catgate Posted April 27, 2008 Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 I appear to have a malfunction with my USB ports on my Linux box.It first became noticeable a couple of days ago when I tried to print something. I got the message saying that the printer was not connected.I wondered if it was software and so I updated to the newest version of Ubuntu but still the fault remained. I swapped the USB connections (front to rear) with no change. I tried my card reader (front and rear) that too was not recognised.In as much as it is a relatively new MB I am puzzled as to what it can be. Is it possible that the USBs can just go "off" like that?Edit:-I have just tried my external HD with exactly the same result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 27, 2008 Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 Yes, they can "go off". Injudicious hotplugging (despite what used to be claimed for USB) can easily wreck the ports themselves or (more usually) the device attached to them. I've known it happen several times without any obvious explanation. The machine I'm sending this from has four useless motherboard USB ports which just decided one day to die on me. There are another two in another part of the board that continue to function properly.The dead ones I've replaced with USB PCI cards (2 off, 4+1 USB ports each card) so there are ten externally accessible USB ports and two internal ones. There are 4 Firewire ports on a PCI card as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted April 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 Thanks, pops, I must try a PCI card. I was thinking of having to get a new MB, and had forgotten about PCI cards. Silly really when I had one in a previous box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 27, 2008 Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 Best thing about using PCI cards is that they cost very little and if you wreck them (as I have done) it doesn't break the bank to renew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted April 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 Best thing about using PCI cards is that they cost very little and if you wreck them (as I have done) it doesn't break the bank to renew.I was just about to order one when I began to wonder how I would fare with Ubuntu recognising it. But I have since realised that as far as plug and play is concerned it is light years ahead of M$, so I shall follow that route pro. tem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted April 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2008 So here is a funny thing.In the middle of last week I did an auto update of Ubuntu 7 and it appeared as though my USB/printer problems started about then. I trawled through the files relating to printing and found one updated one the was carrying a tag for Ubuntu 8, which was not to be released as a finished OS until 24th April. I had known that Ubuntu 8 had been about for a while in beta form and so assumed that this particular file had been tried, found to be OK, and released. However after finding that not only was the printer (also the scanner) was affected, but the card reader and the usb memory stick would also not play, I decided to do the full online upgrade to the new Ubuntu 8, hoping that that would cure things......it didn't.I have asked questions and got answers from a variety of helpful souls today but all to no avail. About 9 pm I was doing a trawl through the System>Preferences when my tired brain wondered what lay under the 'Removable Drives and Media' heading. So I looked.It had amongst other things Printers and Scanners, and Digital Cameras, and they were all unticked.So I ticked them, and lo and behold I could print and scan, and also the card reader and the USB memory stick worked.It looks to me as though the auto update I did, in the early part of last week, had carried with it the printing update on which I found Ubuntu8 tag, and this must have been the root of the trouble. It presumably must have a default setting of "unticked all round".When I did an auto upgrade yesterday to Ubuntu 8 it must have been left unaltered and hence all my USB ports seemed to be dead.No I don't understand it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted April 28, 2008 Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 Very strange problem Catgate, even stranger than some of your posts :D I am posting this from the Ubuntu live CD, and printer, scanner etc all work of the live CD.Glad it is all working now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted April 28, 2008 Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 I've upgradedinstalled 8.04 as well and everything seems to be working on my box :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted April 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 In the Synaptic Package Manager, since my upgrade/install to"8", the line which I have arrowed now appears. Prior to my upgrade to 8 and after my routine update to 7, i.e. the time of my great printing famine, there were two similar line which read something like "5.0.?-? ubuntu8 print drivers for CUPS"It is all a bit weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.