USB disconnects and connects by it self?, What has happened?

[harry_hardest]

Hi all, this is my first thread ar Tom´s Hardware. Thanks in advance for helping me

I have a question about an event which bothers me:

I was playing a game (BFBC2) when I heard a sound, the sound which the pc makes when you insert a USB pen drive (or maybe that of disconnecting, because they are very similar). Of course I had inserted no USB.

I quitted the game to see what had happened, and saw no message in the desktop.
A few seconds later I could hear another Bip, and 2 icons appeared in lower right corner of screen. Those icons where the USB logo and another icon that I can not describe but is the one which is produced when installing new hardware.
Then, in the middle of the screen appeared for few seconds a window with some kind of "tree of USB hubs" (similar to that which you see in the hardware components, in System properties).
Afterwards, the icons and the window disappeared and nothing more happened.

In the event viewer there is no trace, no record about that event.
Or maybe a hardware (motherboard) failure? I am worried about this possibility. Would it have been recorded in the event viewer if it was a hardware failure? Apart from this strange event, my MOBO works perfectly, no crashes, no BSOD.

Or maybe it was an automatic update of drivers? In all time the mouse (USB) responded, and also the keyboard.
My SO is Win XP SP3 32bits, and I had not installed any device recently

What could happen? Some days have passed and it has not happened again.
Thanks a lot


ps. My system:
MOBO: Asus P5Q SE
CPU: Intel Q9505 (2,83 Ghz)
VIDEO: Asus ENGTS 250 1Gb DDR3
RAM: 4Gb DDR2 800Mhz
PSU: Urano NOX 600W
(No OC in any component)

 

[aford10]

That's an odd one....

Without seeing it, I can only guess. It could've been the usb port momentarily disconnecting, and reconnecting one of your usb devices. Though, this is unlikely if they only 2 usb devices were the keyboard and mouse, and they worked the whole time.

There is an option to eject usb devices. Maybe that got tripped somehow, and it was trying to eject a device.

It could also be some sort of malware. To be safe, you may want to run through the malware guide in my signature.

 

[harry_hardest]

Thanks for your help aford10

What bothers me is the possibility that my mother board is damaged (hardware failure).

I don´t mind software errors, because they don´t depend on my system.
Anyhow, that event has only happened once and didn not leave record in the Event Viewer

 

[aford10]

That's not all that unusual. The event viewer doesn't log everything that happens on a system.

 

[jaquith]

When you have an older rig the USB connections get dusty and/or oxidized and my best guess is that the {USB Device} simply momentarily disconnected/connected and caused a re-installation of the USB driver(s).

If it were "me" and this happens again or now then I would shutdown the rig and give it a good cleaning - air-blow the ports/CPU fans/etc and if you have a rubber hose attachment w/hairs vacuum the non electronic ports/parts/plugs/etc. {if you're not concern about static then vacuum everything. - I've never had an issue}

Excessive:
And if you're concerned then in the Device Manager uninstall ALL USB devices in the tree, restart. This will re-install all of the USB drivers and repair any corruptions. Alcohol {90%+ isopropyl/rubbing} clean & dry male USB plugs. I throughly clean every 6 months.

 

[harry_hardest]

Thanks for your help

My MOBO Asus P5Q SE is 1 month old. I bought it brand new, and it is unlikely that there is dust on USBs already.

However I will keep in mind the option of re-installing all the USB drivers from scrach... if it happens again, because like I said, by the moment it has only happened once.

Thanks a lot for your guidance

 

[jaquith]

Then the connections on the MOBO are not the issue unless there's some production oil left on the connectors {also not too uncommon}. Your connected devices "may" have a connection issue. BTW - I've had to re-install as above the USB devices and won't "shouldn't" do any harm. but if it ain't broke...

Hopefully, it's a one-off occurrence!

Good Luck!

 

[harry_hardest]

Best answer selected by harry_hardest.