How to fix “Unknown USB Device (Port Reset Failed)” error in Windows 11

What is “Unknown USB Device (Port Reset Failed)” error

Unknown USB Device (Port Reset Failed) is a type of issue that occurs when the system is unable to read a connected USB device, usually a mouse or keyboard. This consequently prevents people from using their devices on a Windows laptop or computer. As a rule, users find out about this issue after taking a look into Device Manager under the section of Universal Series Bus controllers. The most common causes for this problem are obsolete/corrupted drivers, enabled USB selective suspend feature wrong power management settings, or even damaged USB device itself. Whatever it is, it may hard to identify the root of the issue without trying various methods. Try each solution we offer below until one of them finally resolves the problems and lets Windows recognize your USB device again.

1. Check your USB device

Before trying further solutions, it is important to make sure nothing is wrong with the device itself. If you are struggling to use a peripheral device while connected to a specific USB port, try to use another port instead. If none of the ports seem to recognize it on your PC/laptop, try doing so on some other computer. Working as it should? – Then proceed with the next steps pinned down below.

2. Make sure your system is up-to-date

There is a slight chance, that your system lacks certain updates to ensure the proper operation of USB devices. Therefore, check whether there are any available updates waiting to be installed. It is possible that some of them contain the necessary fixes to normalize the problem related to the recognition of USB devices. The steps are very similar to Windows 10 and you can see them here below.

1. Right-click on the Start Menu button at the bottom taskbar of your desktop and choose Settings. You can also press Windows Key + I buttons instead.
2. Navigate to Windows Update and click Check for updates.
3. Wait until Windows finds new updates and install them. If new updates were already pending, you can install them immediately without searching for them.

3. Update/Reinstall the problematic USB driver

Malfunctioned drivers are usually one of the most frequent reasons why Windows cannot identify the connected device. The solution is pretty simple, and it is to either update or uninstall the problematic driver so that Windows could install it again. You can start with updating first and, if this does not help, try uninstalling the driver as well.

To update the driver:

1. Right-click on the Windows 11 icon and select Device Manager.
2. In the opened tab, find and expand a section called Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. The driver causing the issue is usually named Unknown USB Device (Port Reset Failed) and should be updated in the first order.
4. Right-click on it, select Update Driver, choose Search automatically for drivers and follow the on-screen instructions.
5. Windows will start searching for available updates and automatically install them on your computer.

Additionally, you can also update all drivers you see on the list, to make sure all of them are up-to-date.

To uninstall the driver:

1. Open the same Universal Serial Bus controllers section through Device Manager as we did above.
2. Right-click on Unknown USB Device or other problematic adapter and choose Uninstall.
3. After that, reboot your PC and wait a bit until Windows restores the deleted adapter.

Updating each driver manually can be time- and energy-consuming. If you want to update drivers faster in bulk, we recommend using a special utility called Driver Booster from IObit. The program is equipped and always updated with broad databases of drivers for all Windows devices, including USB controllers. You can download it using the button below.

Driver Booster start screen

Driver Booster scan results

Driver Booster tools section

4. Disable USB selective suspend setting

USB selective suspend setting is a Windows feature allowing users to conserve battery power by putting disengaged ports into a suspended mode. In other words, it turns off the operation of other ports that are not used by USB devices. Sometimes this feature may cause problems like the Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed) error and stop USB devices from working correctly. You can try disabling this feature to see whether it fixes the error. Here is how:

1. Click on the Search loop icon next to Start Menu and type Control Panel.
2. Choose Power Options from the list. If you do not see it, make sure View by is set to Large icons.
3. Then, click on Change plan settings next to your selected power plan.
4. Click Change advanced power settings.
5. Scroll down the list until you find USB settings. Expand it and change the value of USB selective suspend setting to Disabled.
6. Finally, click Apply and OK to save the changes.

After performing this method, try to connect your USB device again.

5. Disable Power Management feature

In this method, we are going to ban Windows from turning off the USB device for saving power. Initially, this feature is designed to be useful for the conservation of battery by disabling temporarily unused devices. However, sometimes it functions improperly and can lead to an error like Unknown USB Device (Port Reset Failed). Thus, try to do the following in order to disable it.

1. Go to Device Manager as we did before.
2. Locate the problematic driver named Unknown USB Device (Port Reset Failed) and double-click on it.
3. Navigate to Power Management tab and disable the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power feature if it was enabled.
4. Click OK to save changes and try to use the device one last time.

Summary

We hope these 5 solutions were just enough to get you over the Unknown USB Device (Port Reset Failed) issue. If any other issues will surface someday in the future, feel free to use our website to find articles with relevant guidelines. We have a lot of them published at a regular pace.