Laptop's USB port getting squirrelly

APT wrote:
AVG is good. Check out Malware bytes as well.

I run MalwareBytes about every year or so. I am about due.

AVG is good. Check out Malware bytes as well.

Personally, I would take this opportunity to back-up all your documents, make note of which programs you use that you installed and then wipe the laptop and do a fresh install of Windows 7... assuming you have Windows 7 install. Of course this will take a bit of time to complete but it is almost always worth it.

It is always wise to do a fresh install every couple of years or so, especially with Windows.

go to dells website in the support section enter your model number of your laptop and go to the driver page for it and download the usb driver and reinstall it.
the driver on your laptop may be corrupted evan though it says there is not a update.

Windows 7 running AVG Free that scans the computer every Friday.

I think it is some kind of software that is scanning the drives and not an hardware problem. What operating system are you using? If Windows, what version? When was the last time you scanned for viruses and malware?

Jim@HiTek wrote:
The OTHER, more likely reason, is that the Laptop hasn't been thoroughly cleaned in quite a while and it's choked with dust. This causes heat to build up and many custom chips have auto shutdown due to overheating. The USB management chip could be one of them that's overheating, sending a 'paused' signal to the CPU.

So open the case and clean out all the dust, pay particular attention to the heat sinks and fan.

Leaving the first thing in the morning for a weekend camping trip. I will open the case Sunday evening or Monday. (Who loves Mondays? RETIRED PEOPLE!)

Do all ports act the same?- Ah, never mind, I see they do.
I would bet hardware issue. You could boot an Ubuntu or Linux Mint CD and see if they work better on that- eliminate a software/driver/OS issue.

Mite be the usb port socket itself. One of mine is completely unusable, just plain wore out,.....along w/ the headphone socket is junk too,....not to mention the broken hinge, and broken corners of the screen,....a Dell LT that has never been dropped,....or abused,....7 yrs old, but is the worst LT I ever had.

The chips that run the USB ports do go bad. And the way they go bad causes an error bit to be sent to the CPU. The CPU recognizes that the fault isn't enough to cause a full system shutdown that was so popular in the past (blue screen of death) so it just shuts down the port, goes about it's business, comes back sometime (milliseconds) later and checks the port manager again. Keeps doing this forever.

The OTHER, more likely reason, is that the Laptop hasn't been thoroughly cleaned in quite a while and it's choked with dust. This causes heat to build up and many custom chips have auto shutdown due to overheating. The USB management chip could be one of them that's overheating, sending a 'paused' signal to the CPU.

So open the case and clean out all the dust, pay particular attention to the heat sinks and fan.

That's the likely hardware reasons. Software reasons occur as well.