Comments on: All four USB ports in my Toshiba Satellite A105 laptop fail to work with a USB flash drive

By: webguru1337

webguru1337 — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 06:47:58 +0000

bios update didn’t solve the problem at our laptops.
i’m working for a company in the IT-department and we’ve got some problems w/ Toshiba S300L (especially the -102 models) and their usb-ports.
the entire usb-controller died when a mobile phone/camera was plugged in.

you can reactivate mice and extern keyboards by completely cutting off the notebook from the energy supply.
this means: power off – plug off the power cable – remove rechargeable battery.
wait about a minute and put it together again.

it is like the usb-controller – reset from Fred Swemmer, but w/o working on red and black cables

hope, it’s helpful for some of you guys

By: Tetteh (Ghana)

Tetteh (Ghana) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:26:44 +0000

Thank you Fred Swemmer. you re great. it worked like magic. thank you so much, u have made my day.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:32:07 +0000

Thanks to Fred Swemmer! (97)Your tip works great. My C650 Toshiba has the same fault. It’s been back twice to Germany for repair but was just the same. The 4.8V USB supply comes on briefly and then dies whenever a memory stick is plugged in. Fred’s solution overcomes the problem. I am going to make up a little battery pack to plug into one port so that the other will work as it should. My experience has been the same as Bayar – about a month before the fault appeared. Surely this must have been reported to Toshiba many times. Their ‘help’ desk told me my fault was most unusual – rubbish!

By: Bayar

Bayar — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:17:02 +0000

TOSHIBA SUXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!! GOT SATELLITE AND AFTER 1 MONTH ALL USB IS OUTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!

FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

By: Fred Swemmer

Fred Swemmer — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:31:11 +0000

WHEN YOUR USB ACTS LIKE IT IS TOTALLY DEAD…. (NO POWER ON USB e.g. NOTHING REACTS WHEN PLUGGING IN.) TAKE AN OLD USB CABLE AND PLUG IT IN USB PORT FROM YOUR COMPUTER. CUT OFF (YES, WITH A KNIFE) THE OTHER END FROM THE USB CABLE AND STRIP THE RED & BLACK WIRE. APPLY +5V TO THE RED WIRE AND THE 0 or ZERO TO THE BLACK. (JUST HOOK UP 5V TO THE STRIPPED WIRES BASICALLY) PLUG ANOTHER USB DEVICE IN THE OTHER USB PORT AND………….. THERE YOU GO. YOU JUST FIXED THE +5V POWER SUPPLY INTERNALLY FROM YOUR PC OR LAPTOP. (REALLY, YOU JUST RESET THE USB PORT FROM THE OUTSIDE IN, HOW ABOUT THAT). CRAZY MAYBE, BUT IT WORKS AND THAT WHAT MATTERS. SICK OFF THOSE NO GOOD HELP DESKS FROM TOSHIBA…………. TOSHIBARF!!!!

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:56:46 +0000

Toshiba A105, Vista: USB ports on one side were always crapping out sporadically. Had it checked out under warranty and seems it was delivered with a defective HD. Worked fine for several months, then the USB problem resurfaced. Now it periodically gives a “USB not recognized” error when nothing is plugged in to the port, does a hex dump & reboots. No more toshibas for me.

By: Bukva

Bukva — Mon, 10 May 2010 00:46:05 +0000

I also tried ubuntu linux 9.10 on my Toshiba Satellite P15-S479. This is in addition to the various windows versions I tried that I stated about earlier. So this just confirms again to me that it is a hardware/component level problem on the motherboard of my toshiba laptop. Still hoping that someone can give me some insight on what the problem is. At least tell me what chip that controls the usb ports, ie southbridge, northbridge, some other chip, etc. Oh currently my work around is by using a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card.

By: Bukva

Bukva — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:04:15 +0000

After doing some research, it looks like it is the southbridge failure or some other chip that is soldered on the main board (mother board). I had an issue with a hp laptop that would not turn on. Turns out that the fins on the heat sync were clogged up, which generated more heat inside the laptop which in turn caused a chip close by to unsolder. The hair line gap between the pins of the chip and mother board was not visible. After some research I found out that it needed to be taken apart and re-soldered. After it worked like the day I first got it. So to me it looks like the same thing or similar is up with these toshiba laptops. I also have a Satellite P15-S479 and when I plug a usb flash stick into the port the light comes on, on my flash stick but device does not pop up in my computer. Same thing with usb wireless mouse. I have reinstalled windows xp, then installed windows 7 and its still same issue. I also updated the bios and still nothing. So in conclusion its a component level issue on the main board its self. Now if only some one can tell me which chip I need to re-solder.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:52:27 +0000

My usb ports failed (“usb device not recognized” and no power lights to the devices) about a week ago, so I unplugged the power + battery and waited for a couple of hours. Ports came back to life, but my logitech usb keyboard was now simply recognized as a HID keyboard.

This weekend, I lost all 4 ports again. Nothing is recognized.

I got desperate and called toshiba tech support for my Satellite A134-52386. They were no help.

I’ve uninstalled the ports and flashed to BIOS v1.4 (there is a BIOS 1.6, but toshiba downloads does not show it when I select my vista OS.) Should I try BIOS 1.6?

Ubuntu does not recognize the drives, and I will be checking with a Linux CD next, but I’m guessing that this may be a hardware problem with my 2 year old laptop.

Any other suggestions to troubleshoot this as a hardware or software issue? It seems to be a huge problem for people.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:10:52 +0000

I was also having trouble with my usb ports, so I deleted them, only I don’t have the recovery disk to reinstall them. I’ve updated the bios and all that, but now I don’t have any root hub driver and I can’t seem to find it anywhere… I need the root hub driver for my Toshiba Satellite Laptop, Model # A105 S4254. I am running Windows XP Media Center Edition, Version 2002 SP3. Any ideas?