Featured Articles
Announcing Pi
Technical Specifications
Raspberry Pi FAQs
Win a Pi
Raspberry Pi Wishlist
Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 10 replies
  • Subscribers 665 subscribers
  • Views 11292 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Raspberry Pi 3 USB Ports no longer operating

Former Member

Hello there,

 

I have been trying to get some type of assistance beyond troubleshooting because I believe that the USB ports on my RPi3 have spontaneously stopped working... I have only had this raspberry pi for 5 days now and have been looking all over to get some type of help with a similar case as mine. I cannot correctly shutdown the RPi which is sort of a problem when you have loaded a good amount of files onto an SD card. Do you know how to proceed with such a problem without corrupting my SD card. I cannot use any hotkeys or anything due to the USB slots not working

 

Please let me know if you can help me with troubleshooting or a product replacement

 

Thank you for your time,

 

Donley Henson

Parents

  • 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.

  • in reply to shabaz

    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

Reply Children
No Data