Maybe it's because I've been in the shop so long I'm cross-eyed...I don't know. Anyway, I have a Dell Dimension 8200, 1.8GHz Intel, XP. The USB ports aren't seeing anything I'm plugging into them, front or back. I've reinstalled the drivers, the system says there's no problem with them, diagnostics say they're working fine, etc. I'm thinking the ports themselves are no good, and the front are prolly integrated with the back. There are no extra plugins on the board so I can't try that route. I checked the BIOS (not much of a BIOS on these systems), reset it, still no joy. I'm about to tell him it needs a new board if he wants to use the USB. Is there anything else anyone can think of trying?

Hi Interceptor,

Is there any power on them ? (just a thought, as I do not know exactly what you checked - I've had to plug a PCI USB ports card once, on an old computer, because the original ones from motherboard won't work, an had no power on them).

Chris

I just ordered a PCI USB card. Althought the system saw them, the ports are dead.

QUOTE

Althought the system saw them, the ports are dead.

The system can only see as far as the controller, and if, as Ironbender has suggested, the power or data transmission to the connector is interrupted, the system won't see that.