A rather common problem on everyone's computer is that related to the recognition of USB sticks connected to the computer which, sometimes, are not detected. The problem could be caused by the port, that is the USB socket of the PC or by the key that has some internal malfunction.
There may be problems with partitioning the external disk, incompatible file system, drivers or other things.
In the worst case, the unit itself or the socket can simply be broken and replaced.
The following steps are those to be followed to diagnose and solve all types of problems related to broken USB ports or undetected and recognized USB sticks .
1) In the event that any connection to the USB port does not work, it may be damaged so it is worth seeing if the other USB ports work or not .
In the case of a USB stick or external disk that does not work with any port, it may be damaged so it would be the case to try to attach it to another computer and see if it goes.
2) Before anything else, also try turning the computer off and back on to see if Windows can recognize all the hardware connected to the PC when you restart.
At this point, if it still doesn't work, you can make two checks, one on the USB socket, the other on the disk or the USB stick.
3) Check device and driver management
You can start Device Manager in several ways, the quickest one is to go to the Start menu, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
Device Manager should start immediately with a list of devices which are all devices installed on the computer.
What matters for this specific USB port problem is to check the items of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller category.
The item to click in the list is the one with the name Advanced standard host controller .
The name is more or less similar for everyone but it may change slightly depending on the type of USB host controller installed on the computer.
Click on it with the right mouse button and then on Scan for hardware changes to force the computer to reinstall the driver.
The more experienced can also try to open the details of the Host Controller, see if the driver works correctly and, in case of problems, press on Uninstall, restart the computer and let Windows reinstall it.
If it does not, go back to the devices screen, open the Host Controller and then Restore the driver (with automatic search on the computer).
Be careful because uninstalling the USB controller driver will also lift the mouse and keyboard support, if connected via USB.
In the same screen also check the section of the hard drives to see if the USB stick or the attached external disk is seen by Windows.
Also try these (not the main hard drive) to restore and reinstall the driver.
3) Automatic solutions from Microsoft
On the Microsoft Fix It Support Center site, there are automatic tools to correct most Windows errors.
In this case, go to the category Install or update the software and hardware and then run the Fixes: "Diagnosis and automatic correction of Windows USB problems" and "Problem solution: hw device not detected, not working".
4) Disable USB selective suspend .
USB selective hibernation allows the system to disable unused USB ports to save energy.
Sometimes the door is not reactivated when necessary so it may not work.
Since this type of energy saving is very minimal on a desktop PC, this function can be disabled.
Open the Control Panel -> go to Hardware and Sound -> Power Options .
Find your preferred feeding plan and click on " Change combination settings "
Click on " Change advanced energy saving settings "
Expand the " USB settings " item, then
Expand the " USB selective suspend setting " item and use the drop-down menu to disable it.
Click on OK.
5) If the problem is related to an unrecognized USB stick or external disk, check Disk Management and check if Windows detects the connected drive.
Note that if it is an external hard drive, you may need to press a power switch to turn it on.
Open the Disk Management tool (To do this, press the Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter).
The external disk, even if it does not appear under the computer resources, should still be listed in the Disk Management window as a drive without any partition.
In this case, see here how to repair a broken USB stick that won't open on PC
6) USB disk partition problems can be solved from Windows Disk Management.
If the disk is not partitioned and has " unallocated space ", it is better to create a new partition.
Right click right click inside the unallocated space, select the option New simple volume, and through the wizard create a new partition.
If the drive is partitioned and you still don't see it, make sure you've set up a drive letter so you can access it from Windows.
Right-click on the removable disk partition and change the letter.
Then format the partition in NTFS formatted by right clicking on it.
This will erase all the files on the disk.
If it doesn't work, read here how to clean up the USB stick and force formatting the drive
7) If the USB drive is not really displayed in Disk Management, even after trying other ports and other computers, then the USB stick or external drive can be broken.
Return to step 3 and verify that the disk drive drivers are functional.
If there are problems at this stage it is difficult to solve them because it may be necessary to open the computer and make a repair.
In a desktop PC it is better to change the USB port card if they are not included in the motherboard, otherwise they must be repaired, as well as in a laptop.
READ ALSO: Solutions to errors on unrecognized USB ports, unknown or impossible to use devices
