usb ports

English Hardware
1

While researching this problem, I found a thread I started relating to uefi and secure boot. With my current problem, I suspect I missed the obvious problem trying to boot a usb drive.

My front usb ports have failed. Checking the settings in BIOS, both front and rear usb ports are enabled. However, no usb device is recognized when I plug anything into to either front port. Rear ports work as expected. I enabled/disabled the front ports and rebooted several times but the front ports are not working.

Anyone have a way to fix this? The only thing I can think of is to use a rear port with a hub. But that is not ideal. This is a hardware problem, not Tumbleweed. Booting to Windows gives the same result.

2

Not a Gigabyte MB?
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/540002-Disable-IOMMU-in-UEFI-BIOS-to-access-USB3-sticks
https://gist.github.com/oakwhiz/1dcec793e5f728556459
https://archived.forum.manjaro.org/t/usb-3-0-ports-not-recognizing-phone-does-charge-iommu-soft/137546/4

Please disregard if not this hardware.

3

Check the cable from the front usb ports to the motherboard - sometimes they wiggle out over time. Seen that on HP Desktops.

4

Due to heavy use the front USB headers went bad on a BE QUIET! Silent base 600 case: BE QUIET! SILENT BASE 600 USER MANUAL Pdf Download | ManualsLib I contacted the folks at BE QUIET! and they sent me a new front panel at no charge. Replacing the panel made the case great again.

5

Front USB ports can be easily burned out by a static electricity discharge, because they are not surrounded by a metal parts of a case.

6

Thank you for all the tips. I’ll begin working on them.

7

Anything is dmesg after plugging in a device?
Maybe also check chance of USB 3.x vs. USB 2 incompatibility?

8

This is a Dell PC. Everywhere I checked didn’t help with the brand name of the mainboard. So, I don’t know if I should try any of the
Gigabyte fixes.

I opened the case and didn’t see anything that would help identify the motherboard. Also, there are no cables for the usb front ports. They are soldered (or clipped?) to a corner of the board. I wiggled them an bit and pressed them a bit but that did not get them to connect. I am not brave enough to take the board out to see the underside.

There is no response in dmesg for either front port. The back port does add lines to the end of dmesg.

I guess I’m out of options. But, I appreciate the attempts to help.

9

This does read like hardware failure.

10

Almost certainly. It is a little odd that both would fail at once unless there is a connectivity break somewhere on the board. Looks like my only option is a hub on one of the back ports.

11

Likely a connected to a common host controller and/or power subsystem.

12

When one user’s Athlon main board USB went bad I replaced it by a used K7VT4A PRO at 11€ + 4€ shipping.

13

User can add PCIe USB controller and get USB ports with it on front or back.

14

Can’t imagine how I would get ports through the front face-plate, but there are open “slots” in the back panel. I have a couple of usb extension cables. So PCIe might be a solution.

15

Should I be looking for a bad host controller? Is that shown in lsusb?

16

Yes, that or ‘usb-devices’ will report what is found.

17

I see nothing unusual here

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 413c:2113 Dell Computer Corp. KB216 Wired Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c501 Logitech, Inc. Cordless Mouse Receiver
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0cf3:e005 Qualcomm Atheros Communications  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

I don’t know how to interpret this. Is there anything unusual?

usb-devices

T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480 MxCh=10
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0002 Rev=05.15
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 5.15.6-1-default xhci-hcd
S:  Product=xHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:14.0
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=0mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=256ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#=  6 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=e0(wlcon) Sub=01 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0cf3 ProdID=e005 Rev=00.02
C:  #Ifs= 2 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=100mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=e0(wlcon) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=btusb
E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  16 Ivl=1ms
E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
I:  If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=e0(wlcon) Sub=01 Prot=01 Driver=btusb
E:  Ad=03(O) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS=   0 Ivl=1ms
E:  Ad=83(I) Atr=01(Isoc) MxPS=   0 Ivl=1ms

T:  Bus=02 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=5000 MxCh= 4
D:  Ver= 3.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=03 MxPS= 9 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=1d6b ProdID=0003 Rev=05.15
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 5.15.6-1-default xhci-hcd
S:  Product=xHCI Host Controller
S:  SerialNumber=0000:00:14.0
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr=0mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   4 Ivl=256ms
18

No, but it would depend on how many host controllers the board should have. Also, it may be the the over current protection (to the affected ports) has gone OC.

https://paste.opensuse.org/19716501

19

Is there a way to reset the protection?

20

It depends on how it was implemented. PolySwitch resettable fuses (commonly employed) self-reset after the fault current is removed. It’s possible something else was used though.

https://elinux.org/Polyfuses_explained