# Forcing USB ports back into action

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forcing-usb-ports-back-into-action/540932>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 27, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forcing-usb-ports-back-into-action/540932 "2010-05-27T11:29:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forcing-usb-ports-back-into-action/540932/1 "2010-05-27T11:29:53Z")

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There are a couple of USB devices I have that once I use XP’s “Safely remove hardware” function, seem to render the port I had them in useless until the next reboot. In a unix-based o/s I imagine a simple unmount would do, but how do you force XP to recognize a USB port once something is removed from it?

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**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forcing-usb-ports-back-into-action/540932/2 "2010-05-27T13:26:50Z")

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Sounds like a driver issue to me - it is not typical Windows USB behaviour. There is not much you can do apart from try to find updated drivers for the USB device or interface.

Si