For the last couple of days I started getting a message whenever I plugged in my phone saying there is a USB power surge. After that happens all of my USB ports stop working. I have to reboot my computer.
Using windows 7 up to date.
I've deleted and reinstalled usb's
Turned off let computer put usbs to sleep
My computer is plugged into a surge protector
Have you tried a new USB cable? A broken wire could be causing a short circuit in the cable and overloading the USB ports. Are you able to power and recharge other USB devices OK with the computer?
Yes, I actually bought a new one and threw the old one away, lol......does it with both my phone and my tablet but not my motorcycle helmet. It does it on both the front and back ports.
My husband has the exact same computer with the exact same specs on the desk next to mine. When I plug in my phone using the same usb cable he gets not recognized. The tablet is fine though. Do you think it could be my phone?
Does your phone need specific software drivers installed on a computer in order to do anything besides charge it? If so and it isn't installed on your husband's computer, it might explain why it isn't being recognized.
If the phone had a hardware problem, I would think it would trigger a power surge shut down on both computers. The only thing that is coming to mind at the moment is that there may be a problem with the USB power management hardware on your computer. It could be triggering a false surge shut down when a high, but safe, current load is placed on a USB port. Your phone and tablet may use higher charging currents than your helmet.
This may be more of a hardware problem and a Windows 7 problem. I'll ask a moderator to review and maybe move this topic to our hardware forum.
No my computer does not need any specific drivers for my phone. It's a Samsung Note 5. I've been plugging it into the same usb port to charge it for the last 2 years without any issues. Hardware problem does make sense. If this is the case what course of action would you recommend?
Thank you
If it is a hardware problem on the motherboard, it could get expensive to either repair or replace it. Two possible workarounds come to mind:
1) Install a USB expansion card in your computer. It would need to support up to I believe a maximum of 2.1 Amps power at each USB socket. I don't know how easy it would be to find such an expansion card.
2) Use an external USB expansion hub that uses its own AC power adapter. Again, you would need to make sure that some or all of the ports support the Amps drawn by your phone, tablet and any other USB high current devices you plan to use. The hub would need little or no power from the USB connection to the computer.
It might not hurt to let us know the brand and exact model number of your computer. Someone else here may be able to suggest a hardware specific solution.
"A unit load is defined as 100 mA in USB 2.0, and 150 mA in USB 3.0. A device may draw a maximum of 5 unit loads (500 mA) from a port in USB 2.0; 6 (900 mA) in USB 3.0." Some motherboards have ultra high amperage USB ports to support charging devices off them also. Mine advertises that but I think you have to turn it on in the BIOS. My Garman GPS will barely charge on my 2.o ports but works ok on my USB 3 Add-on card. Older boards are supposed to have current limiters on the ports but can be damaged from hooking up a High power draw.
Do you know how that would have gotten turned off? It has been working fine up till now. Would a program be able to turn it off? Do you know how to turn it back on?
I don't have a usb expansion card but I will look into getting one.
My computer is a Lenovo intel i5 4460 cpu 3.2GHz, 8GB RAM. Using Windows 7
The USB ports were not turned off, they were overloaded and that's what killed them.
It could be a short in one port, a bad USB cable, or a problem on the motherboard where the USB connects.
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