USB port malfunctioning - somewhat

One USB port on my Dell M1330 PC recently malfunctioned, but not completely. My PC's speaker is a USB-powered Logitech Z305 external speaker. Recently the speaker has consistently stopped transmitting sound when connected to one of my PC's two USB ports, yet other USB-powered devices--cooling platform, external hard drives--work normally with it (port A). The speaker works normally with the other USB port (port B), as do the other USB-driven devices.

1. Is USB port A malfunctioning? If port A has malfunctioned, why would a USB-driven speaker not operate with it, yet other USB devices work seemingly normally with it?

2. Is this malfunction a hardware or software problem? Could a driver problem account for the malfunction?

Thanks much for reading and any responses and information.

 

could be a soldering joint that has cracked or partially detached - this way less power consuming devices would work, whereas not enough power is available for the rest.

The other thing is - computers do get old too.... My old laptop had such problems although the USB ports were perfectly fine. Don't know how old your PC is but it could be the Motherboard playing some tricks on you... No recovery from that.

 

I would replace the speakers just to rule out the speakers vs the motherboard. Have you also tried reinstalling your operating system? Recently alot of HP laptops I have serviced had yellow USB flag and there was no fixing it unless I reimaged it.

Worst come to worst it is a bad motherboard and given all M1330 with the Nvidia GPU are ticking timebombs, though this is the worst case scenario.

 

Thanks for your response and advice. The speaker works fine connected to the other USB port, so I presume it is not the problem. Please let me know if you think otherwise. Replacing the OS is a good suggestion. I haven't tried it yet, but will certainly consider doing so--I'll still need to back up a few more recent files.

I had the motherboard replaced in mid-2008 by Dell until their nVidia-related program when I lost the screen view of my PC .

 

What may work is simply uninstalling the USB controllers in Device Manager and rebooting and letting the system re-install them after a shutdown/restart.

Make sure that the faulty speakers are plugged in during the 'uninstall' stage, shut down the computer and unplug the speakers, start it up and wait for it to reinstall any driver software it may need and then try your speakers again.

Hopefully, this will 'fix' the issue.

Good luck.

 

Before reinstalling the OS, I would grab a multimeter and start measuring the power output of the affected USB port. It's a quick and easy way to rule out if the port is bad before going through a lengthy OS re-install process.

If the pinout reading is anything but 5v DC, the problem is likely a bad USB port, not a faulty chipset/driver/OS issue.

You can reference the following link on how to measure the power output of your USB port:

check your front panel usb ports with multimeter - Hardware Canucks

The following is also an interesting read for detecting short circuits in laptop ports:

Laptop Multimeter Tests - Checking Voltage and Short Circuits

Good video of demonstrating how to determine how much power is being provided to your USB ports:

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-troubleshoot-usb-power-issues

 

I much appreciate the additional suggestions, I'm planning to implement them in as logical a sequence as possible. I have some new observations I made only today that puzzle me--admittedly PC stuff readily puzzles me--but may relate to Tilleroftheearth's advice. Before I begin, to avoid as much confusion as possible, I'll designate as #1 the USB port that the USB-powered speaker (Logitech Z305) quit operating on and #2 the other USB port that continued to power properly the same USB speaker. As I wrote previously, both USB ports 1 and 2 continue to operate the cooling fan-driven platform and external hard drives (Western Digital [WD] Passports and portable Elements). The cooling platform's USB plug has a duplicate port to replicate the one it occupies and up til now, I have been able to operate the speaker through it when it is plugged in USB port #2, but not #1.

With that written, the new wrinkle is the USB speaker has quit operating on both USB ports. When I first noticed this, the speaker was piggy-backed on the cooling platform's plug connected to USB port #2. At the time, I was operating two WD hard drives connected to port #1 with a cheap (less than $6) portable 4-port Belkin USB hub. Mostly out of ignorance and only with a slight hunch, I reflexively plugged the speaker into another port on the Belkin USB hub, which was plugged into port #1, the port that first quit on the speaker. To my surprise, the speaker worked perfectly. I listened to the speaker for another 1/2 hour, then attempted a series of short experiments. First I shut down and disconnected both external HDs, then removed the Belkin USB hub and plugged the speaker directly into port #1. Again, the speaker remained silent on the port it first quit on. Secondly, I plugged the Belkin USB hub into port #1, then connected the speaker to the USB hub with complete restoration of sound. Thirdly I connected the speaker directly to port #2 and it remained silent, despite operating normally on it until today. Finally, I plugged the Belkin USB hub into port #2, then connected the speaker to the hub and sound again was restored.

One additional characteristic I noticed is, for both USB ports, if I plug the Belkin USB hub first into either port, then plug the speaker's USB plug into the hub, a message balloon appears at the lower right taskbar with the words "Installing device driver software" while simultaneously on the taskbar a green ball moves along a upside-down U-shaped rod or rail, followed by another message balloon in the same place with the words "Your devices are ready to use" and underneath in the same balloon the words "Device driver software installed successfully". When I plug the speaker directly into either USB port, these words and symbol do not appear.

I surmise the problem may be a software problem much like the USB controller issue raised by Tilleroftheearth. Regardless, the Belkin USB hub seems to enable the speaker's device driver software to be recognized and installed by the PC, since the same sequence does not occur when the speaker is plugged directly into either USB port. Why would the Belkin USB hub enable the speaker's device driver software installation, while plugging the speaker directly into either USB port not accomplish the same thing?

I'm still planning to uninstall the USB controllers and perform the speaker uninstall/install sequences as suggested by Tilleroftheearth, if still warranted, and followed by measuring the USB ports' outputs with a multimeter as suggested by Garetjax, again if still warranted. However, I wanted to present these new occurrences for assessment before I did so. I want to request one more thing--can we agree the speaker is not defective, given it operates flawlessly when plugged into either port through the Belkin USB hub?

I greatly appreciate your reading of my additional notes and observations and your careful, considered opinions based on the additional observations.

Thanks much,

 

Reading your post above very quickly (thanks for the details) it sure does suggest that the (main/root) USB drivers need re-installing.

Which is what plugging it in to the Belkin USB hub is essentially doing (forcing a re-install of the drivers for the speakers).

Hope this is all it needs (and I agree that the speakers seem fine - if they work 'perfectly' in one configuration and not another - then it is something else interferring with them.

 

Thanks for your confirmation. I'm about to uninstall the USB controllers with the speaker plugged in directly, but I just realized--which USB controllers should I uninstall? Should I uninstall all of them? If not how do I select the ones to uninstall? Sorry if this is an ignorant question--admittedly I don't know much PC stuff beyond pushing the power button and typing my log-on passwords .

 

Tilleroftheearth-

Your advice worked! I followed your suggestions, leaving the speaker connected directly to a USB port while uninstalling USB controllers labeled as generic, root, and composite, then shutting down the PC with the speaker still connected, then disconnecting the speaker, then rebooting PC. When I plugged the speaker into a USB port directly without the Belkin USB hub, it worked normally. Thanks much for your sage advice. I tried to add to your rep, but I received a message I need to spread some rep around before I can add to yours again--it seems you have been helping me often over the past year.

I also appreciate others who responded and I'll keep the other advice/suggestions in mind for future situations.

 

Glad to see that you got your USB issues resolved! Kind of makes you wish all PC problems were this easy to fix.