USB Drivers: How to Update

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Updating USB Drivers

USB ports come in two flavors: regular and enhanced (USB 2.0). USB 2.0 devices offer faster transfer speeds are backwards compatible with USB. If your computer was built after 2002, it most likely has USB 2.0-enabled ports meaning that you have one or more host controllers that are USB 2.0 enhanced.

How do you know if you have USB or USB 2.0? The Device Manager will tell you. Start the Device Manager through the Control Panel. Look under the System icon and then click Device Manager. Scroll to the bottom of the list where you’ll see Universal Serial Bus controllers. Expand the category by clicking the plus sign. Look for the word “enhanced.” If you see an enhanced controller, you do have USB 2.0.

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If your computer was built prior to 2002, you may have USB 2.0 host controllers but not the USB driver required. Windows XP and 2000 were release before hardware using USB 2.0 came out.

If you don’t find an enhanced controller, look under Other Devices and see if any Universal Serial Bus controllers show up in that category. If so, they’ll likely have a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in them, indicating that the USB driver is lacking. This usually means that you have enhanced USB ports but the drivers haven’t been installed.

If you have Windows XP, the USB drivers were released in SP1. Use Windows Update to update your operating system if you haven’t done so already.

To reinstall the USB driver, double-click it in Device Manager and click Reinstall Driver. This launches the New Hardware wizard. Choose “Install the software automatically” and follow the prompts. You will need to reboot the computer when the process finishes.

If you have a computer built after 2002 but find that your USB ports are no longer functioning properly, it could also indicate a problem with the USB driver. Device drivers can fail. When system files get damaged, the processes that rely on the files, including hardware like USB ports, also fail. Restoring the damaged or missing system files solves the other symptoms.

How do you know if you need a USB driver? Once again, take a look at Device Manager. Go to the Universal Serial Bus controller category and look for yellow error icons. If an icon is present, something is wrong with the device. Double-click the device and see what the General tab’s message says. It usually has an indication of what’s wrong such as “missing driver.”

To update the driver, use the Driver tab and choose Update Driver. Next, select the option that lets Device Manager search automatically for updates. If any USB driver updates are available, Device Manager will automatically install them.

You can also download drivers directly from the manufacturer’s website. For example, if the USB devices on your system are from Intel, go to Intel’s website and look for their USB drivers section. Make sure to get the exact USB driver for your device and operating system.

In addition to these steps, you can also set up Windows Update to keep your computer updated with the latest updates from Microsoft. Along with operating system updates and hotfixes, Microsoft also includes major hardware driver updates with the updating service as you saw in the USB driver update in SP 1 for Windows XP. By keeping your computer updated, you’ll avoid many potential problems.