Everyone faces this problem at least once: you connect your smartphone or tablet to your computer via a USB cable, but nothing happens other than charging. The computer does not see the phone or identifies it as an unknown device. The situation is common, but ambiguous, and there are quite a few reasons why it occurs. Today we will figure out what causes such problems and how to deal with them.

Software and hardware failures lead to a situation where the PC does not recognize the mobile device connected to it:

Lack of device driver in the PC operating system.
The driver does not match the device model.
There is no USB driver in the system or it is malfunctioning.
Connection with a cable that is not suitable for data transmission or is damaged.
Malfunction of the USB socket (both on the computer and on the phone), group of sockets or USB controller on the PC.
Failure of any of the computer equipment, blocking by static electricity.
Error in phone system settings.
Blocking access to the phone using security programs running on a PC (including if the gadget is infected with a virus).
The application used to synchronize your phone and PC (if you are using) has crashed.

In case of software problems, the computer, as a rule, does not display the contents of the phone’s memory, but the device charges normally when connected to it. If the problem is due to a physical malfunction, charging most often does not work either, but there are exceptions when only the data lines do not work.

An analysis of the previous situation—what happened before the problem arose—helps outline the range of possible causes. For example:

You have reinstalled the operating system on your computer or removed some of the drivers (the reason is that the required driver is missing).
The phone (tablet) was no longer detected after flashing the firmware, cleaning it from viruses, deleting applications, optimizing and other manipulations with the OS (the operating system of the mobile device malfunctioned).
The device has been subjected to mechanical damage (the USB socket is damaged) or has been repaired (after replacing parts, a driver of a different version is needed or the fault has not been completely eliminated).
You are using a USB cable that you have never used to connect your phone to a computer before (the cable is only for charging or is damaged), etc.

We quickly determine the culprit of the problem

Tracing a cause-and-effect relationship makes it much easier to localize the problem, but in about half of the cases there is nothing specific that precedes it. If this is the case for you, the following steps will help you determine where the failure occurred - in your mobile device, PC or USB cable.

Move the cable in the area of the connectors (kinks most often form in these places) and see if the phone (tablet) is detected in the explorer or device manager of the computer. Or connect the devices with another cable that is known to work and is suitable for data transmission.
Connect your phone to another computer, as well as another mobile device to this PC. If the phone is not detected anywhere, the problem is definitely in it. The same is the case with a computer.
If the problem seems to be in the computer, check the phone in all USB sockets; perhaps the problem is in one or more of them (for example, only in the front group).

If you conclude that the cable is the source of the problem, simply replace it. What to do in other cases, read on.

The culprit of the failure is the phone. What to do?

If the diagnostics clearly indicate a problem with your mobile device, perform the following steps in order. After each step, check to see if the problem is resolved. If not, move on to the next one.

Reboot your device.
Connect your phone to your computer. Once connected, slide down the Quick Settings menu bar and make sure that the “Connect as” list does not include “charge only,” or “camera” or “media device.” Select the "USB storage" option.

Open Android system settings (in older versions, “Options”). Go to the "Wireless Networks" section. Turn on modem mode. Or vice versa, if it is on, turn it off. In some editions of Android, this parameter controls not only the modem, but also the connection of the gadget to the PC as a drive.

Experiment with putting your device into USB debugging mode. Open the “System” and “For Developers” sections in the settings. Uncheck or check the box next to “USB Debugging”.

Disconnect the phone from the computer, turn it off and remove the battery from it (the phone) (of course, if it is removable). After 5 minutes, replace the battery, turn on the device and try connecting again.
Remove applications that failed after installation. If the connection doesn't work in a particular sync app, clear its cache. If it doesn’t help, reinstall (both on your mobile device and on your PC) or try using an analogue.
Scan your device with an antivirus.
Reset the device's operating system to factory settings.

The culprit of the failure is the computer. What to do?

Shut down the OS, turn off the PC from the outlet (or press the key on the power supply) and hold down the power button for 15-20 seconds. This will discharge the capacitors and remove stray static charge, which may block detection of the connected device.
If the phone is not recognized by only one group of USB ports, open the cover of the system unit and make sure that they are connected securely. By the way, normal charging of a mobile device through the port does not mean that the second one is working properly.
Boot the operating system. Open Device Manager and check if portable devices are listed in the equipment list, and your phone is among them. If it is present, but marked with a black arrow in a circle (disabled), right-click on the line and select the “Enable device” command from the menu.

