Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Motherboard rear panel usb/ps2 ports not working

Jul 28, 2017 10:57PM PDT

Hello!
I have the following specs!
Motherboard MSI G41-P26
Intel core 2 duo e7500
4gb ddr3 on dimm1
One sata HDD and DVD drive.
And Windows 10.

The problem is my computer does not display anything for 5 minutes after I push the power button but the power led glows.
After 5 minutes of waiting the display shows the motherboard logo flash screen for like 5 seconds.
And then windows 10 boots and the it works superb no problem at all everything works fine.

Except that the problem now is the rear panel does not work. It was working the previous day!
The ps2 keyboard and rear USB ports are not working but the audio jack works.
So I can't boot into the bios!
I'm using the computer with USB keyboard and mouse via the front USB panel which hopefully works! But that takes two and I don't have any other port to connect other devices!

What I've tried till now :

1. Changed the power supply unit.
I had a better power supply unit on a different computer so I tried using it I thought maybe the ports are not getting power but no! That didn't work.

2. Reinserted ram, resetted bios settings by removing coin cell battery. Didn't work.

3. Checked motherboard for any fried capacitors. Didn't find any.

4. Diagnosed memory and hard disks. For the slow boot problem. Didn't work either.

So what? Is there anything else I could do? Or I should throw off the motherboard. Maybe I can get a USB extender card and put it on the pci slot. That could work!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
I've seen this.
Jul 29, 2017 8:05AM PDT

It was BAD CAPS (google that) so we replaced the motherboard.

- Collapse -
(NT) NT - It has solid capacitors
Jul 29, 2017 9:11AM PDT
- Collapse -
Not immune to failures.
Jul 29, 2017 9:16AM PDT

As Bob B writes, test with less parts.

- Collapse -
Answer
Work with the bios
Jul 29, 2017 8:49AM PDT

Disconnect the hdd, odd, all usb devices, lan, audio.

Do you get a bios screen faster?

Was the bios screen always this slow?

- Collapse -
Did not solve the problem.
Jul 31, 2017 5:30AM PDT

Today it didn't take any time ro boot up. I don't know what's happening sometimes it takes time to display and sometimes it doesn't. And one thing I found out that the back usb ports are supplying power. I connected a powered usb hub to the back ports and it has an power indicator which glowed. But if I connect any other usb device it doesn't work it doesn't even power up.

- Collapse -
Why we try things like this.
Jul 31, 2017 7:08AM PDT

At times we need to try things in hope to avoid board replacements. If you have completed the work and the PSU is good, then it's the motherboard.

- Collapse -
There is current everywhere.
Aug 2, 2017 12:16AM PDT

I touched the club and found out current is flowing through all of the cabinet meta part and it's also on the posts of the motherboard I touched the vga port there was current in it too. Is something wrong with the motherboard placement maybe it's touching from bottom to the cabinet or somewhere. I should remove everything again and put it back properly.

- Collapse -
I touched the club
Aug 2, 2017 6:04AM PDT

What's a club?

Put the mobo on a piece of cardboard.

Anything change?

- Collapse -
Cabinet***
Aug 3, 2017 11:50PM PDT

Yea it's already on a cardboard it was the fault of the extention power cord the ground pin failed. I replaced it but I think it cost me the rear panel because the ports have power but the data transfer pins have failed.

- Collapse -
maybe it's touching from bottom to the cabinet or somewhere.
Aug 2, 2017 6:26AM PDT

This is why when I have the situation as above I build it on cardboard. There are way too many discussions about mounting posts, shorts caused by that and so on.

-> Here's an old story. The motherboard DOCUMENT called out a set of pins as the HDD LED ACTIVITY connection but if you looked at the board it was marked RESET. Well what happened was folk accepted the document and didn't try the board with less connections or cardboard. From what I hear about half those boards were returned. That's many times the norm.

