USB 3

[Rick Settle]

My HP desktop had WinXP when I bought it and the USB 3 worked just fine. I bought a 2 gig external drive to use as a backup drive and it worked as it should have. When I up-graded to Win10, the USB 3 ports all stopped working. That was almost 4 years ago. I've done everything I can think of to get it working, including re-installing the HP drivers. I've also installed an internal PCIe USB 3.1 card and its drivers. Still no working USB 3 ports. Someone, I don't remember who, told me that you can't install Win10 if a USB 3 component is hooked up. Is this true? Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks for any help

Rick

 

[Bighorn]

Do the USB ports not work with anything in them? As for Win10 it usually is an issue with attached USB drives so just have them unplugged until finished. USB 3 ports are usually, but not always backward, compatible with USB 2 devices. Also, the older computer's BIOS has built-in support for USB 2 but can't get USB 3 until the Operating System loads drivers. Is Win10 the x86/32-bit or x64/64-bit version? It's usually critical that the driver's version match the OS version.

 

[Rick Settle]

Do the USB ports not work with anything in them? As for Win10 it usually is an issue with attached USB drives so just have them unplugged until finished. USB 3 ports are usually, but not always backward, compatible with USB 2 devices. Also, the older computer's BIOS has built-in support for USB 2 but can't get USB 3 until the Operating System loads drivers. Is Win10 the x86/32-bit or x64/64-bit version? It's usually critical that the driver's version match the OS version.

I guess I didn't make my situation clear. The computer has USB 3.0 ports from the factory. The computer had WinXP from the factory. The USB ports quit working when I upgraded to Win 10. Someone told me it happened because my external USB 3 backup drive was attached when I upgraded to Win 10 and that it was a known problem. What really has me confused is why it can't be fixed in software since software was obviously what screwed it up. Re-installing all the Windows drivers doesn't do it. I even bought an add-on USB 3.0 PCIe card and installed its drivers. USB 3.0 still doesn't work.

 

[Trouble]

I think, what @Bighorn was asking was... Do the USB 3.0 ports work at all?
Understood that they may not be working as 3.0 ports but will they still work practically (as USB 2.0) and physically.
AND
When you open Device Manager and expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section....

 

[Rick Settle]

I think, what @Bighorn was asking was... Do the USB 3.0 ports work at all?
Understood that they may not be working as 3.0 ports but will they still work practically (as USB 2.0) and physically.
AND
When you open Device Manager and expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section....

View attachment 13957

Yes, those controllers are listed and report they are working. The ports do operate as USB 2.