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What is the difference between the rear USB ports and the front USB ports?

Anonymous
2014-02-03T23:50:27+00:00

Why does some USB equipment only work with the REAR USB port on a computer and not the FRONT USB port?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-04T16:40:21+00:00

    USB ports on the back panel carry more power (not higher voltage) than the USB headers on the front panel..

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-04T13:57:39+00:00

    Hello,

    Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Forum.

    There is technically no difference between the front and rear USB ports. The rear ports are soldered to the motherboard and the front port have a cable which connects them to the mother board. The Front or rear ports can be used to easily access devices kept in front or back.

    Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance with Windows, we’ll be glad to assist you.

    Thank you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-04T17:24:12+00:00

    typical responses from microsoft apologists

    it is always something else in this case the hardware yet quite rightly walker says it's a windows glitch and he's correct, OF COURSE IT IS THE SOFTWARE

    windows is so useless on my machine I have one port on the right and two on the left, I can only use the one one the right for peripherals the ports on the left are will not recognise any device plugged into them. they will however charge things plugged in ie a phone

    it would appear looking in device manager that it knows they are USB ports but is clueless as to what driver to load (surely the same one as it can successfully load into the right hand port!)

    fix the software a stop blaming anything and everything else

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-04T18:41:59+00:00

    Excuse me???

    It is a hardware issue in this case. The motherboard ports to which the front headers are connected are less powerful than those on the back panel REGARDLESS of the OS.

    For USB devices which consume above average power, the back ports should always be used. The front  ones are for flash drives and other low consumption devices.

    Your situation is slightly different and is probably due to the USB ports not being picked up correctly, wrong driver maybe. I have a Lenovo G780 with a similar configuration to yours and ALL of the ports work perfectly..

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-02-04T15:44:46+00:00

    You would think that your answer logically would be correct, but I have some USB equipment that will only work using the rear USB ports. After many tries with the front USB ports not working (EVEN THOUGH THEY WORK WITH MOST OF MY USB EQUIPMENT) I sought help from the equipment manufactory and was told to use the rear USB port only. Apparently with Windows 7 64 bit OS there are gliches with the front USB ports. My guess is that it must have something to do with timing.

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