- Collapse -
Answer
Motherboard and PS/2
Jul 29, 2017 9:16AM PDT

Older 775 Intel motherboard. Two areas I'd look into. Driver for the VIA video chip causing slow display on monitor. Make sure you have the correct driver installed, especially if you've recently reloaded windows onto the computer. Failure of PS/2 system is rare unless as Bob noted, it's off in BIOS, and that option's not even available in all BIOS. Check instead that there's not a short in the small tower the PS/2 is located, loose solder connections on the motherboard, more easily seen on backside of the motherboard. Just cords pulling on it at times is enough to cause that to happen.

General
Product TypeMotherboard - micro ATX
Chipset TypeIntel G41 Express / Intel ICH7
Max Bus Speed1333 MHz
Processor SocketLGA775 Socket
Max Processors Qty1
First Seen On Google ShoppingDecember 2010
Supported RAM
Max Size8 GB
TechnologyDDR3
Bus Clock1066 MHz, 800 MHz
SpeedPC3-8500, PC3-6400
Registered or BufferedUnbuffered
Graphics
Graphics ControllerIntel GMA X4500
Memory Allocation TechnologyDynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0
Audio
TypeHD Audio (8-channel)
Audio Codec VIA VT1708S
Compliant StandardsHigh Definition Audio
LAN
Network ControllerAtheros AR8132M
Network InterfacesEthernet
Expansion / Connectivity
Expansion Slots1 x CPU 2 x DIMM 240-pin ( 1.5 V ) 1 x PCIe x16 2 x PCI ( 3.3 V/ 5 V )
Storage InterfacesIntel ICH7: ATA-100 -connectors: 1 x 40pin IDC - 2 devices Intel ICH7: SATA-300 -connectors: 4 x 7pin Serial ATA - 4 devices
Interfaces1 x PS/2 keyboard 1 x PS/2 mouse 1 x VGA 1 x serial 1 x parallel 4 x USB 2.0 1 x LAN 1 x audio line-out - mini-jack 1 x audio line-in - mini-jack 1 x microphone - mini-jack
Internal Interfaces1 x floppy 1 x audio - 4 pin MPC 4 x USB 2.0
Power Connectors4-pin ATX12V connector, 24-pin main power connector

- Collapse -
Forgot to mention something
Jul 31, 2017 5:35AM PDT

There is a graphics card on the pcix16 slot. So the motherboard video chip doesn't have to do anything with this.
And besides that I tried connecting the monitor to the vga port on the motherboard but it doesn't display anything. Probably because I have to change the primary video device in the bios but I'm unable to access the bios now.

- Collapse -
BIOS?
Jul 31, 2017 8:26AM PDT

You can't access it now? Have you replaced the 2032 coin battery recently? If you can't access BIOS, then that is significant.

- Collapse -
Can't access bios
Aug 2, 2017 12:08AM PDT

I can't access the bios because the ps2 port isn't working and only ps2 keyboard works with the bios. The start screen showed "keyboard interface error".

- Collapse -
did you try another PS/2 keyboard on this?
Aug 3, 2017 8:13AM PDT

If you can't enter the bios, then open the computer box and short the CMOS chip, using the provided jumper. See your manual or a youtube video on how to do it.

- Collapse -
The keyboard works
Aug 3, 2017 11:41PM PDT

When I plug in the ps2 port the three LEds on the keyboard flash. But after that it doesn't work. Even pressing the num lock key doesn't glow up the lights. And I've tries the keyboard on another computer it works fine.

- Collapse -
I reset the bios already.
Aug 3, 2017 11:53PM PDT

But it didn't work. It still shows keyboard interface error. But now I don't have to press F1 to continue it directly boots to windows.

- Collapse -
Answer
If the PS/2 port fails to power or blink the keyboard lights
Jul 29, 2017 9:35AM PDT
- Collapse -
Keyboard is working
Aug 3, 2017 11:43PM PDT

When I plug the ps2 port the three LEds on the keyboard flash. But after that it even if I press the num lock key it doesn't glow the led.