USB cycles on/off

My computer (specs in sig) started doing something strange the other day. I plugged in my usb flash drive to install some programs and it would not pop up. I could head the windows "ding" every 5-10 seconds as the device turns on/turns off.

I plugged the drive into another computer to make sure that was not the problem, it wasnt. Later that night when I went home I turned on the computer, plugged in my keyboard, mouse and monitor.... the keyboard and mouse then started to cycle on/off. The only way I could get these things to stay on is to reboot with any usb device plugged in at bootup. Its pretty annoying. I have not changed any settings before that either.

I just went into the device manager and changed the "turn these ports off to save power" option off, but im not sure yet if thats going to solve the problem.

Anyone else have some ideas?

If I cant figure it out within a few days I will call dell, I just dont want them to tell me that I get a new computer... I like my r1

 

This is usually a connection issue... seen it many times on lots of laptops lately. Not sure if just bad luck or something else. Try pulling out drive partially.

Also it is possible to have detection gone wrong... switch ports to confirm. I forget the fix but if that port only has trouble with that device and the device never has trouble with other ports then its likely software driven.

Sorry if confusing. In a hurry.

 

Think GNandGS is correct. I've had it happen a few times, mostly in the right hand USB port closest to the 3.5mm audio ports. For no good reason it just flakes out on USB insert. A reboot normally fixes it. Sometime a bit of tooling around in device manager has corrected things too, but by then I've normally lost track of what process fixed it, cause I've also plugged/unplugged it and tested other USB ports etc etc..

Left port and right rear port on my M11xR1 seem pretty stable. They're all on the the same 'bus' as it's shared 60MB... as I understand it.

 

It happens to all 3 of the ports oddly. If I plug in the device and then turn on the computer it works, but not if the computer is already on. Thinking back I first noticed it when my wife was trying to get her sd camera card to read in the machine and it wouldnt.... but right now it seems to be running stable after I changed the power settings so they cant turn off to save power.