on board usb problem

[georgeorge]

Hi all,
I'm new here and you guys really seem to know your stuff so.....here's one that is *&^^0@^ing me off. I just bought a new computer and it is an Athlon XP 2400+ jobby. It has a m810d baby ATX mobo and that board shares one of the rear USB ports with the on board USB header that an Internal 6in1 card reader is plugged into. When I first set up the computer I was unaware of this and plugged my USB printer into that rear shared port. Now.....The USB port that I plugged the printer into doesn't work......the two USB ports on the front of the case (they are plugged into the 10 pin USB Header on the board) don't work.......The card reader don't work...and oddly enough, the CNR slot that has a 56k modem in it doesn't work. The company I bought the computer from never told me about the shared port thing. I found out about it looking into this problem. My question is....Did I screw up my motherboard or is there a simple fix that I don't know about.
Thanks for any help.

[Confused]

Two things to check.

In BIOS ensure that the USB ports are enabled.

In Device Manager, Start > Control Panel > System> Hardware > Device Manager. Check if they are active.
Chas

[georgeorge]

Yup USB is enable in the Bios Setup and active in Device manager....What's weird is that there are 3 more USB ports on the rear that are working.....I just wish the USB header connectors were working. The modem thing isn't that important. I just threw a PCI one in and it works. It's basically the card reader and front usb ports I want to get working.
Thanks,
Brian

[Looneycooney]

u can try this :
put off the computer and put a usb cable in each slot for few secs pull it then next one ... etc also the 'damaged' port'
put it in and out few times with each port ...'resetting the usb interface' then start up pc again
...

[georgeorge]

well...it helped, but still doesn't work. While I was trying those steps I found that one of the USB ports had a ground tab bent over making contact with one of the contacts in the center of the connector. I fixed that problem, but it still does not see any USB device I plug in. To test the ports on the front of the case I was using a USB Smart Card Reader and the light that is suppose to come on comes on very dimly, but the computer doesn't see it. It's almost like it's not sending enough power to power the device.
Thanks

[glc]

PC Chips motherboard - weak components - you probably damaged it.

[georgeorge]

That's what I'm thinkin at this point...I think I'm gonna just get a new motherboard anyway. The m810d only has 2 PCI slots and now I've got Firewire in one and a modem in the other....No more room for expansion.

[georgeorge]

What do you guy think about this motherboard:
XFX - NF24-ALH - nVIDIA nForce2 - Socket A ATX Motherboard
at tigerdirect.com it's $49 bucks.
Any good or what. If not what should I buy. My case is huge.
It should accept anything.
My processor is an AMD Athlon 2400+. I'll end up having to buy a video card too, but OK.
Brian

[glc]

Nope, that's just another PC Chips. The closest thing you are gonna get to a decent mobo near that price is an Asus A7N266-VM for $55.99 at Newegg - it has onboard video, sound, and lan - and has an AGP slot and 3 PCI slots (it's a micro ATX like yours). Stay away from Tigerdirect - anything they have that's cheap is junk. I'd personally budget closer to $100 for a decent motherboard, something like an Asus A7N8X.

[georgeorge]

Thanks glc.....the last thing I wanna do at this point is buy another piece on junk. I think I'll take your advice and do it right. It's like they say I guess.....You get what you pay for.
Thanks,
Brian