USB device malfunction

In April we installed a new HP Officejet J6480 All-in-one printer; everything
worked great for about a month. We started getting a unknown device and a
usb device malfunction message. None of the usb ports worked. We took it to
a technician who did a diagnostic test on our computer. He said the only
thing wrong with the computer was a few viruses which he removed. We brought
computer home; printer and all usb ports working and then a few weeks ago the
usb device not recognized by windows because of a malfunction message came
up. The printer and the usb ports are no longer working. Is this problem
caused by my daughter downloading music with a virus in it or is it a
hardware problem. I have the one care and really do not want .to keep
taking it to a technician every other month to fix the problem

It could be either.... but why on earth are you surfing the web with no
antivirus software installed. A/V software that updates itself daily is
100% essential in this day and age, especially when you have teenage
children online.

The very first thing to do is to purchase antivirus and run a FULL scan with
updated signatures. Try NOD32 from www.eset.com, it's what I have on ALL my
PCs, and it will catch anything nasty that may come your way.

Once you know your PC is clean, then we can work on getting the USB ports
working again. BTW the only 100% guaranteed way of getting that PC clean
again is to completely wipe the hard drive, format it and then start again,
installing Windows from the CD with the loss of all data that you have on
the hard drive(s) right now.

Go into the Device Manager and uninstall the USB Controller Hubs. Reboot
the PC. If all is running well, XP will redetect and reinstall the USB
drivers.

If it does not redetect the USB ports, then they might have died. You can
easily purchase a PCI card with up to 5 USB ports on it, install that and
you will have new USB ports. I have had a motherboard where the USB
Controllers on the board have died.... Rather than replace the whole system,
I just added the card and gave it new life.

I followed all your instructions; Everything came back up but the unknown
device also came back up when I plugged the printer back into the usb port.

At this point, it seems that everything works except for the printer.
The symptom (unknown device) basically says that the printer is not
recognised as a known device, and software telling windows what to do with
it is missing or corrupt.
This can be because the existing printer drivers are not working properly,
or perhaps were not reinstalled. In some cases, an .inf file may be part of
the problem.
Disconnect the printer from the USB port. & Reboot
Uninstall the existing printer drivers, if you have a source for replacement
drivers. (Download, current printer CD , etc.)
See if the printer OEM has a "cleanup utility that is available for
download, and if appropriate, use it.)
The next thing to do is to go into safe mode, look using the device manager,
see if there are left over or multiple printer related entries, and most
likely remove them.
Reboot again.
Install the printer drivers from the download or current driver CD
At some point, you may be asked to plug in the printer. follow the
directions exactly. If not, when the driver install completes, you will
likely be asked to reboot.
After the reboot/shutdown, if the printer is not connected, connect it to
the usb port. Restart/power up, whatever. The printer should be recognized,
and with possibly a couple of iterations, that may involve an automatic
restart, be recognized, and functional.

It is also possible that there is some sort of hardware issue with the
printer. If this is suspected, and all else fails, you may have to try
getting it to work on another computer. You are using 32b win XP, not 64b
right?

I am using the 32 b XP. I just wanted to note that anything that I plug into
the usb ports will bring up the unknown device message. That is way I
wondered if my daughter downloading music on her ipod could have been the
reason for some corruption.

So the unknown device message occurs for anything you plug into the USB
ports?
Do you happen to know if this happens on ports attached to one USB
controller, or more than one controller?
I cannot answer your question about the "iPod" as I don't have one. The
following url may be of some help.

http://support.microsoft.com/search/...3comm=1&res=20

"I just wanted to note that anything that I plug into
the usb ports will bring up the unknown device message. That is way I
wondered if my daughter downloading music on her ipod could have been the
reason for some corruption."

When I have the device manager up I plug in the printer or flash drive. It
will first show up quickly in Network adapters as other devices and then it
goes beneath the Enhanced SIS PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller and shows
up as new hardware but an unknown device.

I'm wondering if there is a USB driver issue. I believe the SIS Controller,
etc. uses a unique driver set.
Are there any yellow flags in Device manager?

"Enhanced SIS PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller"

There is just a quick yellow flag and then it disappears when the unknown
device goes under the USB Enhanced Host Controller

How to I install the SIS driver? There are no indications that is the
problem but I think that is the issue.

This site may have some useful advice.

The drivers normally install automatically, unless the inf file scheme is
not working properly. How this can happen is involved, other than to say
that installing some OEM driver packages, usually for an older version of
windows, can really mess things up. If everything worked properly, you
could remove the existing driver, and it (or the correct drivers) would
reinstall at the next reboot.
At this point, you should look at the MBD and or it's docs to see if you can
find the exact SIS support chip set. Then write down the number(s)
that identify the chip(s). This may help you find the correct drivers. Can
you give us the MBD make & model ?

I had to give myself a break for a few days because I was spending HOURS
trying to figure this out. I will get back to you soon. Thank you