Windows 10: USB Port Oddities

As part of my on-going Windows 10 problems, I discovered a USB-port related one that I do not understand. It started when I plugged a USB key into the upper port on the front of the computer, which was not recognized, so I tried two open ports on the back of the case, with the same result.

I took the key to my wife's computer, plugged it, and it was instantly recognized. I went back to my computer, and removed the wireless mouse transmitter from the lower port on the front, plugged it into the upper port, and had no mouse.

Final step was to plug a non-wireless mouse into the lower front port, the one that works for my wireless mouse; instead of loading the driver, nothing happened, so I replaced the transmitter, and the wireless mouse started working.

This is completely beyond my ken. I do know that the non-wireless mouse worked under Windows 7 when plugged in to either front port, but I don't recall if I had tried it with Windows 10 when I was having a problem with a new wireless mouse. USB keyboard, USB charging cable for wireless mouse, and USB 3 external hard drive all work.

Control Panel/Device Manager shows all USB devices working properly, but something is clearly amiss. Any ideas as to what and how to fix this collection of oddities?

:)

 

Windows 10 Reboots when I send a print job to my Brother printer

I recently upgraded to Window 10 from Window 7 and everything seems to work except for one annoying thing. I have a Brother color laser printer and when I send a print job the job goes to the printer and prints completely but the computer will restart or
shutdown. After the restart it returns to the same screen and indicates the job printed successfully.

I have removed the printer, deleted the drivers and ports, uninstalled all brother software, reinstalled, and it does the same thing. It will do this if I print through the network connection or USB. It does not seem to do it for the Epson color inkjet.

Another oddity is when I stick a sheet of paper into the printer manual feed the computer will restart.

 

USB ports

Drives don't last together; it's possible that it might have died. Try it on another computer.

 

I had the same problem with an old motherboard. The solution was to go at Device Manager, right-click on the Intel-specific USB devices and replace them with Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller. The hi-speed USB 2.0 one should be replaced with Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller. To do that, right-click and select Update Driver then select the last option. Then select again the last option until you see a list of compatible devices. If the standard one is not shown, uncheck the box Show only compatible devices to see all manufacturers, then click on standard USB devices and you should find it. After replacing all intel-specific devices with standard, delete the rest USB root hub devices and restart the computer (you may not being able to delete them all if using a USB mouse/keyboard, I used PS/2). Now try to plug a USB device, it should work.

 

Thanks, I appreciate your replying, but when I tried to find updates for the first of the two Intel USB Enhanced Host Controllers, I got an error message that software was found but that when an attempt was made to install it, "The request is not supported," and that ended the search. No options provided, just nothing accomplished.

The failure to get anywhere has become entirely too familiar for me with Windows 10: The last three cumulative updates have all failed, all of my efforts to repair Windows 10 have failed, including a non-destructive ISO update, even my promised phone call from a Microsoft employee who went out of his way to rescue me two days ago, and agreed to find out what could be done to fix Windows 10. I am still waiting for yesterday's phone call....

MS caused me to need to be rescued; it was caused by my local Windows password being automatically changed during a lengthy on-line chat with a MS tech support person who, well-meaning, had no idea what she was talking about, and after rebooting and re-establishing connection, that password was changed to my MS account password. As I had no idea what that password was, I could not log on to Windows, mega sigh.

 

Sorry to hear about that. However, I told you to manually install the driver (select last option at all screens), not let Windows search for it.

 

Oh, so you expected me to read and follow the directions? Surely that must be un-American, n'est-ce pas? Well, as you insisted, I did that for every item in the USB list, all of which returned the information that all devices are up-to-date.

 

Of course, if you try to update or search for new drivers you will get the reply that you already have to best driver! I told you to select the LAST option in each screen so you see the list of devices and manually force the change from Intel to standard. Unless you do it exactly as I say, it's not going to work.

 

There are four choices:

Update
Uninstall
Scan
Properties

I see no list nor any place to change from Intel.

Now, I had already tried Update Driver, as I wrote a short while ago, which most definitely did not present me with any choices; it did only what I wrote, namely that it found new software but could not install it. I did not choose from a list, as no list was there from which to choose. Furthermore, yesterday for the other USB items, none of which are identified as being provided by Intel, the search for new drivers all returned the information that none are available.

I'm sorry, but I have tried to follow your instructions, perhaps improperly; the way I have tried has not resulted in what you have told me should be there.

 

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...

 

Thank you. Despite my best efforts, I now understand. I was, clearly, overlooking what you clearly stated, namely the last item on the screen. I just took a quick look at the first of the two Intel-identified devices, and there was clearly a list of possible drivers, including one that was not one from Intel.

I'm not up to actually making any changes today, but now that the way is clear to see what will happen if I follow your clear instructions, I will do so tomorrow.

I trust that this reply is clear.

 

The solution was complex and frustrating, and, so I will save you from the details. Suffice it to say that I am back on Windows 7, and intend to stay there for a while. I shall continue to monitor the progress of such matters as the update failures for Windows 10 that have affected a number of users. When it appears to me that Windows 10 has settled down, then I will venture back to 10. I have spent entirely too many hours trying to get my copy of Windows 10 to work properly.

Thanks for the assistance; my install of Windows 10 was simply too fouled up to be repairable, unlike that on my wife's computer.

 

If you have enough time, you could do a clean-install and reinstall all your applications. Even better, I would disconnect the hard disk, connect a spare disk and install Windows 10 there at my pace. When I need to do some work on the computer, I swap the disks and use Windows 7. If I have more time, I connect the Windows 10 disk again and continue installing applications. Since I would have the Windows 7 disk ready at any time, there is no hurry.

 

I have been installing programs since yesterday afternoon, on a reformatted hard disk with a clean copy of Windows 7. Much of my data and files, etc, are already there; for others, I have backups on my external USB disk, for which one of my first program installs was the backup program that created the files, so that I could access and restore them.

No interest in using another disk for Windows 10: An interesting idea, just not something that I want to do.

 

You would use the spare disk to install Windows 10 and when complete, problem-free, you can just make it your main disk and use the original disk for other uses.