USB issue with MSI K8NGM2-FID motherboard

[Skinleech]

Hi all,

First of all, here's the mobo specs, it's paired with an X2 4400, 2gb Corsair Value Ram. Unsure what Bios revision is on the board at present:

MicroStar K8NGM2-FID Socket 939 NVIDIA 6150 Gfx / PCI-E / DDR400 / SATA(II) RAID / 8CH AUDIO / FW / Gb LAN / DVI OUT / micro ATX motherboard(K8NGM2-FID) buy at PCUpgrade.co.uk

My issue is as follows. Within the last 2 weeks, the USB ports (both on the board, and the ones connected via the extra headers on the board) have been randomly dying on me on boot up. I'll start the PC, and the USBs have no activity on them, or if they do (like plugging in a USB HDD) it appears for a fraction of a second, then dissapears.

If I turn off the pc and try again, the problem is still evident, but if I turn off the PSU, and try again a wee while later, they seem ok. It's happened maybe 3 times in the last month, and I've not made any hardware changes, nor have I installed any different hardware. I normally have a USB lead for a HDD, a 360 HD-DVD drive and the wireless receiver for my mouse plugged into the USB ports on the board. The front ports are empty in 99.9% of cases - I occaisionally stick a USB stick into one of them.

The fact that they come back to life leads me to believe it's not a hardware issue, but wondering if anyone has experienced similar issues? I'm on XP SP2, and probably did a Windows update about a month ago. NOD32 reports no threats on the system after an in depth analysis.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as it's driving me a bit mad.

Thanks.

[Splash]

What PSU are you running? How old is it?

[Skinleech]

The PSU I assume?

A 480w Tagan modular jobbie. It's maybe a year to 18 months old. Connected insode is:

An 8600GTS
An Audigy 2
A card reader
1x Sata Blu-Ray drive (Pioneer BDC-202)
1x 750gb IDE HDD
4x 500gb Sata HDDs

As I say, nothing has changed inside in the last 3-4 months.

[Splash]

While that PSU should power those fine I'm wondering if it's possible to swap the PSU out for another known good one?

[Skinleech]

I have the exact same PSU in my C2D machine, and that's all I have access to. I even have a mates HTPC in the flat just now - with the same PSU!

Any other suggestions, as that'll be a right pain in the backside.

Cheers though Splash.

[Splash]

It smacks of PSU problems to me, but you could try uninstalling your USB Root Hubs and letting Windows redetect.

[Skinleech]

Yeah, you could be right. The machine is due a reinstall anyway, so will do that soon 7 see how it works out.

Cheers.