I have a recent Windows 8.1 install with the following issue:

You can not plug in a USB device while Windows is running. (Device is detected, but shows up as a driverless device in device manager)
If you reboot with a USB device attached, the same USB device works fine.
If you then un-plug and re-connect the device, it doesn't work....not until you reboot again.

I have tested this with a handful of devices, all of which do not require special drivers (Optical Mouse/Thumb Drive/Wireless transceiver)

I have run Windows Update and have installed the latest Intel driver for the USB host.

Any ideas what can be done to troubleshoot this?

• Open the Device Manager.
• Expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers."
• Right-click each entry under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" and select "Uninstall."
• Ensure you've done this for each entry under "Universal Serial Bus controllers."
• Reboot the computer.

You may also boot into Safe mode and check if USB ports are working. The same can be tried with a Clean Boot too.

How do I troubleshoot my USB ports when they won't work.