Inoperative USB ports

Factual Questions
1

On my computer, I have four USB ports in the back, a couple in the front, and a couple on the side of my LCD monitor, which is hooked up to the computer by USB.

At first, everything worked. Then the bottom USB port on the side of the monitor just stopped working. Then the bottom USB on the front of the computer. Then the top USB on the monitor.

What causes the USB ports to just stop working? You plug something into them and the computer doesn’t see it.

2

Assuming your computer is a Windows PC…

Sometimes the port drivers get messed up. One way to fix this is to go into the Windows Device Manager and remove all of the USB ports and root hubs, then reboot and let it discover and install them all again. Sounds drastic, but often works and is actually pretty safe.