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Any idea why my front USB ports aren't working?

Forum CPU & Components : Other Components - Any idea why my front USB ports aren't working?

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I just installed a new motherboard into my computer (Asus P5Q Pro). Everything seemed to be working fine until I tried to put my flash drive into one of the front USB ports. Nothing happened. I tried the other front USB port, but it didn't work either. I tried putting my mouse in both front USB ports, and it didn't work either, so the front USB ports definitely aren't working.

I also tried to plug in my flash drive to the USB ports in the back, but it still isn't powering on or being recognized by the computer. I have no idea what the deal is with my flashdrive or my front USB ports.

I don't think I have the jumpers plugged in wrong, because the power switch, reset button, and all that is working just fine.

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Did you plug the front usb port plugs into the motherboard? The case should have a lead from the usb port inside the case that will have a plug on it that you plug into the mother board. Just look at your motherboard manual to make sure you are plugging it into the correct place.

If you did then you need to check your bios settings and make sure all usb ports are enabled.

------------------------------ Athlon 64 AM2 6000+
Gigabyte M61P-S3
4 GB OCZ Fatal1ty DDR2 800
Asus 4850 512mb
Reply to caamsa

It should be a completely different set of pins on the motherboard from the ones that are for power, reset, etc. Double check and make sure that you have separate USB plugs going to the motherboards internal USB pins.

Reply to cjl

Go to Device Manager and see if there is a yellow symbol next to Universal Serial Bus Controllers. If so, install the drivers from your ASUS MB CD.

Reply to cmichael258

I went to the Device Manager, and everything seemed to be in order. And I also went back to the manual and sure enough, the front USB ports aren't connected to the same jumper as the power switch. That was my mistake, I remembered incorrectly.

For the P5Q, there are 6 USB ports on the back, but I honestly couldn't find anything in the manual about connecting front panel USBs, so maybe they just aren't supported by the motherboard.

Reply to turkey_nuggets

They should be supported. I can't find a good high res image of your board, but this one should be similar:
http://f1mitku.hit.bg/files/Asus-P [...] iFi-AP.jpg

On that board, the USB connectors would plug into the pins in the blue socket things, on the far left of the board and just over halfway up in that image. Yours should be pretty close to that.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by cjl on 12-18-2008 at 05:05:15 AM

Reply to cjl

There are pretty much USB headers on all boards, especially if it's a new one...It should be nine pins, and may say usb near it. It is a row of 5 next to a row of 4(one is missing), it's usually separates...look, yhou'll find it!

Reply to jeteryankees22

cjl wrote :

They should be supported. I can't find a good high res image of your board, but this one should be similar:
http://f1mitku.hit.bg/files/Asus-P [...] iFi-AP.jpg

On that board, the USB connectors would plug into the pins in the blue socket things, on the far left of the board and just over halfway up in that image. Yours should be pretty close to that.

Nice screen shot. Also your board might not be as clearly marked as that one. I had a board that had no retainer around the usb header and the only reason I knew what is was is that it was marked on the mother board.

------------------------------ Athlon 64 AM2 6000+
Gigabyte M61P-S3
4 GB OCZ Fatal1ty DDR2 800
Asus 4850 512mb
Reply to caamsa

OK, I found an image of the P5Q pro, and it's almost identical to the P5K in my image above. It's much lower res, but you can clearly see the blue USB ports in the same locations as on the P5K:

I would guess that the red one is an ieee 1394, but I'm not as sure about that one.

Reply to cjl

In fact, here's a page directly from the P5Q manual, from the Asus website. See the ports marked as "USB" (followed by some numbers) at the bottom - they're labeled as item 14?

Those are the ones you want. The red one is a 1394, as I guessed above.

(click to enlarge)

Message edited by cjl on 12-18-2008 at 09:48:21 AM

Reply to cjl

Thanks for the awesome pictures. I have something plugged into that first USB jack (USB78). I thought it was my front USB plugs, but maybe not, or maybe there is a bad connection. I'll have to open the case and check it out. I can't really tell where the cord leads just by looking through the panel because of all the other cords and crap in there.

Reply to turkey_nuggets

The plug from the case should say something like "USB" on it - it usually isn't that difficult to figure out which is which. Just make sure it isn't the 1394 connector - those are the same shape, but definitely not compatible.

Reply to cjl

Ok, this has been helpfull, i will check my system today. I have a CM 690 casing (just bought) and asus p5q board and got it installed on this casing and now the front usb (both) dont work. Is it possible that the person installing connected the ieee 1394 (firewire) port to usb (blue ones), cause they have the same pin configuration, but question is can doing so damage the hardware. I read in the manual of 690 casing that doing so will damage the device.
Regards.

Reply to lazers

Yours don't work either? That's weird.

Reply to turkey_nuggets

if you plug the usb header into the firewire port, and plug in a flash disk to that front port it will FRY.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] mpressions

gives you an idea.

Reply to V3NOM

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