Problem with USB ports

[Teofilo]

My desktop can't read flashdrives. Hardware problems? or should I reinstall windows? Thanks

[NutSAK]

Are the USB ports working for other devices?

[Teofilo]

Are the USB ports working for other devices?

for the printer, keyboard and mouse, yes, the ports are working.
But not on my camera and flashdrives.

[Whoey]

sounds more like driver issue

It might be easier to remove the usb hub from the system devices, and let windows rediscover and install drivers for it, or find the drivers and install them yourself.

[NutSAK]

sounds more like driver issue

+1

Go to the motherboard manufacturer's website, download and install the USB drivers.

[Teofilo]

sounds more like driver issue

+1

Go to the motherboard manufacturer's website, download and install the USB drivers.

I still have the cd of the motherboard. I'll try to reinstall the drivers. Thanks.

[NutSAK]

Are you plugging the thumb drive into the same ports that are working for other devices?  If not, you may want to try that, or plug your keyboard into the port that isn't working with the thumb drive.  It could be that those particular ports are unplugged from the mother board or have become deactivated through BIOS or otherwise.

[Teofilo]

I tried everything, and still can't read external devices. I ask my son to copy and write all data for a possible formatting of the hard drive and then install a fresh copy of Windows.
My last option if all fails,  is go to a technician.
Thanks for the help, Nutsak and Whoey.

[Whoey]

yikes... formatting seems like a harsh way to deal with the issue. You could install windows over top of windows, you'd have to re-update it, but at least everything else would still be installed...

another option is to run the system file check, explained thoroughly here: http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

try all your usb ports...  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310575 may have some answers too, and includes the method I suggested before, completely removing the usb hub, and allowing windows to reinstall it, and related drivers.

[Nikos]

When I was in the army we used to disable the USB storage stack through registry changes. Give this procedure a try before going down the format/technician way. However, why that would be so on your desktop is way beyond me. You might want to run a virus/malware check afterwards.

EDIT: Moreover, I've had great success with Combofix in the past, when it came to Windows malware trouble.

[Benner]

I tried everything, and still can't read external devices. I ask my son to copy and write all data for a possible formatting of the hard drive and then install a fresh copy of Windows.
My last option if all fails,  is go to a technician.
Thanks for the help, Nutsak and Whoey.

That seems a bit extreme to me. 

[Magnus]

try burning a linux live CD, and booting into that, if it doesn't recognize the drive it is definitely a hardware problem.

[cryptrick]

You should not have to reinstall to fix this problem, but if you do want to go down that route you can and it will probably fix the problem. However it can be quite time consuming if you are not used to it. If you haven't done a reinstall yet or taken it to a technician and you still have the problem, post back here and I'll run through a couple of things with you