How to Troubleshoot USB Problems
A USB device is a quickly installable accessory to a desktop or laptop machine. USB is a standard connection that interfaces the hardware devices with the operating system. A USB port has become a standard for most computers. When you purchase a new machine, several USB ports are available. Accessory devices are available for these ports including mice, keyboards, flash drives, external hard drives and media players like iPods. When these ports fail, there are several steps you can take to troubleshoot issues in Windows XP.
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Instructions
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Reboot the machine. If you've first inserted the USB device, older operating systems may not be able to load the USB drivers or detect its insertion. Reboot the computer with the USB device installed to see if the operating system detects the device after a boot.
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Remove the device and insert it again into the USB port. If you've disconnected the device through the software, the USB device no longer shows in the list of devices. Removing and inserting the device causes the operating system to detect it again.
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Reinstall the device drivers. Each USB device comes with device drivers on a CD or DVD. Insert the disk into the drive and follow the prompts for installing the device drivers. Reboot the machine and see if the USB device works properly.
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Remove any USB hubs and connect the devices directly to the computer. If you own a USB hub, the problem may be with the hub and not the USB device. Plug devices directly into the machine to detect if it's the hub that is causing the issue.
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Remove the USB device and connect it to another USB port. Sometimes a port goes bad and the device is still intact. Remove the device and insert it into another device, reboot the machine and see if the accessory is detected.
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