In this article, we will talk about what you should do if USB ports are not working on your PC. USB ports on a computer allow users to connect different USB devices, like printers, keyboards, mice, etc. If the USB ports stop working, you will not be able to use any USB device. USB ports may stop working due to hardware and software issues.
USB ports are not working in Windows 11/10
A USB port stops working if it is faulty or if its drivers are outdated or corrupted. Sometimes, the latest Windows Update causes issues on a computer. In addition to the hardware and software issues, a USB port may also stop working if you quickly and repeatedly insert and remove a USB device. This article provides some helpful suggestions that you can follow if your USB ports are not working.
- Power Cycle your computer
- Check the power output of USB ports
- Run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter
- Disable Fast Startup
- Scan for Hardware Changes in the Device Manager
- Roll Back, or reinstall USB Controllers
- Change the Power Management settings
- Uninstall and reinstall the USB Root Hub
- Update your chipset driver
- Disable the Selective Suspend feature of Windows
- Uninstall the recent Windows Update
- Restore your system
- Perform an In-place Upgrade
Let’s see all these fixes in detail.
1] Power Cycle your computer
The first step that you should do is to power cycle your computer. The following steps will help you with that:
- Turn off your PC.
- Remove all the power cords. If you have a laptop, remove its battery after turning it off, and then remove all power cords.
- Wait for a few minutes.
- Laptop users can now insert the battery again.
- Reconnect all the power cords.
- Turn on your computer.
Now, check if the issue is fixed.
2] Check the power output of USB ports
Most USB ports supply 5V of electricity with a maximum current of 0.5 A. If your USB ports are working, they supply power output. If a USB port is not supplying power, it may be damaged. Check the power output of your USB ports to know if they are damaged or not.
If your USB ports are not supplying power, you need to take your computer to the service center.
3] Run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter
The Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter helps Windows users fix hardware-related issues (if possible). In the previous step, if you find that your USB ports are not supplying power, run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter before taking your laptop or desktop computer to the service center.
Fix: Generic USB Hub missing or not showing in Windows
4] Disable Fast Startup
Fast Startup allows your computer to start faster than a normal startup. The Fast Startup does not completely shut down your computer. During the Fast Startup, the kernel session is not closed. Instead, it is hibernated. Windows does this by saving the kernel session and the device drivers (system information) to the hibernate file (hiberfil.sys). Due to this, sometimes, Fast Startup causes issues on a Windows computer. Check if the Fast Startup is enabled. If yes, disable it and restart your computer.
There are the following 4 ways to disable Fast Startup. You can use any of these methods.
- The Control Panel
- Command Prompt
- Group Policy Editor (does not work on Windows 11/10 Home edition)
- Registry Editor
5] Scan for Hardware Changes in the Device Manager
Some users have reported that the USB ports of their systems were delivering power but there was no connection. If this is the case with you, Scan for hardware changes in the Device Manager. It will help.
Follow the steps written below:
- Open the Device Manager.
- Go to “Action > Scan for hardware changes.”
The above action will help broken devices work again. Now, check if the issue is fixed.
Read: How to enable or disable CD/DVD ROM Drives, USB Drives or Ports in Windows
6] Roll Back, or reinstall USB Controllers
A USB Controller manages the communication between a USB device and a computer. If the USB Controller gets corrupted, the USB ports may stop working. If the issue still persists, we suggest you roll back or reinstall the USB Controller driver.
Installing Windows Update also updates the device drivers (if an update for the same is available). If the issue started occurring after a Windows Update, it is possible that the USB Controller driver was also updated along with the Windows Update. In this case, the Roll Back option will be available in the Device Manager. Follow the steps below:
- Open the Device Manager.
- Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers branch.
- Right-click on your USB controller driver and select Properties.
- Under the Drivers tab, click the Roll Back option (if available). Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the latest driver update.
If the Roll Back option is not available or if the above steps do not resolve the issue, uninstall and reinstall the USB controller driver. To do so, right-click on the USB controller driver and select Uninstall device. Remove all the USB controller drivers from your system. After that, restart your computer. Windows will automatically scan for hardware changes and install the missing USB controllers.
7] Change the Power Management settings
If you are still facing the problem, changing the Power Management settings of the USB Root HUB and USB Controllers will fix the issue. The steps for the same are written below:
- Open the Device Manager.
- Expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers node.
- Open the properties of USB Host Controllers and go to the Power Management tab.
