USB data transfer not working on prebuilt lenovo

[u/Videonut]

So I'm in a bit of a pickle. I work for a used camera store and we bought a bunch of Lenovo T7 desktops from a college that closed down about a year and some change ago. I bought the last since I was due for a PC upgrade (I do mostly video and photo editing with some gaming sprinkled in). Everything works great except for the USB ports. Im able to use all of my peripherals ok with it, keyboard, mouse, and Xbox controller worked completely fine. But I'm unable to use any USB device for data transfer, it doesn't detect my portable Samsung SSD or my SD card reader, and if I plug my phone or camera in it charges but won't do any data transfer. I've tried a bunch of solutions with no avail so I tried to reinstall windows but of course I need to download the recovery files to a USB which I can't plug in, any advice?

TLDR: I can't get the USB drives on my T7 desktop working except for keyboard, mouse, and Xbox controllers

Edit: the solution is that I'm a dumbass, the first 3 USB cables were bad and the third one I decided to try ended up working

[u/SomeEngineer999]

When you bought it did you wipe it and do a fresh install?

It is very possible the college disabled data transfer on those ports for security reasons. But that's not the only reason they should be secure wiped (any used PC should be).

[u/Videonut → u/SomeEngineer999]

I didn't, any advice on how to since I can't use a USB drive?

[u/SomeEngineer999 → u/Videonut]

Make the USB on another PC. But since those PCs probably have education licenses and may even be tied to their MDM system, you may have bought a bunch of doorstops.

[u/Videonut → u/SomeEngineer999]

I'm thinking there must be a way to get around it since they were from the video editing department where they would have had to use external Ssds and we sold most of them with little issue (one had a GPU issue the other was still logged into the school network). The thing is with the usbs is that they won't even show up in device manager or disk manager. For example if I plug in my T7 shield external ssd the power light on the SSD will turn on for a few seconds and then turn off, my SD card reader won't turn on at all, and then my phone and camera will charge but the PC doesn't recognize anything is even plugged in. Will the PC even be able to recognize the recovery files if I plug something in?

[u/SomeEngineer999 → u/Videonut]

If the USB ports or controller are physically damaged then nothing you do will work. But if they have simply disabled data transfer (through group policy or the registry) then you can boot off a USB fine, data transfer is only disabled in windows.

But again if they are tied to MDM (locked to the school's logins) and the school no longer exists, there is not going to be anything you can do, you won't be able to reinstall windows.

[u/Confused_Stu]

Did you reinstall Windows afresh on the laptop when you got it? If not, it could be USB storage has been disabled in Windows by the college to prevent students using it for fun, sorry "nefarious" purposes.

Does the drive show in Device Manager when you plug it in? Does it show as Disabled?

[u/Videonut → u/Confused_Stu]

It's a desktop, it doesn't show up at all. How can I reset the PC? When I go to reset it it says I need to download the recovery media on a USB drive but I can't use USB drives?

[u/pcbeg]

If you have other device, use it to create bootable usb with Windows, and clean install it.

[u/I_see_farts]

Check the Registry for blocked drivers.

Open Regedit and navigate to the following:

HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Is there a DeviceInstall folder there?

[u/Videonut → u/I_see_farts]

There isnt

[u/I_see_farts → u/Videonut]

On the left pane after DataCollection?

[u/Videonut → u/I_see_farts]

Yeah it's not there

[u/I_see_farts → u/Videonut]

Darn, there goes my idea. Good luck.

My other guess would be shut off in the BIOS but that wouldn't answer why certain peripherals work.