hi, i have 4 usb ports on the back of my pc and two on the front, the back ports work fine but the front always tell me the device is not recognized when i plug stuff in. have tried a belkin mouse maxtor hard drive and a usb game controller with the same result. any ideas what the problem is please
I had this with an old PC. I found it due to a USB line on the motherboard. If you're able to, go inside the PC and move the front USB header. (There are usually at least two places for it to go, try changing to the other one). If you're not happy with doing this then all I can suggest is using a USB hub off one of your rear ports.
thanks, is it hard to do,if not can you post instructions of how to do it. if it is complicated i may just get the hub as i don't like poking inside the caseing
always think im going to screw something up.
thanks for your reply, jason
It's not difficult at all. You just need to be able to get inside the case (I have to check in case of people who's parents forbid them to go inside the PC or people who de facto won't touch a PC's insides).
Inside the PC at the bottom of the motherboard there will be some headers (sets of pins sticking up in groups) like this:
The USB ones should be labelled, if not identically then similarly to how they are in this photo. Your front USB ports will be connected to one of them by a block connector and a wire that runs toward the front of the case (you're looking for a group of 9 wires in a 5x2 block - other connectors such as the power switch and LEDs also run from this area, so if it's not a 5x2 block, don't touch it). Assuming there are two identical slots on the motherboard (there should be, usually more) all you need do is move the 5x2 connector to the next one along.
It'll currently look a bit like this:
so move the block of one to the other side.
Note: You'll see that not all the connectors are always used, but there is always a block of 2 rows of 5. Don't worry about the number of wires (whether it's 8 or 9), as long as it says USB and it's 5x2, it's correct.