If there are unknown devices in the hardware list (indicated by an exclamation point in a yellow triangle), one of them may be the phone. To make sure it is him, disconnect your mobile device from USB. If the unknown device disappears from the list, then that’s it. And the reason for the failure is the lack of the required driver in the system. We will tell you below how to reinstall and where to download the driver for your phone.
The problem with recognizing connected devices may also be due to boot failure, damaged or missing USB drivers. In this case, the exclamation marks will be in the “USB Controllers” section.
Reinstalling drivers didn't help? Scan your computer disks with an antivirus and then temporarily disable security programs. By the way, the latter can block access to a mobile device as a storage medium if it contains suspicious or clearly malicious software. So it’s worth checking your phone for viruses too.

Uninstall the programs whose installation caused the problem, or perform a system restore to a checkpoint created on a day before the problem occurred.
If, in addition to the phone, the computer does not recognize other devices connected via USB - a mouse, keyboard, printer, flash drives, etc. (whether they are charged or not is not indicative), the source of the failure may be any faulty component of the system unit or something then from the periphery. You can determine the culprit at home by turning off the equipment one by one or replacing it with a known good one.

How to Reinstall Mobile Device Driver and USB on Windows Computer

iPhone

Connect iPhone to PC.
Open the folder %CommonProgramW6432%\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers (to avoid typing the command manually, copy it from here, paste it into the address bar of any folder and click the go button). It contains 2 files (out of four) with the .inf extension - usbaapl.inf and usbaapl64.inf.

Open the context menu of each of these files and run the “Install” command.
After installation, restart your computer.

Android

Smartphones and tablets for Android, such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Meizu, HTC, etc., as a rule, do not create separate folders for storing their drivers, and they are often not found on official websites so you can just download and reinstall. Therefore, to begin with, you should trust the reinstallation of the drivers already present in the system by Windows itself.

How to do it:

Open the context menu of the problematic device in Device Manager. Select the "Update Driver" option.

In the next window, first select automatic search for updates. If Windows does not find anything suitable, check the second item - installing and searching for drivers manually.

Next, click “Select from the list available on your computer.” A new window will display all mobile device drivers that are already installed on the PC.

To narrow your search, in the “Select a driver for this device” section, check the “Compatible Only” box. Check the one that best suits your request (if there is more than one item in the list) and click “Next” to proceed to the installation.

For the driver to work correctly, restart your computer.

If reinstalling the driver already installed in the system did not help, you will have to look for something else on the Internet (with the risk of downloading a virus instead of the one you are looking for), so download them only from reliable and trusted sites, like w3bsit3-dns.com, and check with an antivirus before installation.

Drivers for the most common models of mobile gadgets are also collected in the “USB Drivers for Android” application, which is available for free download on Google Play.

USB drivers for Windows can usually be easily found on the websites of laptop or desktop PC motherboard manufacturers. Sometimes they are included in the chipset driver.

If the phone is not recognized in firmware mode

The fact that the computer and phone do not see each other in fastboot mode is indicated by the message “Waiting for device” that appears in the firmware program. Most often, this error occurs due to the lack of a mobile device driver in the system, so first of all, do what is written above - reinstall the driver or download and install it again.

If it doesn't help:

Make sure that you follow the instructions for working with the firmware installation program exactly and that it is running as an administrator.
Check if USB debugging is enabled on your smartphone (if not, enable it), and the device itself is in bootloader mode. If this mode is blocked, find instructions online for unlocking the bootloader specifically for your device model.
Connect the phone to the rear USB socket as short as possible and with a known good cable, without using any adapters or hubs.
Your phone may not support USB 3 (blue socket), so only connect it to USB 2.0 (black sockets).
Install all released Windows updates on your computer.

If the problem persists even after doing this, try flashing the phone on another PC. And better - with a different version of the operating system.

When the problem is a broken physical interface

It is advisable not to use faulty physical interfaces, especially on a mobile gadget, at all (do not load them with current to avoid worsening the breakdown), even if the phone or tablet retains the ability to charge through them. You can organize content transfer either wirelessly (Wi-Fi, bluetooth) or through cloud services that are available on both devices. In particular, iTunes and iCloud for Apple technology, Google Drive, Yandex Disk, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and many others - for everyone.

