Elitebook 8770W USB ports stop working

Hello all,

I have an 8770W that works OK - I expected more from it but then again....

The problem I have had for a while and it has now become ultra-irritating is that during the course of the day plugging and unplugging various USB thumb and hard drives, the USB ports stop working. If something is already plugged in, it will keep working but anything else plugged in does nothing - it's like the ports are dead. this happens on ALL of the USB ports.

If I reboot, all works fine again for a while and then starts to f*** up again. HP has been no help. I am overseas staying with friends in the Philippines and HP wants me to send the laptop to some "3rd party approved service center" in Manila - ya right!!

If I completely uninstall/reinstall all the USB drivers in Device Manager it will usually run for 1 - 2 days without hanging, but then starts down the same path after this.

When the USB ports die, the laptop also will not shut down. It usually hangs and I have to hit the power button for 4 seconds to force a shutdown. The boot ssd doesn't seem to like this because it often will checkdisk on boot and finds issues every time.

Anyone else run into a similar problem?? Any one run into a similar problem and have a solution??

 

This was an issue in prior generations as well, which was all about 'power management', (the computer turning off the devices to save power) it was broken to hell on the 8740W back in 2010-11, but they fixed it with BIOS updates, and with a firmware update for the controller itself.

the 8770W i've not used much over the years if i'm honest, but i did have to disable the PCI-E power saving options, AND turn off the checkboxes for ALL the usb hubs and controllers in device manager - (Turn off this device to save power) and it stopped the issues for us here, but we moved on before it was truly fixed i'm afraid.

Sio

 

Thanks Sio, I'll give it a try.

So far HP has been as useful as tits on a teakettle - "Did you uninstall all 3rd party apps", "Did you reinstall Windows", Did you wrap your head in tinfoil and stand on your roof in your underwear during a thunderstorm?"

Let's hope your solution helps and I can start growing my hair back ;-)

Cheers

 

Is this happening only when you’re using you USB flash drives, or also when just using the laptop by itself? I’ve had this happen on other machines when accidently shorting the USB power pins while plugging in either a USB drive, or just a USB cable. If there might be an issue with one of the USB drives you’re using, you should be able to see the power current draw in the device manager under each of the USB hubs in your machine, just to check out the drives you’re plugging in.

 

Thanks for the thoughts traveler12, but I think this problem is related to the sub-system (possibly a motherboard issue as it happens on boath USB boards). As the day goes on, it's just the regular plugging and unplugging of drives, USB keys, etc. Even my smartphone sits connected by USB and if it goes to sleep, it is not seen when it wakes back up (although it is continued to detect that it is connected to the charging USB port). Even my Logitech Unified receiver sits plugged in, if I was to unplug and reinsert (once the "system" breaks down, it isn't seen by the system.

The only solution is to reboot and everything works fine again for several (or sometimes a couple) hours.