I have a nagging problem with the USB controller on my Dell Inspiron 1100 running Windows XP Home Edition.

 

Two years ago I sent it in to replace, of all things, the PCMCIA card eject button (DELL made me after I insisted I'd rather not, but I figured, what could go wrong ??).  During the repair, Dell also loaded the latest BIOS.  When the computer returned to me, nothing worked-no programs, no externals, nada...I had to erase my HD and reinstall Windows XP Home.  Since then, I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN MY USB CONTROLLER to work.  Because I received a new work laptop at the same time as the repair, I have not corrected this issue yet.  But now I've finally had enough.  Here's more...

 

Problem:

-When loading any USB device, xp woudl search for the driver, but it would never find one, even if I had the CD with the driver inserted.

 

Background:

-Ports are not damaged.

-Power to USB was checked and is fine.  " Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is unchecked. 

-Could not reset defaults on the bios...when entering system setup, pressing key as instructed by the dell troubleshooter was ineffective.

-Dell Diagnostics did not detect anything wrong with the USB ports

-USB Mouse HAS ONLY WORKED WHILE RUNNING DELL DIAGNOSTICS.

-Service Pack II is loaded.

-All the latest Drivers have been installed.

-All USB Controllers listed have (had...until I uninstalled them...read below) corresponding drivers.

-Just tried installing a MuVo Mix MP3 USB driver, and it was recognized in the device manager, but when I plugged it into the USB port, as usual, the "Device Wizard" could not locate the driver.

-I then uninstalled the USB controllers...when I ran the dell diagnostics again, there was no problem with the USB, and I could use the USB Mouse!!

-I need to reinstall the drivers for the USB, but I hesitated to do so yet, because the diagnostics said the USB controller, which I believe checks the drivers, too, did not find a problem.  The main usb drivers are still located in system32\drivers.  All usb registries in  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currentcontrolset\services  have not changed since I unintalled the devices.

 

There is a similar post by hambyh on 11-13-2005.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!