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Question

Acer M5200 front USB ports not working Win 7 64 bit

Jan 12, 2015 12:16AM PST

The Acer site is useless, I keep registering and it keeps asking to verify my emails. So I will go through this group and hopefully you can answer my questions. I have reinstalled Windows 7 64-bit on my Acer Aspire M5200 desktop. After installing and updating all the drivers I can find on the Acer site for this model, the front USB ports are not functioning.

Originally, this Acer Aspire came installed with 32-bit Vista. I have upgraded the OS to Windows 7 64-bit. There is some power going through the ports, but any USB media or device I plug into it is not recognized as a USB device through the four front USB ports, however, when the device is plugged into the back ports the devices recognized. I've installed these drivers:

AHCI AMD SATA AHCI Driver 3.1.1540.50

Chipset AMD Chipset Driver 7.15.11.7833 (I originally installed this chipset for my Windows 7 64-bit operating system from the Acer site)

When the front ports failed to recognize any USB devices, I then also installed this chipset: ATI Chipset Driver 8.632

In any case, the four front USB ports are still not recognizing any devices, while the back ports are.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I fix this with a simple USB HUB
Jan 12, 2015 12:37AM PST

USB HUBs are plentiful, cheap and can be velcro'd into place. Since it's not the stock OS it's unlikely anyone will answer from Acer without paid support. Why not solve this the usual way?
Bob

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Front USB ports a North Bridge, chipset problem?
Jan 12, 2015 6:35AM PST

Hi Bob, thanks very much for answering. The problem is that I am using all my rear ports presently, and I would prefer not to share ports through a hub. It was a shot in the dark as I realize that my Acer model is not that common but I was hoping someone has upgraded their OS from 32 bit Vista to 64 bit Windows 7 has also come across this issue. Strange thing is that on the Acer site this model does support Windows 7 64-bit and I'm almost sure it is a North Bridge problem, so I assumed I solved it when I upgraded my chipset.

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Then I plug in some USB PCI card.
Jan 12, 2015 7:09AM PST

Still cheaper than a support call.

The only bridge issues I ever encounter are when folk can't do the post Windows driver work. I can't do this either since the Acer M5200 is a series and I found a dozen models. You could try checking your BIOS to see if all USB ports are enabled.
Bob

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PS. I've yet to see anyone successfully upgrade 32 to 64bit
Jan 12, 2015 7:19AM PST

There are tomes on the web about how Microsoft never implemented upgrades from/to 32/64 bit versions of Windows. Since we are discussing a fresh install of the OS, we get to deal with it as a clean install and all the troubles, that is, all the driver hunts get to be done.

Not only do you need the AMD chipset driver but what if there was some other USB driver specific to this model? Sorry but you supplied a model series so I can't go check the dozen models in that series.
Bob