Cloud services are convenient to use for transferring photos, videos, music, documents and other types of files. To synchronize contacts on Android and PC, the capabilities of Gmail are sufficient. And to control your phone directly from your computer, you can install an application like MyPhoneExplorer (consists of 2 parts - for the phone and for the PC), which supports both wired and wireless connections of devices without requiring driver installation. Very comfortably.

In short, there is always a way out and it is often much simpler than it seems at first glance.

USB connectors rarely break and are very easy to use. But when they fail, it causes a lot of trouble. In this article we will present to your attention the simplest solutions to this unpleasant issue.

First, restart your computer. Sometimes there are situations when drivers stop working due to some system error. So restarting the system can correct this situation. If it is not possible to restart the PC, for example, because some important program is running (say, installing an application), you can try reloading the drivers. To do this, follow the path “Start – Control Panel – Task Manager” or go to “Start”, click “Run” and enter “devmgmt.msc” in the field. In the new window, select “Action”, and then “Update hardware configuration”. If the USB controller appears in the list, then the problem is solved. You can also try removing and reinstalling the controller. Let's say right away that this method works very rarely, but in some cases it really helps. Go to Device Manager again. Find the USB connectors section and right-click to remove them. After restarting the computer, when the OS loads, new drivers will be installed themselves. In some cases, the problem will be caused by damage to the drivers themselves, and therefore they will need to be updated. But this process is quite complicated, and it is better not to do anything yourself, but to contact a specialist.

One of the most common problems is overloading USB ports. In other words, there are a lot of different cables connected to the computer. The solution to this problem is very simple: you need to disconnect all the cords and leave only the one you need.

Also, the reason why the controller does not work may be the BIOS. The next time you start your computer, press the BIOS entry key (usually delete, F1 or F10). After logging in, go to the “Advanced” section and find the “USB Controller” item. This line should say “Enabled”, and if it’s different, then change it to what you need and save. If none of the above methods helped, then this is definitely mechanical damage to the connector or connection cable. First you need to establish what exactly is not working. Disconnect all cables from the USB connectors, turn on the computer again and begin to return them one by one, so you can find out which connector or device is not working. After the non-working device is found, carefully examine it for damage: is there any dust on it, is it intact or not, and are there any cracks. Afterwards, also look at the connecting cord: is it bent too much, is it torn, are there any cracks, chips or cuts.

Why doesn't my phone see the USB cable?

A USB cable is an essential component for any smartphone. With its help, you can both charge your phone and transfer data from your phone to a personal computer or laptop. However, there are situations when the USB cable is simply not recognized by the mobile device.

Types of USB cables

There are 5 types of USB connector in total: Microusb, Mini-USB, B-type, A-type 1, A-Type 2. Let's look at everything in order.

MicroUsb. This type of connector is used in the smallest devices, for example, mini players, miniature phone models, and some models of closed headphones.
Mini-USB. One of the most popular connectors in the world. They are actively equipped with phones, tablets, players, docking stations, MP-3 and MP-4 players. Due to its popularity, this input is universal and can be found on almost any device. But it is also worth noting that many manufacturers make cables with this connector.
B-type. This input has nothing to do with phones. Its target audience is printers, scanners and other org. technique.
A-type 1. At its core, this is a connector for USB A-type 2. That is, it is a receiver. It does not apply to mobile devices. But in the personal computer industry this slot is used very actively and is gradually developing. For example, a USB receiver with a 3.0 interface is already in use today.
A-type 2. This is a plug for the first type receiver. It can be found everywhere - from drives and chargers to PCs and laptops. It is still not used in mobile devices due to its large size.

The phone does not recognize the USB cable. What to do?

In most cases, the cable itself is to blame. It is worth carefully inspecting both connectors. If there are no visible damages near them, such as a bend in the cable, its break in weak spots near the entrance, or the integrity of the braid. If one of the above damages is present, the cable must be replaced. Fortunately , Buying a USB cable for your phone is not as difficult as it seems. All you have to do is go to your nearest electronics store. There is a high probability that a person will find the product he was looking for.

In another case, the smartphone software may be to blame. In order to correct this situation, you need to perform some simple manipulations with the settings:

Go to settings and in the menu find “Advanced features” or “Accessibility”
Find the item “USB storage”.
Enable this item

Alternative Methods

If after these manipulations the phone still does not recognize the cable, then perhaps the solution lies in the following:

Connect the cable to the PC on the other side
Replace cable. Good components for phones, in particular USB cables, can be purchased on the website https://proda.ua/
Make sure that the wire is connected to the phone correctly.
Take the smartphone to a workshop and ask them to check the operation of the port.
Clean your phone from unnecessary software. In 60% of cases, this item helps, since the phone is clogged with “garbage” that interferes with its correct operation.

