Computer advice please

[Modus]

The USB ports on my computer, seem to be failing. There are 5, one at the front which will not recognise anything since I stupidly left a USB stick in it overnight. The USB stick was really hot when I removed it so I am guessing the port has burnt out. However the 4 at the back seem to be playing up. The cordless mouse & keyboard for example disappear when I re-boot the machine, they eventually re-appear after plugging the dongle into one of the other ports. But then the next time I have to swap it back to the original port. None of the ports now seem to recognise the USB cable for my phone.

Losing the port at the front is a pain as now have to use one of the rear ports to download files from my USB stick. Which was a pain the other night as only one port seemed to be working and ended up in the loft looking for the old plug in keyboard and mouse. I was going to buy one of those desktop hubs but am concerned I will have the same problems with that as with the mouse & keyboard.

Anyone know how hard it is to replace the USB ports [I assume you can] or is there any checks I can do via the computers menus to check they are working properly ? Would appreciate any advice anyone could offer, I was going to go into PC World but having read that thread a couple of weeks ago, thought I would pass on that for now.

[James]

It does appear that something has gone on the Motherboard.

Have you checked whether the USB controllers still appear in Device Manager? Have a look there and report back what it says (under Universal Serial Bus Controllers).

If everything else seems to be working OK, then one solution would be to buy a USB2 PCI card and install this instead of the onboard ports. You should be able to connect this to the front external port on your case without too much difficulty - or failing that a usb extender will do the job.

[paf]

never heard of the ports getting hot. I leave an external drive plugged into USB and has been on for 3 months without being swtiched off once.

If you can find one working port you can buy a little adapter box for a few quid that will give you 3 or 4 sockets.

like this

http://www.gadgetshack.co.nz/E4U041_hb002_usb_2.0_4ports_hub%5B1%5D.jpg

failing that, new motherboard time.

[Modus]

Cheers James, will check that tonight when I get home and let you know.

[Modus]

Thanks PAF, that is what I was going to buy but as the ports seem to be taking it in turns to work I am concerned that I will have the same problem. Not sure if the port it'self was hot but the stick certainly was when I took it out.

[paf]

best of saving your money and getting a PCI USB card then, do you have a usb back plate like this lying around to try and test the board.

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/2940.jpg

[Modus]

I am sure there is something very similar to that in a box somewhere amongst all the other paraphanalia that I have collected over the years.
I'll have a look and let you know. Once again thanks.

[Modus]

James & Paf - Sorry to take so long to get back to you both, haven't had much free time lately. I have checked the status of the USB ports on the device manager and apparantly they are all working correctly, despite the fact that only one seems to be working correctly. Took a chance and bought a hub which is running perfectly well off the one working port. Havent had any problems so far [after 5 days] apart from getting a message telling me the bluetooth dongle would work faster if plugged into a different port ! As it seems to serve the purpose for what I need I'll stick with this for now. Thanks for taking the time and interest to respond.