Losing usb ports

[ratter]

I am at a loss here. I have a dell machine with windows vista. Connected to the usb ports are mouse, keyboard and my wireless netgear usb model wpn111. Nearly every day I notice that I lose my wireless lan connection and this is when I notice ports failure. The led on the wireless key stops flashing and reconnecting it does not bring it back to life. The mouse and keyboard continue working, however if I disconnect and reconnect the mouse or keyboard these also stop working and are not recognised. The only way to restore usb ports is by shutting down pc. At shut down there is a problem, the shutting down windows screen hangs and I end up physically switching off the pc. Spoke to Dell they suggested downloading chipset software but this has not helped. Need urgent help.

 

[CCT]

Look in the properties section for the ports and uncheck 'allow windows to shut this device off to save power' or whatever phrase Vista uses.

 

[ratter]

Look in the properties section for the ports and uncheck 'allow windows to shut this device off to save power' or whatever phrase Vista uses.

I have looked in properties and all usb ports are unchecked for saving power

 

[CCT]

Step 2 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900

 

[ratter]

Have tried all the methods listed in microsoft support. Have deleted ports and reinstalled etc. Problem occurs at least once a day and can only be rectified by rebooting pc by power switch

 

[CCT]

Have you tried running for 1 day without the wireless modem dongle attached?

 

[ratter]

No but will give it a go

 

[trodas]

How old the Dell machine is?
I jsut recently lost my USB keychain drive in cursed Dell crap, full of bad caps, so... maybe this is a hardware issue, after all. The USB drive of mine developed bad sectors right on start, so, it was unrecoverable. I think you getting to experience soon the very same problem - the voltage filtering caps near the USB ports went bad and everything vent FUBAR ...

Solution then is to recap or buy new machine. Not what you want to hear, eh?