Amilo Li 1718 USB ports causing freeze

[retropedro]

Hello,
I'm trying to fix an Amilo Li 1718 for a friend. About a month ago, the USB ports simultaneously stopped recognising devices (There are 4 ports). Memory sticks, webcam, digital camera, iPod etc all had drivers installed and were working perfectly until this balloon in Vista started saying "Device not recognised, could not install device, etc". I tried reinstalling the USB drivers through device manager and then formatted and did a clean install of XP, which now freezes whenever a USB device is inserted. Device manager says all USB ports are working fine. There are only 3 entries for the USB root hub - but should there be 4? One for each port?

I opened the service door and found two loose screws rattling around, which I replaced into their original positions. Could they have shorted out one of the USB ports? How would I enable them one by one to see if this is the case?

When I give the laptop a shake, I can still hear rattling coming from the back corner where the other 2 USB ports are. Would it be advisable to remove the keyboard and inspect the ports first hand to make sure no debris is shorting them out?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it

R

 

[COLGeek]

I think you have diagnosed the problem yourself. Sounds like the motherboard is defective as the USB portion of the system has a short and damaged the system.

Go ahead and disassemble to see what is rattling about. You have nothing to lose and it may actually help (doubtful).

Good luck!