All USB stuff broken, but it works in the BIOS

[Upgrayedd]

Hi, my computer was sluggish. I saw that a hard drive that has been slowly failing, had gone to 100% usage. So I was thinking about unplugging it (it was just a data drive, my OS is on an SSD). But I hadn't done it yet. I noticed that my page file settings were set to use that drive automatically. So no wonder my PC was going mental. To change the page file settings I had to restart my PC. After waiting ages for the dskchk on my drive, I managed to get to the login screen. But my keyboard & mouse didn't work!

So I removed the failing HDD, as it was causing a chkdsk on every boot and it was making my investigations take hours.

Now, I can remote into this PC just fine with Chrome Remote Desktop. Everything seems to be working. Except anything to do with USB!

Now, in the BIOS both my keyboard and mouse work (actually the mouse is connected to the keyboard). I have done BIOS hardware checks on all the ports and I get no errors. The KB/M seem to work in any port. Also I tried with a second wired USB keyboard OK. But when I start booting into Windows 10, it turns off my KB and mouse!

In device manager it says under "Other devices" there is an "Unknown device" on Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.0 (Microsoft); "The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28) There are no compatible drivers for this device." Nothing works, I can't get Windows 10 to find any drivers for it.

I have tried uninstalling all the USB related stuff in device manager, and rebooting. It all comes back the way it was, broken. I took the computer apart and checked that the USB motherboard connector was pushed in correctly. There is a second identical unused USB 3 connector next to it that I could try, I guess, if somehow the hardware connected to the first one would be broken. But I know my KB/mouse work fine in the BIOS!

[Upgrayedd · Accepted solution]

Well, I managed to fix it by reinstalling Windows. Over Chrome Remote Desktop, I ran the Media Creation Tool to download an ISO onto a hard drive. Then I mounted the ISO and ran the setup, telling it to keep everything but just reinstall Windows. Of course I was disconnected as it rebooted. There was a nailbiting wait... And then it popped up as connectable again. Now I can see no warning triangle in Device Manager, and it is detecting some USB devices I left plugged in.