General Technology & Troubleshooting Topics

[DrManhattan]

Hey there all,

I have a Satellite A135 -S2356 like I said, with Windows Vista Basic installed. Anyway, the issue I'm having is my WD external hard drive is not recognized in any of the four USB ports on my laptop and neither is my digital camera. Any other USB flash drives I've used are also not recognized on my laptop's USB ports, and also my printer is not recognized.

I think the problem started when I began using my sister's Ipod Shuffle on my laptop. Sometimes I would get an error message saying the Ipod wasn't recognized or something of the sort. I have Itunes installed on my laptop right now.

Anyway, ever since then, I've had these failing issues with my USB ports. I've tried uninstalling the device drivers for the USB ports but it hasn't solved the problem.

If anyone takes the time to read this or knows of any ways of tackling this problem I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

DrManhattan

[SAmely]

DrManhattan,

 The problem you're having sounds like a possible USB controller failure.  Do you know what version of your BIOS you have, sometimes updating that can resolve that problem.  This link : http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/downloadDetail.jsp?soid=2232672&pf=true shows 1.60 to be the newest version.

 If you feel comfortable doing that, I'd recommend giving that a shot.

Message Edited by SAmely on 02-27-2009 03:04 PM

[DrManhattan]

Well I tried the BIOS update and that really didn't resolve the problem.

I uninstalled Itunes, and that didn't help matters any.

Now two of my four USB ports are just unresponsive. The 2.0 and 1.1 ports won't even show up when i plug in something into these ports. Only the two USB ports nearest to my DVD drive bring up the error message "Device was not Recognized".

I'm kind of in a bind here if anyone else has any suggestions on how to tackle this problem.

I have windows vista basic on here, celeron m processor 1 GB of memory of that helps also.

Any consideration would be awesome.

Thanks again!

[DrManhattan]

bump

[Jerry_Lippey]

Satellite A135-S2356 

---

my WD external hard drive is not recognized in any of the four USB ports on my laptop and neither is my digital camera. Any other USB flash drives I've used are also not recognized on my laptop's USB ports, and also my printer is not recognized.

---

Do you have any reason to believe that the hardware works? That is, does anything (a mouse perhaps) work?

Open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers. Anything there? Any yellow splotches?

[jackcruzo]

I'v noticed that there are 3 of us here who have the same model, same Vista version, and exactly the same problem. Even that "only 2 ports responsive" also happened to me. But now I'm back to no ports working at all. I also have a WD external HD that cannot be recognized. Mouse and webcam are also not recognized by my laptop. I'm sure my USB devices are good because They work fine on my PC with XP. I also tried upgrading my Bios but no good. Please... Anyone?

[Defender]

As far as I can determine USB port not functional, and with the advice Jerry issued we should learn more.  You can also do a START/RUN/ then type in   eventvwr andwhen the screen opens locate Systems Log and open same and review any ERROR! listed. OPEN THE ERROR AND LEARN WHAT THE PROBLEM IS AND A SOLUTION IF LISTED.

[SAmely]

Based on my experience with this model, which encompasses several hundred, if the BIOS does not fix the problem, it probably needs servicing with this kind of problem.  I don't want to speculate, but it usually requires some kind of parts replacement to fix the problem.

[DrManhattan]

Hey there Jerry

THanks for taking the time out to read and try to help out.

I went into Device Manager, expanded the USB controllers, and no yellow error messages or splotches  at all. Perhaps that can help you help us with this problem in some way.

I'm strongly considering booting the drive with the revocery disc if all else fails.

Curse the beautiful purple Ipod shuffle that did this to my computer! haha

But thanks again any and all help is welcome!

[Defender]

Not sure if the Recovery Disc will resolve your issue, but worth the effort as an initial step, it that still fails and the BIOS checkout via F2 reveals that the USB legacy is ''enabled'', but still not functioning, I would then recommend a trip to the local authorized service center and have a diagnostic completed.  This will put your mind at ease to learn a return to functional status.