mouse and possibly other USB devices not working on ubuntu 7.04

forgot to mention, i have tried another mouse, it doesn't work either, the light isn't on unless you are pressing/releasing a button in which case it blinks but there is no other effect that i can discern

Can you please post the output of the command lsusb (LSUSB in small letters) before and after the mouse stops working? You can easily save the output by pressing Alt+F2 and typing:

lsusb > ~/Desktop/output.txt

This will save the output on your desktop.

When the mouse is working its:
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0458:0033 KYE Systems Corp. (Mouse Systems)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
and then when its not:
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0458:0033 KYE Systems Corp. (Mouse Systems)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

sorry i think i accidentally closed this one, must be because i wasn't paying attention, sorry if you have tried to reply and have been unable to, i would still appreciate the help

i should also add the mouse is working for longer periods of time before stopping now

Hello,

Thanks for the lsusb outputs. You have asked for explanations, so my response is a bit detailed. The lsusb command, as you might have guessed, displays information about the devices connected to your computer's USB port. The output before and after your mouse stops working is exactly the same, which means, Ubuntu is detecting your device so it's most likely not a mouse hardware problem. In the past when I had a very similar problem, the device was not being detected either, replacing witha new mouse fixed the problem. USB mice usually follow the 'HID' interface which means most mice will not need specialized drivers to work, so there is little chance of it being a software issue.

I am tempted to say that this might be a problem with your computer's USB host controller, the subsystem which provides your computer access to the connected USB devices. This is further indicated by the fact that you also had problems with your printer not being detected.

However, I suggest a few additional steps: You have already tried using another mouse on your Ubuntu PC, which does not work either. Can you test the mouse on another PC and see if it works? It will be best if the other PC also has Ubuntu installed so that you can check whether it's a generic issue with Ubuntu or not. Secondly, can you check whether switching to different USB ports has any effect? Are other USB devices giving any problems too?

It is increasingly likely that this is a problem with your PC's usb interface, especially if you find that your mouse works on another Ubuntu PC. You can use the Ubuntu desktop CD to start Ubuntu on another computer for testing the mouse, without having to install Ubuntu onto it.

To add one more step to your troubleshooting: if you have Windows or another operating system installed on your computer, you could also try testing the mouse in the other operating system. This way you can find out whether your usb controller is really at fault or not.

Unfortunately i don't have the laptop with me at the moment so i wont be able to try all those but i will let you know what i know from memory.

i know the mouse does work on other PCs although i haven't tried it on other Ubuntu PCs, it did work on the computer with Windows before i switched but i no longer have windows installed. I have tried a mouse that is known to work with Ubuntu but the same thing happened, after a while it stopped working.

i have tried a memory stick which didn't work but that might have been because i was looking in the wrong place for it (/media isn't it?)

I believe it might be a USB host controller issue, so the important question is how would i go about fixing it? i will try the other measures you suggested when i get home.

thank you for the explanation before, i appreciate the help.

A while ago, I fixed a similar issue with my USB keyboard and mouse (KVM actually) not working with a new motherboard by buying a cheap device that lets you attach several USB peripherals to a single USB port, and attaching it in the middle. Had to buy several different devices though before I found one that did the trick.

Hope this helps

Testing the mouse on another computer, everything seems fine there so i guess it is the host controller, how do i go about fixing it? would it just involving updating etc a driver or is it possibly something wrong with the actual hardware of my computer?

Assuming that the mouse worked on another computer under Ubuntu, then it is a hardware failure with your computer. Or it could simply be an incompatibility between your computer's USB controller and the Ubuntu drivers. The only way to find out is to test the mouse on your own computer with Windows running (if you can). Then you can see whether Windows gives the same problem or not, and if it does, then your USB controller hardware is definitely defective. If there are no such problems under Windows, then it simply means the Ubuntu drivers are incompatible. In that case you can wait until a patch comes along or try to trouble-shoot further. Goodluck!