SXPS 1645 - My USB ports stop working!

I've searched without success so I'm reaching out to the crowd for suggestions. So thanks for replies in advance.

Periodically, in the middle of nothing, my devices connected to my USB ports stop working. I commonly have a wireless mouse and external hard drive connected. It happens during light usage and sometimes while the laptop is sitting idle.

I'll remove the mouse receiver and reconnect to see if I can have it re-detected... nope. My touchpad works fine and I can continue whatever I was doing. Then I'll attempt to reboot and it won't shut down... just hangs on "Shutting Down" screen. I am forced to hold the power button down. Once the laptop reboots all is well and the USB ports work fine.

I have 60 days left on warranty support so I'd like to see if this is symptomatic of hardware failure. Ideas? Again, TIA (thanks in advance)!

 

I had this problem happen to me about 3 times on my XPS 1645 too, but all over a year ago when I first got the laptop, and never since. Something I updated must have fixed it, perhaps the chipset driver.

 

Update chipset/USB controller software? Also try a linux live disc...see if it happens in a Linux environment (rules out OS vs hardware).

 

Good idea with updating the chipset. It needed updating.

I also noticed that in Device Manager under USB Root Hub, the driver is dated 2006. Isn't that the USB Controller driver? I don't know where to get the update to that.

I did see that there is a tab on the USB Root Hub properties called Power Management. There's an option to allow the computer to turn off USB. I unchecked it. See below...

(Actually, there are two entries for USB Root Hub in Device Manager, so I unchecked this in both places.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this helps me... and maybe someone else.

 

If you are running Vista/7 you can right click and update through the internet and Windows Update will search the internet for the latest drivers.