- Uncheck the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” option.
- Click OK to save the changes.
Disable this option for all USB Controllers and USB Root Hubs in the Device Manager. When this option is enabled, Windows disables the USB devices after some time of inactivity to save power. When you use that device, Windows activates that USB device again. Sometimes, Windows fails to activate the device connected to a particular USB port due to which, it seems that the USB port has stopped working.
Read: USB-C not working, charging or recognized on Windows
8] Uninstall and reinstall the USB Root Hub
If disabling the Power Management settings of the USB Root Hub does not help, uninstall and reinstall the USB Root Hub driver. To do so, right-click on it and select Uninstall device. Follow the on-screen instructions. After uninstalling the USB Root Hub, restart your computer and see if it fixes the problem.
9] Update your chipset driver
A chipset driver tells Windows how to communicate with the motherboard and small subsystems on it. One possible cause of this issue is the corrupted chipset driver. Update your chipset driver and see if it helps.
10] Disable Selective Suspend
Selective Suspend is a property by which Windows forces the connected USB device(s) to enter into a low power state. This happens when there is no bus activity on a particular USB port detected for some time. When you use your USB device, it starts working again. The purpose of Selective Suspend is to save power. If the above fixes did not resolve your issue, you need to disable the Selective Suspend feature. This action will affect all the USB host controllers and all the USB devices. After disabling Selective Suspend, all the USB devices continue to use power. Moreover, the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” checkbox may be greyed out under the Power Management tab.
To disable Selective Suspend, you have to modify your Registry. Be careful while modifying the Registry, as any mistake can lead to serious errors in your system. Therefore, follow the steps explained below carefully and make sure that you modify or change the right registry key.
Before you proceed, we recommend you create a System Restore Point and backup your Registry.
Open the Run command box, type regedit, and click OK. This will open the Registry Editor. Now, copy the following path and paste it into the address bar of the Registry Editor. After that, press Enter.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\USB
If nothing happens, it means that the USB key does not exist in your Registry Editor. Now, you have to create it manually. To do so, right-click on the Services key and go to “New > Key.” Name this newly created subkey as USB.
Now, right-click on the USB subkey and go to “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.” You will see that a new Value is created on the right side. Now, right-click on the newly created Value and select Rename. Change its name to DisableSelectiveSuspend.
Right-click on the DisableSelectiveSuspend Value and select Modify. Enter 1 in its Value data and click OK. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer.
Read: Free USB Repair Tools for Windows 11/10 PC.
11] Uninstall the recent Windows Update
If your system’s USB ports stopped working after installing a Windows Update, you can uninstall that update. Windows 10 users can uninstall Windows Update via the Control Panel. After Windows 11 2022 Update, it is not possible to uninstall the Windows Updates via the Control Panel. Hence, you have to use the Settings app for this purpose.
12] Restore your system
You can use the System Restore tool to take your system to the state before the issue started occurring. But this is only possible if a Restore Point was created. When you run the System Restore tool to restore your system, Windows shows you all the restore points created on your device along with the date. You can select any of these restore points. In your case, you have to select that restore point that was created before the issue started occurring.
13] Perform an In-place Upgrade
In-place Upgrade is the process of installing the Windows operating system over the existing Windows OS without uninstalling it. Using the In-place Upgrade, you can repair your system. Though an In-place Upgrade does not erase data, it will be good if you back up your data.
Read: USB 3.0 External Hard Drive not recognized in Windows.
How do I get Windows 11 to recognize my USB device?
If Windows 11 is not recognizing your USB device, the first thing that you should do is restart your computer and see if it helps. In addition, the other things that you can do to get your USB ports to work again are running Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter, disabling Fast Startup, rolling back or reinstalling the USB Controllers, updating the chipset driver, disabling the Selective Suspend feature, etc. In this article, we have explained some working solutions to fix this problem.
Why do my USB ports suddenly stop working?
Quickly and repeatedly inserting and removing a USB device can make a USB port unresponsive. When a USB port is in this state, it doesn’t recognize the connected USB device due to which the USB device does not work. Other causes of this issue are the Selective Suspend feature of Windows, corrupted or outdated USB and chipset drivers, corrupted system files, damaged hardware, etc. Refer to the solutions explained in this article to know how to fix this problem.
I hope the solutions provided in this post helped you fix the issue.
Read next: Fix Generic USB Hub missing or not showing in Windows.
