Dimension 8300: All USB Ports Stopped Working

Have you tried to install the chipset drivers from this support page?

Thanks very much for this! Sure this is for the 875p chipset? If yes, but if so are those drivers one and the same as any Windows XP USB drivers that I would still need to find and install?

However, this ancient pc can’t connect to internet to do download. But it does have an optical drive and my sister has one in her HP desktop,  so I can download it burn it to a CD-RW. Then just copy it to my desktop?

Disabled USB controller ports?

What does that mean?

Why would you do that if your USB ports are not working?

And when did this start happening?

If this PC already has XP installed, why are you doing this?????

I don’t have the link but in reply to this apparently not too rare problem Anannya Podder at the Microsoft community offered this as one of 3 ways to get USB ports to again recognize a USB connected device. I purchased this pc new from Dell  back in 2004 and this problem never happened until suddenly last week. 

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@raffaella wrote:

I don’t have the link but in reply to this apparently not too rare problem Anannya Podder at the Microsoft community offered this as one of 3 ways to get USB ports to again recognize a USB connected device. I purchased this pc new from Dell  back in 2004 and this problem never happened until suddenly last week. 

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I would do what @JOcean  suggested and install the chipset driver again.

As for the New Hardware Prompt, does the USB flash drive show up in Windows Explorer?

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"so I can download it burn it to a CD-RW. Then just copy it to my desktop?"

There's 2 ways you can do that.  Yes, you can move the file to your Documents folder.  No need to put it on the Desktop.  Or make a folder of your choosing, like "XP Downloads."  Then install from there by clicking on install .exe icon or find the install application icon in the program folder.  Depends on how it shows when downloaded - if it gives you an icon or a folder.  Or, leave it on CD as long as it's saved there anyway, install from there with aforementioned tips.

I think you're also already familiar with downloads and shouldn't have any trouble.

Before I had the internet at home, I used to go to the library and save downloads to a flash drive.  Besides installing, from there, I'd save them to CD in case of having to reload OS.

If by chance there's any confusion, I can make a video and upload the link.  I haven't used XP in a long time, but still have some of the downloads.

Thanks. 0My sister’s back Wed so I should have this installed by the weekend. 

No, the USB flash drive doesn’t appear in Windows Explorer. Yes, I install the chipset again.

If you are adventurous, I would download a light version of Linux and see if the USB ports work with that.

https://www.howtogeek.com/735089/6-lightweight-linux-distros/

To make a long story short I was able to unzip and launch the chipset utility without any apparent problem. It asked if I wanted to restart XP which I did.  But again USB devices are unrecognized. I then restarted, hit F2 and looked for anything regarding USB drives but found nothing specifically. A hardware failure on the motherboard?

BINGO??? In Device Manager in my other Dimension 8300 there’s a folder called Storage Volumes > Generic Volume Properties. There it says Generic USB Storage Device. Then I clicked on Driver Details and it shows a location in C:\windows\system32.  THEN when I looked for all of this in my other pc’s Device Manager none of it was there. Got corrupted? Can you or someone here give me the link to download that driver?  OR can if I can find and copy the driver from that system 32 folder from my one pc onto a CD how and where do I paste it in my other pc? Or does that driver need to be installed via a downloaded  exe file?