USB ports not working, z440 work station

[Hotrodb50]

4usb ports on front working, started with w7pro, have win 10 not 

4 1/2 yrs old, tried device mgr, says up to date and working, not

What now?

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

What USB ports (2.0 or 3.0) are out of commission? Back USB. 

The front and back USB ports use different motherboard USB controllers.

My experience troubleshooting hardware has shown Device Manager does not usually detect bad hardware. It will reflect driver problems.

It is possible the MB USB controller has failed if you have a rear I/O USB problem.

It could be a Windows 10 problem. Hard to say. You seem to suggest this started with windows 7.

You would have to try the factory operating system to confirm a hardware problem if this started happening with Windows 10.

Regards

[Hotrodb50]

Front 4 ports, also getting window saying have power surge on USB port

[Grzwacz]

Hi Hotrodb50,

You seem to have a front USB module problem, or a wiring problem, or a motherboard USB controller problem.

I would reseat connections on the motherboard. The front USB module is probably hardwired.

Or try a replacement part if you can get this.

Regards

[SESA207478]

Hi Grzwacz and Hotrodb50,

My HPZ440 is suffering from a similar problem.

Front 4 USB ports provide power to external devices but no signal/communication like an external hard disk. 

When plugging the hard disk into the USB ports 2.0 and 3.0 on the back of the machine I receive a power surge pop-up in Windows notifications.

I replaced the front I/O module with another from ebay but the same problem persists.

When looking at the back side of the front I/O module I see 3 cables connected.

Was either of you able to isolate the problem?

Or, should I begin replacing each cable one by one?

[Hotrodb50]

I contacted Microsoft support, they took control of computer,vran several tests, negative results, said I needed to replace front panel, ordered from HP, on back order, no idea when I will see it, hoping it cures problem

[SESA207478]

Yeah I agree the problem sounds hardware related and not software.

I believe my problem was caused by water. We had a water leak in the office, a USB cable was dangling from the front I/Os and shorted when touching the ground water. The end of the cable shows some blue oxidation near the contacts.

I tried another USB cable with the same results, and another I/O module with the same results.

My next step is replacing the 3 cables running from the main board and power supply to the front I/O.

[Hotrodb50]

Problem started with win7 and external hard drive, I crashed system, loaded win10, that's when I found real problem, USB ports