Weird USB problem

useful info
1

So I have a pretty new Windows 7 box that refuses to recognize a USB keyboard when it’s plugged into any rear USB port, whether 2.0 or 3.0 (and I’ve tried multiple keyboards). The front ones seems to work just fine, and the mouse works in the rear ports, so it’s just the keyboard. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling all USB drivers and updating the BIOS. That didn’t work so I called HP for a warranty mobo replacement. Installed the new one this morning and it has the exact same problem as the old one. Did the driver tango and BIOS update again to no avail. Is there something I’m missing here? It seems to be an OS issue but damned if I can figure out what. It’s Windows 7 Pro 64-bit with SP1 if that makes a difference.

2

Dude, that IS weird. What kind of keyboard? I can’t imagine a keyboard being self-aware and choosy about where it is connected, but it is the common denominator. If you plug it into different ports on a laptop and/or different PC, does is work ok there?
Sorry, not a solution, but that’s what I would try first - quick and easy info gathering.

EDIT: I have heard of incompatibilities between USB3 ports and some wireless keyboard/mouse dongles, but that shouldn’t be the case here.

3

Dude, if it doesn’t want to take it from the rear you need to respect that.

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4

@RoadRunner, It’s just a regular old HP wired USB keyboard. And I’ve tried like 3 different ones that all work on other computers.

@Woodman: #notallkeyboards

:stuck_out_tongue:

5

I’ve seen the same thing, plugging a USB keyboard into an HP laptop. Couple things have fixed it.

  1. It does not work to just remove and refresh in Device Manager. In Dev Mgr go to Properties of the keyboard > Update Driver > Browse my computer for driver software. Choose from a list of device drivers and uncheck “Show compatible hardware.” Select another driver (like HID Keyboard) and restart. Do it again once it’s back up, but choose the correct driver.
    The trick is having a keyboard that does work to do all this.

  2. Some newer PCs added USB ports by adding them as a separate bus. You may need to rip out all the USB bus drivers under System Devices and reinstall them (as with the method above). I’ve seen that screw up many new desktops lately.

  3. Once in a while, this will actually fix it. Shockingly.
    http://support2.microsoft.com/mats/windows_usb_diagnostics

1 Like
6

I’ve tried #2. Didn’t help. I might try #1 today but the user is back in the office and the keyboard is working off front USB so who knows.

7

Interestingly, I had the same issue - laptop worked 100% on all USB ports.

Plugged a el-cheapo Acer tablet in to copy files over. Somehow the tablet screwed up my USB drivers as I was unable to get my USB keyboard+mouse to work the next day, no matter which USB port I use.

Went to Device Manager, unplugged all things USB, uninstalled all the USB drivers and stuff, rebooted. Let it detect the USB drivers, then uninstalled them again, reboot.

Everything just worked after that reboot.

BillG, fix your crappy software!

8

Any chance the tablet was trying to be the master and conflicted with the laptop’s controller? I know all my recent Android devices have the ability to access a thumb drive directly, so not sure hot that changes putting the device into mass storage mode so it acts like a thumb drive.