Windows 10: Front USB ports are slow and cause Windows Explorer to lock up

Hello! I hope everybody's been doing okay. My computer has had a problem for many years. It happened in Windows 7 and in Windows 10 after I upgraded to it. My Windows 10 is version 1909.

I have a custom computer that's 7 years old. I have two USB 2.0 ports on the front of my computer. The front USB ports work fine for a mouse or wireless game controller, but some devices cause problems. I know that my mp3 player, USB3 flash drive, and LG smartphone cause problems. The problems change sometimes, so I'm sorry I couldn't give a single symptom. Most of the time, this happens.

Usually when I plug them into the front USB ports, they are extremely slow to simply load the directory of files. After it loads, there is a huge delay before opening files and only small files open. Big files will freeze Windows Explorer along with copying or moving files. The Explorer window lock ups until I unplug the device, then everything instantly works.

Usually my LG smartphone freezes when I try to copy files or even browse, but today it seemed fast. When I tried to copy files to it, I was able to copy a small folder easily but it refused to copy over 3 files. I didn't receive an error. When I try to copy the 3 files individually, it just makes a ding sound when I paste and nothing happens. On my phone, I can see that indeed the folder copied over except for the 3 files.

I unplugged and later tried copying a folder of 52 files, and it copied over 50 but missed 2. As it copied, I heard two dings but an error never appeared. Then I selected the 2 files by themselves and was able to copy them over when I tried again. The strange thing is that the two files it missed were at the bottom of the directory sorted by alphabetical order, but I heard the dings in the middle of my files being copied (when the progress bar wasn't at the end). But it would make more sense to hear them near the end, right?

Just recently, my USB3 drive began appearing with a generic icon and name "Removable Disk D:". The % used doesn't show. When I click on it, my Explorer displays the loading bar in the address bar which gets almost to the end and stays there, never opening. I don't remember this happening until recently, since it usually opens but is very slow.

Just a few minutes ago, when I clicked on it, all Windows Explorer windows and the taskbar stopped responding. The window was greyed out but the taskbar looked normal, I just couldn't click it. I could Ctrl-alt-del, but clicking Open Task Manager did nothing. All other programs already open worked fine during this time.

I decided to log out and log back in from the Ctrl-alt-del screen, which greeted me no taskbar and a black background. I could open Task Manager with Ctrl-alt-del and saw that two Windows Explorers were running. I clicked Restart on both of them and the processes simply disappeared instead of restarting. I used Run to run explorer.exe, and the process appeared but the screen remained black. I then unplugged the USB drive and everything instantly returned to normal, the wallpaper and taskbar appearing.

Could you help me try to fix the problem? That would be great! It's not a big deal, since I could always plug them into the back, but it's a strange problem.

- - - Updated - - -

I've tried plugged the front USB ports into a different header on the motherboard (it has two headers for front USB ports) and also I tried plugging the devices in Safe Mode, but neither fixed it. I also downloaded the latest drivers from the Gigabyte motherboard website. GA-H61M-S1 (rev. 3.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

My BIOS has the latest BIOS I installed a few years ago. My old computer case's front USB ports weren't connected to my motherboard, so I unfortunately don't have experience with another case.

:)

 

USB Port Oddities


Ok, let's see it with pictures step-by-step. First right-click on the USB device and select Update driver software:





Then select Browse my computer for driver software (LAST option) :





The select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer (LAST option) :





Then select the standard driver from the list and click next:





Click next/OK as required to complete installation. Repeat the steps for all Intel USB devices. Finally click on each USB root device and press DEL to delete it, reply YES when asked. After deleting all USB root devices restart the computer.

I hope this is detailed enough...

 

USB ports

Hi Frank,

Inserting and removing a USB device repeatedly may cause the USB port to stop responding. When the port is in this state, it no longer recognizes any USB device, and the USB device will not work.

Here are few things that you can do to resolve the issue:

Use Device Manager to scan for hardware changes. After your computer scans for hardware changes, it might recognize the USB device that is connected to the USB port so that you can use the device.

To scan for hardware changes, follow these steps:

• Click Start, and then click Run.
  
  Note If you are running Windows Vista, click Start, and then use the Start Search box.
• Type devmgmt.msc, and then click OK. Device Manager opens.
• In Device Manager, click your computer so that it is highlighted.
• Click Action, and then click Scan for hardware changes.
• Check the USB device to see whether it is working.

Turn off Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.

• In the Device Manager dialog box, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, right-click USB Root Hub, and then click Properties.
• In the USB Root Hub Properties dialog box, click the Power Management tab. Uncheck the
  Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power
  box.
  

Let us know how it goes after performing the suggested troubleshooting steps.

 

Windows 10 Update causes some USB ports to fail

Hi Dave,

Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for your interest in Windows 10.

I will definitely assist you with the issue.

This could be due to the USB port driver is outdated. Let’s try simple troubleshooting steps and check if it helps to resolve the issue. I recommend you to uninstall and reinstall the USB port driver and check. Follow the below information provided.

• 
  Press Windows key + X and click on
  Device manager.
  
• 
  Locate for Universal Serial Bus Controller and expand it.
  
• 
  Right click on the USB port driver and click on
  uninstall.
  
• 
  Once uninstall is done, restart the computer.
  

If the issue still persist I would suggest you to contact to the computer manufacturer and update the chipset driver.

Hope this helps. If you need further assistance with Windows, let us know and will be glad to help.