title: Is it possible to restore USB port firmware at BIOS level?
body: <p>I am not very interested in the hardware implications, rather in a possible corruption of the firmware (ie, there is a software solution).</p>
  
  <p>[The following is just to illustrate that the computerhas unusual peripherals:A controller PCI card (for a microscope) was installed in a not too ancient computer (Intel Core Duo). This card required installing an additional Firewire card and uses a USB thumbdrive to deliver a license key for a custom-made software (made by the microscope manufacturer). The controller card, the microscope are second-hand, so help from the manufacturer is not a direct option. The computer had 4 back USB 2.0 ports and 2 front USB 2.0 ports.]</p>
  
  <p>That card was installed more than two years ago, and has been working reasonably well. At first, more than one year ago, the front ports stopped working, there is power on them (devices' led light up), the device is simply not seen. I ignored that at the time.</p>
  
  <p>A month ago, XP started complaining about unknown USB device, sometimes all USB ports went off, and restarting did not solve the problem - the solution was to shut down, unplug from the mains for several minutes and restart. In the end USB ports 3 and 4 behaved as the front ports: there is power but no device is seen.</p>
  
  <p>I am suspecting that the controller PCI card has done something at BIOS level. The leds on the PCI card light up before the OS starts. Also the USB port behaviour using an Ubuntu LiveDVD, is exactly the same, only USB port 1 and 2 work, the others (front and back) have power but no device is detected.</p>
  
  <p>The motherboard is an Asus with (American Megatrend's) ACPI BIOS v.0310.</p>
  
  <p>I would like to change or even reinstall whatever the BIOS is using to control the USB ports in order to restore their functionality.</p>
  
  <p>I am completely unfamiliar about modifying computers' firmware (my only experience has been, at user level, follow instructions to upgrade firmware or enable/installing RAID BIOS software).</p>
  
  <p>Am I far off guessing that this might have been caused by the card corrupting the firmware and that that can be restored once again? Is it possible to target the USB port behaviour at "BIOS" level?</p>
  
  <p>Any help/hint will be greatly appreciated. </p>