dear lazyweb

[acroyear]

Is there a way to get Windows XP to restart the USB handler (plug-n-play?) without having to reboot the whole damn box?

One of the things I've found is that when an XP box has been up for too long, it stops responding correctly to USB.  Devices fall off and won't reconnect when plugged back in.  A simple reboot and all is well.  However, it looks like the Plug N Play daemon/service can't be restarted by the Services window.

Comments

[thewhitedragon.livejournal.com]

check the power management tabs on all of the USB root hubs - XP natively shuts off power to most USB hub ports to conserve power and it sounds like your ports aren't being cycled up after the initial power down. Considering they don't consume much power, you might want to consider leaving them on.

Also, you might be able to turn on the 'wake the machine out of standby' option instead which *should* trigger the power cycling of the ports.

[3fingeredsalute.livejournal.com]

While it's not technically "restart the USB handler", to get it to re-recognize the USB devices, just unplug the device and plug it into an unused port (or swap two devices).

My USB cables are twisted and tangled because of the constant "braiding" I have had to do in the past.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

after a while, even that totally fails. had a printer go to sleep and normally "wakes up" when i swap which usb port it is in, but this time 'round (xp uptime, over a month) it just wasn't gonna do it.

the laptop (uptime about the same) wouldn't respond to the WD passbook drive no matter what i plugged it into.

seriously, the whole USB/PNP daemon simply wasn't going to do jack.