Why do people suggest you try using another USB port? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Why not?

Firstly, not all USB ports are made the same. Front usb ports are notorious for not supplying enough power for many devices, especially with older/cheaper cases. USB 3.0 may not work for keyboards at boot time for many devices. You might have more than one controller on a system for USB, and that controller may be flakey. In short, it rules out an error with a specific port, its controller, or the physical electrical subsystem that is supporting it.

It is no different from running a minimal system to work out why a motherboard or other device is acting up, and adding things till something fails.

Solution 2:

Sometimes, Windows will see the same device on a different port as a different device, and reload the drivers for it.

Solution 3:

USB ports may be connected to hubs internally, where power and data transfer must be shared. So it's conceivable that problems may be caused by having other devices on the same physical hub, if you have a device that needs a certain amount of power / transfer rate to function properly.

Solution 4:

In addition to the technical answers, there is always the possibility that the device isn't plugged into the USB port properly due to user error. In this case, removing and re-inserting the device could make the user concentrate and insert it properly.