USB Ports losing power randomly, any help appreciated!

[Skydog247]

Hi all!
So my USB ports have been losing power for a split second randomly, at least that is my guess. Seems to usually only happen when I'm doing something, it is most noticeable lately when I use Skype. My wireless internet is through a USB Adapter so I kept losing internet connection constantly, while also causing my USB Headset to lose connection at the same time and constantly having to restart the call. To get internet back I have to unplug and replug the USB Adapter.

This also happens when trying to do anything like playing Videogames as well. My mouse is also USB, my Keyboard is also USB, so this has basically crippled my PC...

And very worse case scenario, on occasion when plugging in a usb device, my whole computer freezes completely, causing me to force restart it by holding the power button.

I built the computer from scratch. I did bring the computer across several states by Vehicle, it seemed to begin shortly after that so not sure if it is related. It has been like this for the past 6 months and I've just been using my laptop. I've been stumped and too busy with work to try to fix it.

I've backed up everything to an external hard drive, and did the windows 10 "reset/reformat" option hoping that would fix it, but still the same. I tried to do the full reset, where it deletes EVERYTHING, but it gives me an error saying it couldn't reset and nothing has been changed. So I did the option where it keeps your files but reformat the operating system and that seemed to have worked. My PC runs faster now like it was when it was new, but still same USB issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Please help me get my PC back...

I have a DXDiag file I can upload as well if needed.

 

[Ubrales]

The USB ports have power pins as well as data pins. The power pins portion is malfunctioning. You may have to replace the computer case head, or the internal USB cabling. (I don't think that the motherboard USB header is defective).

 

[Skydog247]

The USB ports have power pins as well as data pins. The power pins portion is malfunctioning. You may have to replace the computer case head, or the internal USB cabling. (I don't think that the motherboard USB header is defective).

That would make sense. It does this for both the front USB ports and the rear USB ports however. Does that still mean it could be that? Also how difficult is it to replace the computer case head or internal USB cabling? And is there a way to test for it beforehand? Sorry for all the questions, never had to replace the usb heads/cabling before.

Thank you!

 

[smorizio]

if you have the same amount of devices now as then and the issue just started. make sure the power cables on the mb are locked in and all the cards and ram. in windows check power sleep settings for the usb wifi dongle set it to off dont sleep. same for usb hub and ports. the issue with built in usb ports is they can only output a little bit of voltage..to many things like back up drive and other usb device can pull more power then the chipset can give. you may have to use a power usb hub for the back up drive and printer.

 

[Skydog247]

if you have the same amount of devices now as then and the issue just started. make sure the power cables on the mb are locked in and all the cards and ram. in windows check power sleep settings for the usb wifi dongle set it to off dont sleep. same for usb hub and ports. the issue with built in usb ports is they can only output a little bit of voltage..to many things like back up drive and other usb device can pull more power then the chipset can give. you may have to use a power usb hub for the back up drive and printer.

Yea I think I might open it up and see if there are any lose cables and what not. I checked the power sleep settings and everything looks good there. As for the amount of stuff I have plugged in, it's just my USB WIFI Adapter, keyboard, and mouse. I actually tried buying a power usb hub thinking the same thing, but still have the same issue unfortunately. Hopefully it's just something loose in the case after moving, hopefully I can find something!

Thank you!

 

[Ubrales]

The USB ports have power pins as well as data pins. The power pins portion is malfunctioning. You may have to replace the computer case head, or the internal USB cabling. (I don't think that the motherboard USB header is defective).

That would make sense. It does this for both the front USB ports and the rear USB ports however. Does that still mean it could be that? Also how difficult is it to replace the computer case head or internal USB cabling? And is there a way to test for it beforehand? Sorry for all the questions, never had to replace the usb heads/cabling before.

Thank you!

If the power interruption is in both the front as well as the back USB ports, it is not caused by the case head. (Head replacement is not all that difficult for someone who has built their own computer. The top needs to come off first; it is held down by tabs. The manual will explain).

Start out by re-installing the the chipset driver; latest if there is one.

Try using different USB ports, because all USB ports do not supply the same power (wattage). This is why some no-adapter external drives will work in certain USB ports but not in certain other ones.