700n running Windows Vista. The unit works flawlessly in all areas except the USB access has stopped working! There are 9 USB ports on this PC and none will acknowledge when anything is “plugged” into the slot. This includes standard USB ports as well as Multicard reading slots.

It worked flawlessly until one day I tried to use the USB port and it would not respond. I then tried all the card slots and still no response.

I’ve tried all the fixes I could think of - removed and reinstalled the drivers and checked and installed any USB updates. Nothing seems to have any effect on the problem. Is this a hardware problem and will I have to have a tech rewire something or do you have an alternative?

NOCCC: We hope that your motherboard is still under warranty.

We had a case recently where the keyboard and USB ports failed while the mouse worked fine. The five-volt power source was missing from the USB and keyboard ports.

You can check the power supply with one of those reading lamps powered by the USB port. Alternately, if you have and can use a volt meter, carefully measure the voltage between the two outside pins of the USB port. It should read right at 5 volts.

Our Taiwan-manufactured motherboard troubleshooter said the fault was a “voltage controller” but did not supply information on a replacement part, nor steps to have it repaired.

Since USB ports are “hot pluggable” the five volt supply has to be current limited. You are fortunate that your computer is an HP. They offer on-line tech support for the S7700N and can supply in or out of warranty replacement parts. The S7700N is BIOS USB capable which is very good for USB keyboards or mouse but is sometimes confusing to set up to work with XP. Go to www.hp.com. That site has downloadable FAQ and repair manuals that could help. - Leonard Prince, Member, NOCCC

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