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How To Fix USB Ports That Are Not Working

You may be trying to connect a USB flash drive, headset, smartphone, or maybe a printer to your computer. One of the easiest ways to transfer files from your smartphone to your computer is through the USB ports on the computer. Having a USB cable makes all this fairly easy. The Universal Serial Bus (USB) allows you to connect your devices to the computer and disconnect them at any time. USB cables can allow you to connect your smartphone and other devices to both windows and Mac computers without much hassle.

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However, you may sometimes find out that the device you are trying to connect to is not able to connect to the computer. This can be caused by several issues with the computer. In most cases, restarting the computer could help solve the issue. However, if that does not work, then you would have to look at other ways of solving the problem. Below are some of the things you can do to solve this issue if restarting your computer does not work. 

  • Removing debris

Check out the USB port to see if you would discover any debris in them. Debris can find their way into the ports because they are always open, especially on laptop computers. Once you spot anything like that, just turn off the computer and then remove the debris gently from the port with a thin plastic or wooden object such as a toothpick. Be sure not to shove the debris in the port much further else it could cause more severe damage

  • Checking for loose and broken internal connections

One way to carry out this test is by inserting your USB device. If you see that the device connects and then disconnects briefly, there is a high chance that something is wrong with the USB port physically. Feeling a great deal of movement when you wiggle the USB connector slightly can be proof that there is a bent or damaged board. For this kind of problem, it would be better for you to send the machine to a professional.

  • Try a different port

Computers normally have more than one USB port and they all do the same thing. So if you want to know if a port is damaged, you can do so by inserting the USB device into another port. If the USB works perfectly in the other port, then you would know that the previous port has a problem that needs to be fixed. However, if the device does not work in any of the ports, that would let you know that there is a problem with the hardware itself. 

  • Using a different USB cable

The problem could also be coming from the USB cable itself. USB failures are normally more than the USB port itself failing. So what you should do here is to try using a different compatible cable to see if it works. If it works, then you would know that the problem was with the cable. If it does not work, then you would know that the problem is with the USB port of the hardware itself. 

  • Using a different computer

You can also plug your USB device into a different computer to see if it works. This is after you have tried all the USB ports on your computer to no avail. Trying on another computer and seeing that your device worked would let you know that the problem was with the hardware of your computer, which means that you would need to send it to a professional to run a proper diagnosis and repair it.

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