Windows 10 Does Not Recognize A USB Port – Causes And Solution

The problem that Windows 10 does not recognize a device connected to a USB port can be due to several causes, so we will have different types of solutions. It may be that the problem is hardware and the port or pendrive is damaged, or software, which makes it impossible to use.

Why is Windows not detecting the USB port

When we connect our USB device to the computer, an error message may appear such as “One of the devices connected to the system does not work” or “The last USB device that you connected to this computer did not work correctly and Windows did not recognize it” . It can also happen that we connect it and nothing appears simply does not work.

The causes of these problems can be various. On the one hand, if there is no message, it may be a hardware problem which means that the USB port or the connected device does not work. In case Windows detects them, but does not work, it may be due to driver problems, or that the device does not have a volume created or needs a format. It can also be due to a problem with the power plans, or in the notebooks, a problem with the sleep settings. Be that as it may, we are going to try to find a solution.

Fix problem Windows 10 does not recognize a USB port

Next, we tell you how we can try to solve this tedious problem. There are different ways to do this, so we will have to try until we find that one until we find the cause of it.

Restart the computer

The first thing we have to do is the simplest and most obvious, but no less useful, such as restarting the computer. And it is that most of the problems with the recognition of the USB are solved this way. We must also test the possibility of turning off the computer and disconnecting it from the electrical current for about 15 minutes, to later turn it on and check if everything has returned to normal.

Check that the USB port works

If when restarting the computer everything remains the same, we must check if indeed the USB port works, as well as the device that we want to connect. That is why we must connect the pendrive and check that it turns on. We can know this, because in many cases they usually incorporate an LED that is responsible for indicating their status. If it does not turn on, the port may be wrong or the pendrive may not work, so we would be talking about a hardware problem. We can also try to use another USB port on the computer to check it. If the pendrive works in another port, the problem is in that specific USB port.

Check that it shows up in Disk Manager

If the pendrive works, it is because we are facing a hardware problem, so we are going to check if Windows recognizes it and it appears in the “Disk Manager”. To do this, right-click on the Start menu and select Disk Administrator and check that the device appears at the top. If not, there may be a problem with the drivers and if it appears we may need to add a new volume or format it.

Update the USB driver

If Windows does not detect the USB and it does not appear in the “Disk Manager”, we must try to update the drivers to find out if the cause of the problem. To do this, we will right-click on the Start menu, select Device Manager and navigate to disk units, where the connected device should appear, along with a yellow exclamation icon, which indicates that we have a problem with Controllers.

Click on it with the right button and select “Update driver”. A new window will appear where we will select Search for drivers automatically, so that Windows 10 will take care of downloading and installing the most current drivers. Likewise, we can choose to “Uninstall the device” and disconnect it from the USB port. After a few seconds, we reconnect it so that Windows can install its drivers again.

Create a new volume

In the event that the Disk Administrator does appear the device, the cause of the problem may be due to the fact that we do not have volumes created or that it has a wrong file system. In order to solve it, we are going to click on it with the right button and select the option “Delete volume”. With this, we will lose all the information that we have inside, something that we must take into account.

Once this is done, the unit will appear in black at the bottom. Right-click on it and select “New simple volume” to create a new volume on the unit and solve the problem.

Format the USB device

Finally, in the event that the device appears, but we cannot recognize the drive, we can choose to format the drive . Right click on the unit and choose “Format …” Once finished we check if Windows already perfectly recognizes our USB device.

Power saving problem

The problem of Windows 10 not recognizing USB may be due to power related causes . To try to solve it we are going to return to the “Device Manager”, right-clicking on the Start menu and selecting it.

Once it appears, we go to “Universal serial bus controllers” and deploy it. Here all the USB ports appear, so we must select the problem port. In case we don’t know, we can try one by one. Right click and select “Properties”. In the new window click on “Power Management” and uncheck the box “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save energy”. Click on Accept and check if the problem has been solved.

Use the Windows troubleshooter

It may be that the problem is due to a driver conflict or is temporary so we will try to fix it using the Windows Troubleshooter. To do this, we are going to access the Control Panel, writing its name in the search engine next to the Start menu. Once opened, in the “View by” tab: we put it as “small icons”.

Now click on Devices and printers. Once inside, we must look for the device causing the problem that we can recognize because it will have a yellow warning symbol. Click on it with the right button and select “Troubleshoot”.

Change sleep settings

If the problem is being caused in the USB of a laptop, it may be due to the energy profiles, since, when we have it in economizer mode, it can cause some functions to be disabled, such as suspending the USB. So this may be the cause of the problem. To solve it we open the “Control Panel” and click on “Power Options”.

Here, click on “Change plan settings”, which is next to the power plan that we have selected and again click on “Change advanced power settings”. In the new window that appears, click on “USB Configuration” and display it. Two options will not appear, “on battery” and “on alternating current”. In both cases we put it as Disabled . Finally, click on Apply and OK to confirm the changes.