USB ports not working after restoring back

Question

After restoring this computer with a backup it appears that 2 of the 5 usb ports no longer work. I'm thinking that there is something corrupted on the backup disk causing the failure. When I plug in a usb keyboard to these ports the system will not recognize the new hardware on the 2 bad ports but does recognize new hardware on the remaining three ports. All the ports were working prior to the restoration.

Answer 1

Device Manager might just need a kick...

1. Head on over to Device Manager (right-click Computer/My Computer, click Manage and select Device Manager).

2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.

3. If you see Unknown Device listed anywhere, or anything USB-ish with a yellow triangle, right-click it and Uninstall.

4. Uninstall any "Host Controllers" from the list. If prompted, delete the driver software.

5. Restart your computer.

Any devices should automatically reinstall when you log on again, including devices plugged into the problematic USB ports.

Answer 2

Have seen phantom devices prevent a device from being recognized. Found a lot of entries in the SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet pertaining to all the USB drives that have plugged into the PC which could be conflicting. Windows keeps track of the devices you plug in.

I was able to manualy remove some but in digging into this I found someone had a tool I have not tried it but others report success. Drive Tools for WindowsFull info at the link