Solved USB Wifi Dongle Needs New USB Port Every Few Months!

My problem is as weird as it sounds.

I have a Tenda Wifi USB dongle that I use with my Windows 8.1 machine. It's pretty great, only that it requires a new USB port to feed from every few months. After it sucks a USB port dry, it slows down the internet to a crawl and I have to put the dongle into a brand new USB port to bring it back to speed again. Then a few months passes and it destroys that USB port and I have to put it into another new port. Rinse and repeat. I have completely exhausted my desktop's USB ports in the back and I am now resorting to using the ones I have on the front.

What could be the problem here? I hope there is a solution to this madness. I have tried uninstalling the dongle from the device manager but it doesn't seem to help!

Thanks!

This: Download USB Oblivion - MajorGeeks should clean up the traces your USB device left and let you start from beginning.

CountMike said:

This: Download USB Oblivion - MajorGeeks should clean up the traces your USB device left and let you start from beginning.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I am curious to try it out but what does it do exactly? Does it clean info on all USB ports? Will I have to re-install my mouse/keyboard/smartphone drivers again?

It cleans up history of USB devices plugged in but may remove some drivers too.

CountMike said:

It cleans up history of USB devices plugged in but may remove some drivers too.

Click to expand...

Thanks. And this is safe to use with Win 8.1?

Sorry for being too cautious. Can't screw up my PC!

Never too cautions but as always when doing something to the system make a restore point before you start.

CountMike said:

Never too cautions but as always when doing something to the system make a restore point before you start.

Click to expand...

Woah...this worked. I can't believe it.

Thanks a lot. Internet now works on one my PC's back USB ports. Let's see how long this lasts.

CountMike said:

Never too cautions but as always when doing something to the system make a restore point before you start.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but it didn't last long. It worked for 10mins and it went back to how it was.

Anything else i can do?

It might have also got overstuffed with internet settings, you can try some of this:
Flash DNS
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
netsh winsock reset catalog
Netsh lan show interfaces
netsh wlan show all
netsh int ip reset reset.log
netstat -abf 5 > activity.txt

CountMike said:

It might have also got overstuffed with internet settings, you can try some of this:
Flash DNS
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
netsh winsock reset catalog
Netsh lan show interfaces
netsh wlan show all
netsh int ip reset reset.log
netstat -abf 5 > activity.txt

Click to expand...

Do i type them all in cmd?

Yes, forgot to mention that, CMD prompt "As administrator"

CountMike said:

Yes, forgot to mention that, CMD prompt "As administrator"

Click to expand...

Nope, none of that helped. None of the back USB ports works with the dongle. Internet is super slow. This is such a weird ass problem.

I tried googling but I guess the problem is so rare nobody has experienced it.

Does other USB stuff work in same places ?

CountMike said:

Does other USB stuff work in same places ?

Click to expand...

Yup, just plugged in my smartphones and made some transfers and it worked just fine.

That's the thing, though. The USB port itself works, but it somehow isn't able to power the wifi dongle.

Judging by symptoms I thought it might be SW problem but if you think it may be power problem it may make sense too. Is that a laptop or a desktop computer ? If you had USB3 port it would help because they have more power. If it's lack of power you can also try with a powered USB hub.

CountMike said:

Judging by symptoms I thought it might be SW problem but if you think it may be power problem it may make sense too. Is that a laptop or a desktop computer ? If you had USB3 port it would help because they have more power. If it's lack of power you can also try with a powered USB hub.

Click to expand...

Not sure if it's power, though because IT USED TO WORK. Then all of a sudden, two days ago, it died. ALL back USB ports are rejecting it. Only the front ones work (USB2/3). And I have like 8 USB ports in the back and none of them ****ing work. I have six in the front and I am worried I will exhaust them all, as well.

This is a desktop. I have two USB 3 ports in the front but I am apprehensive about using the dongle on them in case they screw them up.

If it's because of power, it shouldn't ruin anything but if it's SW thing I really don't know what could cause it. Apparently, ports itself are fine physically if other things work. Maybe drivers for that dongle.

CountMike said:

If it's because of power, it shouldn't ruin anything but if it's SW thing I really don't know what could cause it. Apparently, ports itself are fine physically if other things work. Maybe drivers for that dongle.

Click to expand...

DRIVERS!

How did I miss that. So I downloaded the official drivers off Tenda's website and...now it works! I even uninstalled the utility manager that comes with it, although it doesn't even launch. But as long as it works fine.

Let's see how long this lasts!

Turns out, the problem wasn't drivers or the USB port, but interference from a Sennheiser wireless headset that I am trying at the moment. Whenever I turn it on, the wireless goes kaput. Turn it back off and boom, it starts to work again. Since, I have been exclusively using these headsets, I never noticed the connection until now.

Well, that's good then!

mufaa said:

Turns out, the problem wasn't drivers or the USB port, but interference from a Sennheiser wireless headset that I am trying at the moment. Whenever I turn it on, the wireless goes kaput. Turn it back off and boom, it starts to work again. Since, I have been exclusively using these headsets, I never noticed the connection until now.

Well, that's good then!

Click to expand...

Sure it is good, it works now ?