Due to studying abroad, I had to switch completely to a laptop. I took my gaming mouse SS Kana with me. Of course, a wired mouse is not designed for frequent movements; over time, the cord began to break at the very base, and contact began to disappear more and more often. Over the past three months, I tried to keep the mouse working, I even stopped taking it to classes, but P-day came and the contact was completely lost; no manipulations produced any results.
My Greed for an expensive mouse and Laziness to go buy a new one rallied against me and forced me to repair the contact. I’ll immediately make a reservation that I’m writing this article after the fact, I didn’t write down anything step by step, but I’ll show you with an example how it’s done. The quality of the photographs leaves much to be desired, but you can get the gist.

Equipment

Knife. All. I don't have electrical tape or any tools on hand.
An ordinary kitchen knife. Sharp enough to cut insulation without problems.
The initial version included soldering with a government soldering iron received at the university, but due to some circumstances, which I will describe below, I had to redo everything all over again.

Initial version

As I already said, the cable broke at the very base. To get some space, I planed the plug with a knife and stripped all four wires. I twisted the cable braid and turned it to the side, after which I went to the university to get a soldering iron. They gave me an old soldering iron, a spool of millimeter solder and a jar of flux. I have soldering experience, so it turned out fine. The only drawback is that since all four wires are very short, located at the same level, and I had no insulation, it turned out to be a kind of “rose” of wires sticking out in different directions. However, the test run was successful - the mouse came to life, and I, proud of myself, returned to the hostel.
But disappointment awaited me there. Without going into details, I most likely had a short in the black and red wires and the laptop blocked the USB socket. Therefore, no matter what I did next, the mouse did not react.
Trying to figure it out, I began to blame the braid (that it shortens the wires), I even cut it off, but nothing helped. In the end, I completely cut off the plug and decided to do everything anew. It would be worth restarting the computer and trying again, most likely the mouse would work. Who knows...

The connection is very small, I don’t have a normal camera. It’s just that all four wires stick out in a bunch from the plug and a corresponding wire is soldered to each. The braid is cut off because I thought she was shorting the wires. Doesn't matter.

Connecting cables

In the evening I took the mouse out of the desk drawer and got to work. First of all, I took a new plug from an unnecessary mini-USB cable.

USB cables are not much different from each other - four wires (black and red for power, white and green for information) and a braid. Therefore, any USB cable will do.

When repairing, I used the method described. In short, multi-core cables are connected by a “ladder”. Thus, the wires do not touch each other and the connection is thinner.
Using the example of the remaining piece of wire, I will show how this is done. First, carefully cut the top insulation to a length of about four to five centimeters.

Unravel the braid and take it aside.

Then we expose 4 wires in a “ladder” - red only the very tip to twist; the white one is a little longer, so as not to touch the red one; then green. We clean the black one the furthest. We expose the other cable in exactly the same way, only in a mirror way - only the tip is black, then green, white and red at the very base. Thus, we eliminate the short circuit of the wires with each other.

All that remains is to connect the two cables to each other. We connect each wire with a twist. I hope you don't confuse the colors. After twisting, it is better to cut off the excess wires to avoid unnecessary contacts.

In my version, I also covered the whole thing with a piece of top insulation to avoid contact with the braid. In the future, I plan to either get electrical tape somewhere, or ask the girls for colorless varnish for insulation.

After treatment with electrical tape, of course, it will all take on a divine appearance, but for now the braid will hang in such a strange way. The connection is working, there are no unnecessary contacts. The mouse works like new!

However

The mouse immediately refused to work. I was already in complete despair when I noticed a system message about problems with the USB inputs. As I already said, the original version shorted the contacts and the laptop cut off the USB inputs. After rebooting, the mouse started working again. Of course, the connection is short-lived, there is no way without electrical tape, but the mouse works.

Thank you for your attention. I hope this article helped you.

P.S. This is my first article on Habré. Thanks for the invite!

