Raspberry Pi 3 USB Ports no longer operating

Hi Donley,

If the USB ports are not functioning, there are some other options for connecting to the Pi to examine it and to safely shut it down.

1. Ethernet connection - you could connect up the Ethernet to your switch/router, and then remotely access the Pi using SSH protocol (software like PuTTY as an example can be used). Then you can issue the 'sudo poweroff' from your remote shell.

2. Wireless connection - If the Pi 3 is connected to the wireless LAN then again the steps in (1) can be done, no need to connect the Ethernet.

3. Serial connection - if you have a USB UART adapter then you can access the hardware console connection on the Pi, and issue the command using that and terminal software (e.g. PuTTY again, this time choosing the USB UART, instead of a network connection using SSH).

4. If a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse is paired with the 'Pi then the Pi could be plugged into a monitor and the Bluetooth keyboard or mouse could be used to shutdown the Pi from the menu or command line.

Potential Issues:

Options (1) could be problematic in that if the USB has failed then there is a possibility that Ethernet has failed too, since that circuitry hangs off the same bus (see the Pi 3 Block Diagram).

Option (2) will only work if you've already enabled the wireless and configured it prior to the issue occurring

Option (3) will require some experimentation unless you'd explicitly configured the serial interface in a certain manner prior to the issue occurring. This is because by default the serial interface clock speed is not fixed and varies depending on processor speed. You may have to try different serial speeds until you find one that works. It also depends on having a USB-UART adapterUSB-UART adapter (worth buying one not just for the 'Pi but for working with any microcontroller/processor board).

Option (4) only works if a Bluetooth device was previously paired with the 'Pi.

If all options are ruled out because of the Potential Issues list, then I think you may need to just power off and hope for the best, recover what files you can or re-image the microSD card although that will remove all personal content.

Shabaz, I don't remember what procedure I have done but if I am not totally wrong I had a problem with the SD card in past just with a PI. I have mounted it with Ubuntu desktop and I was able to access some of my /home/pi user folders. What I am not sure is if I have used Ubuntu, Debian or some other Linux.

Enrico

@dchenson, shabaz and balearicdynamics

I found this thread.....

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=110164

and this one

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=162103

It might help....

I have 3 RPi 3's none of them has this issue.

Yunus.

Correct Yunus.

As a matter of fact I think that me and shabaz too considered de facto these or some other test as the initial assertion is that the USB is no longer working. Anyway if not yet tested this is a good way to check via software if all the USB are not working. In the case these are instead working well maybe something wrong to the attached peripherals. The first thing I think is that some sort of short circuit happens to one of the USB (that makes all working bad or not working at all) or an unexpected too high current absorbed by one of the attached peripherals.

Enrico

My thoughts exactly!

Now maybe a good idea that Guest just say something

It does seem strange that there have been a few other reports of all ports not functioning, I too was wondering the same as you, if maybe it was due to accidental shorting of some of the USB socket pins on the underside of the Pi's PCB during experimentation etc, causing a temporary issue until the board is rebooted.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know what happens if/when that on-board USB hub (LAN9514) goes nuts, does the driver try to reset it. There is no easy way to externally reset it either, and even if a user did manage to do that, the driver might not initialize it again until the entire Pi is rebooted.

It would be good if there was some logging or script that could periodically check the USB hub circuit, and send some information to syslog, so that people could check afterwards to try and find the root cause if they did have to reboot the board.

Hello Shabaz,

I can confirm that - especially when there is current overcharge - the ports stop working (I suppose a sort of protection). Normally resetting the entire PI (power off / power on) will solve the problem.

I have not yet experienced any USB strange behaviour on the PI but Debian, as well as most of the other Linux distributions, will write USB problems in the /var/log/... folder

As far as I know there is no way to reset externally the USB because it is the USB kernel module unloaded to avoid data corruption to other services. This happens with Mac (linux-like), Ubuntu, Debian desktop and many other.

Enrico

Hi Enrico,

I see... thanks for investigating!! It sounds like one option could be if someone developed an optional monitor process that if it detects that USB has failed, then it reboots the board if it cannot reset and reconfigure it. But it wouldn't suit everyone, because some may prefer to keep the Pi running.

It's almost a limitation of Linux if there is no easy way for it to reload the USB kernel module while the rest of Linux is still running, but perhaps that is a security risk or something.. I'm sure there is good reason.

Hi Shabaz,

as far as I know this is the "normal" behaviour of Linux that is usually oriented to save the computer. In most of the cases it is also possible to unload and reload the Kernel but USB is not just "USB", it is an almost complex protocol. By one side the USB is used to connect devices like printers so it manages the protocol as a standard serial (despite that USB itself stays for Universal Serial Bus). But it can also be used - for example - to manage audio on a different layer.

Then there is a sort of exception that is where USB is used to interface HID (human Interface Device), typically keyboard and mouse. The USB HID driver is low level and it is always present, one of the first modules loaded by the kernel as it should provide the minimal essential interface support to communicate with the computer. Different instead while you have a printer or - more generically - a serial interface of the type ttyUsb. In this case the module can be reloaded and the service stopped as well with the kernel running. It is also the case of the Audio interface, serial over USB and other devices.

In a general view all those devices that requires some sort of driver to be loaded as service or kernel module after the first boot level can be unloaded or stopped if the physical hardware can be harmful for the computer.

But without a clear scenario of what is loaded and what is not, it is almost impossible to theorise a right solution or at least a correct troubleshooting.

Enrico