usb ports not working cd rom stays open

[AJSinPHX]

Hi there,

Received a pc DOA. Dead as a doornail, no lights nothing. Installed new powersupply upgraded from 300wt to 350 no big deal. Had lights and power.

However, the usb ports are not working and strangely the cd rom stays open. if you manually try and close it it comes open again.

Motherboard is ecs P4S5 ver. 1.2

I dont know what caused the pc to go down in the 1st place. Please advise. I am very much a beginner with only moderate at best knowledge but very intelligent and quick study. So speak in laymans terms as much as possible. Thank you very much.

My landlord is the owner of this pc so...I would like to fix this ASAP if you can see my point!!

[saphalline]

So the PSU was dead and that was fixed, correct? And I'm assuming that if the USB ports aren't working then you've gotten it to boot into Windows, correct? Can you verify the model number of the mobo? Can't find "P4S5" on ECS' website.

Does this system have WinXP? Win98? Can you give us some more details about what is installed on it? Fixing the USB ports should be as easy as a driver update, but the CD drive needs to be addressed right away. It sounds like the CD drive is toast. If it won't stay closed, then that would suggest internal damage and you probably don't want it being used! :p Replace it - they're cheap enough. Heck, dual-layer multi-format DVD burners are under $50 (including shipping) if you buy them online.

[AJSinPHX]

hi yes it was fixed and i was able to go into windows xp home edition .
Mobo is a P4S5a rev 1.1 Sorry was working from memory before. I went to the site also but frustrating as that ver of board was not listed at all. The 1.0 is there but not the 1.1.

What would cause the drivers for usb to need updating and why all of a sudden is the cdrom toast? Something had to happen to cause damage to the unit. I am looking for answers as I know my landlord will want one when I tell him to buy a new one. Everything was fine until the shutdown problem itself. He feels that because the pc did not just go out that it was a gradual thing that it overheated. If that was the case wouldn't there be damage to other internals? And still why do the usb port drivers need updated. What caused that change? Any additional info would be greatly appreciated.

[saphalline]

Well, you could try entering the BIOS and see if the CD drive is recognized and if it will stay closed. If it does, then the CD drive problem is in Windows. If it does the same thing, it's toast. CD drives break for many reasons, but the most common problem is wear & tear. After about 3 years, most CD drives are out-of-date (as in they won't read the latest copy-protected CD's) and after 5 years most of them just die. It doesn't have to be gradual, it can just happen overnight. I've seen it many times.

Overheating could have been why that old PSU died. How many case fans are installed? If the PSU fan was the only fan for internal airflow, then you'd better add a fan or the new PSU will also die. PSU's aren't meant to cool the entire frickin' system, they're just meant to cool themselves.

Windows is not known for its stability! :p Moreover, if your landlord knows nothing about security, it's entirely possible that his system is gunked up with Windows $hit and spyware/malware and has just been running for too long without a clean install. Computers don't just work forever, unless you never use them. A lot of work needs to go into maintaining them. If your landlord didn't do this, well... then perhaps losing his USB port functionality is the least of his problems. There's no telling what crap is on there...

[AJSinPHX]

It seems too coincidental to me that the cd drive and usb ports would both fail at the same time that the power supply went.

Still the questions in my mind are why do we need to update drivers after psu failed and why did the cd fail but nothing else?

There is more to this than just a wear and tear issue here. I now have the pc here so I will open it and see whats happening. Anything anyone can add would really be great.

[saphalline]

That does bring up a good point. If the PSU simply died in its sleep, so to speak, then that would just require replacing it. But if it died a horrible death, it's possible that it damaged other parts, the CD drive among it. And if the PSU's death took out the USB ports, then that means the mobo (or part of the mobo) is fried.

[AJSinPHX]

is there a diagnostic i could do or a report i could run to determine the state of the hardware? I would like to have something to show him . ty

[saphalline]

Ooh, ummm... Not really! Diagnostic equipment for a mobo costs several hundreds of dollars. Best you can do is take it into a reputable shop for testing, which is likely to cost under $100, depending on where you live.

Anyone else have some ideas?

[ski]

Another thing to check is that the USB controller(s) is(are) enabled in BIOS.
If that's ok, then make sure that the USB controller(s) has(have) no problems in Device Manager.
If things are ok there and no USB device works on them, then they're history.

Other than having the MB shop tested or buying your own test equipment, the only other way to determine if it's bad is to swap it out.