USB port doesn't work, both on the front panel and on the back of the system unit, or they are not working correctly, I connect the phone to the USB port on the front panel, it is successfully detected in the system, but if at this moment you also connect a portable hard drive (there are two USB port) then it is not detected in the system, and the phone freezes. I wrote to you about this, you advised me to reboot and use only one device or use the USB ports located on the motherboard at the back of the computer. I wonder why? My scanner, connected to the USB port on the back of the system unit, also sometimes does not want to work. The computer has Windows 7 Home Basic pre-installed, it came with it when purchased, everything should be in order with the drivers, USB 2.0 specification.

With all respect, Andrew.

USB port doesn't work

I will give numerous examples of eliminating this malfunction that are familiar to me personally, if you are not interested in reading the entire article, go to the end of the article, directly to the description of the malfunctions, but you will miss a lot, for example, an interesting story about how I almost ruined my Father-in-law’s expensive Smartphone, This experience will undoubtedly be useful to you.

You see, it’s one thing to connect your device to a USB controller, which is an integral part of the chipset of your motherboard, and another to a Chinese USB hub that outputs several USB ports from the motherboard through a cable to the front panel. It is possible that your hub cable may be faulty. In general, let's look at all the possible causes of your problems.

If you connect two power-hungry USB devices at once to the two USB ports on the front panel (for example, a portable hard drive and a phone), then one of these devices immediately lacks power and it refuses to work or does not work correctly. Why? The USB controller provides the device connected to it with a power supply of 500 mA at 5 V. If the USB interface device does not have an additional power adapter, then it must operate from the USB interface, without additional power, that is, 5 V should be enough, but if to the USB controller Two devices are connected using a hub. Many may notice that everything works for them, but another question is whether it works correctly?

The promised short story. My father-in-law was given a smartphone abroad, a hybrid of a telephone and a pocket computer, beautiful, good, but there is no Russian language, naturally the question arose of how to Russify it? I won’t go into details, I’ll say it in simple words, go to the official website of the phone and find out the version of the latest firmware, it may very well contain the Russian language, install a special program and flash it quite legally, but there is one thing, you can’t interrupt the started firmware process, otherwise you can ruin the device.

So I connected the Smartphone to the USB port on the front panel computer, with which I never had any problems, and launched the program, the process was interrupted several times and generally froze for half an hour, then I had thoughts: USB port doesn't work or a smartphone USB extension cable or the problem is in the flashing program. I had to disconnect the device, which also did not turn on, and connect it to the second USB port on the front panel. Sometimes a USB hub can be rebooted, this can be cured by rebooting, I rebooted and tried to start the firmware process over again. Several people watched and groaned at me. And I had to start all this on the birthday of the owner of the phone, my Father-in-law.

The process ended in nothing again. I went all-in and connected the phone to the USB port, as many say on the back, that is, located directly on the motherboard of my computer and being an integral part of the mother’s chipset, rebooted and started the process all over again, going through different options, among which was this - purchase a new Smartphone for my Father-in-law. Now, now it will be Russian, I said then, trying to keep up in the presence of numerous relatives, but there was still no Russian, the process went slowly, but surely and without stopping. In the end, Welcome! Hurray, everything worked out.

There was a case when the problem was solved by replacing a low-power 300W and most likely faulty power supply, the output power of which was very small.
Once I was unable to determine the reason for the poor performance of the USB port on the motherboard, but a month later, the south bridge on this computer burned out, here is your answer.
A phone, camera, scanner, or printer may not work correctly or may not be detected at all in the operating system from any USB port on the computer, without full-featured software, which includes drivers. You can download all this equipment on the official website of the device manufacturer.
Sometimes the USB port will work.
The USB ports on your computer may not work due to the deplorable state of your operating system, if you have been using it for many years, and you also have updates disabled, it is advisable to reinstall it or restore system files. The build of Windows that you installed plays a big role; it is advisable to use the original builds and install native drivers for them taken from the website of the manufacturer of your hardware. In non-original assemblies, a lot has been changed and there are mostly outdated driver packages at best. The motherboard chipset must have native drivers and the latest versions.
Sometimes you can overload a USB hub and the connected device will stop responding to you; this can be cured by simply restarting the computer. Almost all USB hubs have power management and Windows can turn off the device to save power. How to ban? You can read it here.
If the USB port still fails and this is confirmed by professionals, cover it with tape and do not use it. If you don't have enough USB ports, you can buy a card reader for several USB ports with an additional power adapter or a worse option - an additional PCI-USB card.
Sometimes, friends, it’s worth disabling the USB 2.0 Controller in the BIOS and the problematic device will be identified, but problems may begin with other USB devices.

WiFi