Arch Linux

JackDesper

Member

Registered: 2025-02-24

Posts: 7

Resolved - USB ports sporadically stop working

While temporarily using Win11 my USB ports worked just fine, but about a month before I switched from Arch and apparently still, two of my USB ports will sporadically start/stop working on my laptop (the single USB C on the left and one of the USB As on the right).  On very rare occasions the USB ports will work fine, but they might stop working at any point and they'll definitely stop working the next time I reboot. When I plug in my USB C headset dongle it's supposed to light up, but when the ports are "broken" the dongle will flash once each time I plug it in and then stay off. When they're "broken" my mouse dongle doesn't work in the problem USB A port, but if I plug in the charger for my headphones they'll charge fine while my iPhone charger won't work.

So I'm at a loss as to where to go next. If there's anything important I left out please let me know and I'll update you.

I ran `dmesg | grep -i usb` and here's the pastebin: https://pastebin.com/J9THeiPm

I think the problem may be an issue with something like autosuspend or LPM or maybe ACPI but I can't figure out how to actually change kernel parameters like autosuspend. I used echo to change the value at `/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend` and it didn't seem to do anything, but I can't reboot and check because I can't get it to persist and I've already borked one EFISTUB trying.

Thank you in advance for your time and effort!

Last edited by JackDesper (2025-02-26 23:31:11)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,142

Re: Resolved - USB ports sporadically stop working

You can persist usbcore by adding usbcore.autosuspend=-1 to your kernel parameters, all of which is documented under: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_ … utosuspend

Is "temporary Win11" not present anymore? If it was present (and especially if it still is), did you ensure fast boot was/is disabled? if it's not present anymore and your unsure to the state regarding fast boot, find out which sequence your system uses to properly reset firmware state.

FWIW if it happened on Windows already then this is almost certainly a HW issue. I can't really look at a pastebin journal on the network I'm in so that's all advice I can give on a whim, will check again later if I don't forget.

JackDesper

Member

Registered: 2025-02-24

Posts: 7

Re: Resolved - USB ports sporadically stop working

You can persist usbcore by...

I'll read the wiki page again, thank you

Is "temporary Win11" ...present...?... did you ensure fast boot was/is disabled?

Windows and Arch were never present at the same time. I never looked into fast boot so I'll look into the firmware reset, thank you.

if it happened on Windows ...this is... a HW issue

It did not happen on Windows. I was using Win11 for ~2 months, and never had a USB problem once. Sorry if that was unclear in my original post.

JackDesper

Member

Registered: 2025-02-24

Posts: 7

Re: Resolved - USB ports sporadically stop working

I opened up my laptop and disconnected the CMOS battery to reset my BIOS and the problem has since been resolved. Thank you very much V1del.