Hi,

I've got a strange usb problem and thought somebody here might be able to help me out after some unsuccessful Googling.

My problem is that the front usb ports on my case only work with some usb devices. I can plug a flash drive in, or my printer but my passport drive won't work. I think I've decided that anything with its own power works fine, but those things that take power from the usb port don't work.

Now, I thought, 'oh that's just my front usb ports' and wasn't too worried. It's alright for them to go wrong, they often do and are easy to replace but then I bought myself a usb hub to plug into my back ports, thinking that would sort out my problems. It didn't. The things that didn't work in the front also don't work in the hub.

When I plug my passport drive in, or mp3 player or anything similar I get a "clunk clunk" of response from windows and the 'found new hardware' dialogue appears. It tells me it's found an unknown device and would I like it to look for drivers or would I like to help it- the way it usually does when you plug in something that needs drivers. I don't have time to respond to it though as I get a "clunk clunk" to say the device has been unplugged. 'Found new Hardware' tells me the device has been unplugged as well. It hasn't. While the device is plugged in this goes round and round.

I assumed this was to do with my usb drivers so I uninstalled and installed them and had no luck. Was it a problem with my operating system? I reinstalled that too. The problem is still there. Has anyone got any ideas about what to do? I'm concerned that the problem is with my motherboard and I really don't want that. Is there anything I can do...?

Thanks in advance!