In this troubleshooting guide, we’ll offer some tips for when your USB 3.0 ports aren’t working. Usually a bad USB connector occurs for several reasons – we hope these tips will help you fix it by trying to fix each of these causes step by step.
The tips that we offer can be easily tried on yourself, regardless of your computer literacy. Just read each sentence carefully and follow the directions we recommend.
Hopefully after you finish reading you can pinpoint the problem and get your USB 3.0 ports working again.
Make sure the internal cables are connected
The first thing to consider is whether the internal cables are connected to your USB 3.0 ports. This will only matter if you have a computer and are trying to use the front USB ports.
If you are having problems with USB 3.0 ports on the back of your computer or laptop, you can skip this suggestion. You will need to open the case to access the motherboard. First, shut down your computer and unplug it.
The above image provided by ASUS shows what the USB cable looks like and where to plug it in. The text “USB 3” You will usually find it at the bottom of the motherboard. Make sure it’s plugged in – if so, you’re done.
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Otherwise, you should be able to find a free USB 3.0 cable and plug it in. If you can’t find a device similar to the image shown above, your computer may not have front USB 3.0 ports.
Install the latest drivers
There is a small chance that you might need to update your USB 3.0 drivers. First, you need to figure out which drivers your computer really needs. You can visit Device Manager to find out. Follow the instructions below.
- Press the Windows key.
- Find Device Manager.
- Click Device Manager when it appears.
- In Device Manager, find the Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- Click the small arrow next to the text to expand it.
- Then find the name of the USB 3.0 or 3.1 driver
In my case, it was an Intel USB 3.1 eXtensible host controller. Now that we have the name of the driver, we can google it. This took me to the Intel website with a link to download Windows 7.
Please note that you are downloading the correct driver for the correct operating system. Before downloading, click the padlock icon at the top next to the website address to make sure it’s the correct source.
If there is no link available for your operating system, it may be because the manufacturer does not offer driver downloads and expects you to download them through your operating system. In this case, you can check for updates by following these steps.
- Press the Windows key.
- Find Device Manager.
- Click Device Manager when it appears.
- In Device Manager, look for Universal Serial Bus Controllers
- Click the small arrow next to the text to expand it.
- Right-click the USB 3.1 driver and select Properties.
- Click the Driver tab
- Click Update Driver.
- Click Search Automatically for Updated Driver Software.
Windows 10 may return looking for a new driver or tell you that you already have the best driver installed. In this case, proceed to the next step below.
Update to the latest BIOS, or check that USB 3.0 is enabled in the BIOS
In many cases, the motherboard will be responsible for software problems related to USB 3.0 ports or any other ports on the motherboard. For this reason, updating to the latest BIOS version may improve the situation.
To do this, you must first search for the name of your motherboard so that you can find the latest BIOS drivers online.
First, you can find the name of your motherboard by following these steps.
- Open the Start menu.
- Search for CMD.
- Click Command Prompt when it is displayed
- At the command prompt, type wmic baseboard get product, manufacturer
- Record the results
In my case, you can see what product and manufacturer I have. So, I need to find a new driver for MS-16P7 motherboard from Micro-Star International (MSI). It’s pretty simple to do this – each manufacturer will have their own product website and support pages for each motherboard.
In my case, I had to search for the specific laptop that my motherboard was using when looking for the MS-16P7, but it didn’t take long.
Before downloading, make sure you click the lock icon again to make sure you are connected to the manufacturer’s website. Download BIOS.
Before installing a new BIOS version, make sure you do not have the latest BIOS version yet. To do this, follow these steps.
- Open the Start menu.
- Search for CMD
- Search for system information
- Click System Information when it appears.
- In the System Summary tab, find the BIOS version / date.
In the Value field, write down the date shown and compare it with the date on the BIOS manufacturer’s website. If the latest BIOS on the website is more recent, you can install it.
It’s time to install a new BIOS. You will need a USB stick for this step. Look for the recently downloaded BIOS update on your PC. Extract it if it is an archive, and drag the contained files to USB.
This is important: make sure the files are at the root level. They cannot be in any folder.
When you download a BIOS update, you will be provided with a PDF or .txt file that explains the steps to install the new update.
As you can see in the image above, this file included in the BIOS archive gave me the steps I needed. The reason you need to read this is because each BIOS will have different steps, but the overall process is similar.
You must turn off your computer and then turn it on again. During boot, enter BIOS by pressing a specific key while turning on the computer, then find the BIOS update option. You can find the key you want in the support materials or on the boot screen. If you need instructions, read the materials provided by your manufacturer.
Summary
That is where we come to the end of our guide on how to fix USB 3.0 ports. I hope you found this guide useful. If you are still having problems with USB ports, please let me know and I’ll try to help as soon as I can.
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