I've got a Windows 10 desktop and I'm having a frustrating problem with my front panel USB ports. I recently tried connecting my external Toshiba hard drive, but it isn't working at all. When I plug it in, the blue light on the drive turns on for a moment and then goes off. I even tried using a different USB cable, but that didn't change anything. The drive doesn't show up in Disk Management either. I tested the same hard drive on another Windows 10 laptop, and it worked perfectly, which is puzzling! I've run CHKDSK on it while it was connected to the laptop and repaired any errors that showed up, but it's still not working on my main PC. It's not just the Toshiba drive that's being affected; it seems like almost everything I plug into the front panel USB ports is hit or miss, mostly miss. Here are some troubleshooting steps I've tried already:
1. Ran CHKDSK on the external hard drive while it was plugged into the laptop.
2. Used SFC /Scannow on my PC.
3. Disabled the USB Selective Suspend Setting in power settings.
4. Ran the built-in Hardware and Devices troubleshooter, but it didn't resolve the issue despite claiming to find and fix problems.
5. Tried a brand new USB cable, but the problem persists.
1 Answer
It sounds like the issue is with your front USB ports specifically, especially since the back ones are working fine. I'd recommend opening up your PC case and checking the connections from the front USB ports to the motherboard. Sometimes, loose or disconnected cables can cause problems like this. Just be sure to power down the PC and discharge any static before you start fiddling around inside! Let me know if you need guidance on how to do that.
Thanks for the advice! I’ll definitely check the connections in the case. Do you have any tips on what to look for while I’m in there?