USB Ports on 3 month old Satellite C655-S5049 do not work-even after Recovery to "Out-of-Box" state

Question

Hello - Hoping someone can help with another suggestion- it doesn't look good.
Both USB ports on my wife's 3 month old Satellite C655-S5049 are non-functional with any USB device. Flash drives, wireless mouse, and external hard drive (powered) that all work on all of my other computers, do not work in either of this laptop's USB ports.
This problem seems to have developed gradually, and became noticeable previously as non-responsiveness in the wireless mouse, which gradually became a concern, with the computer appearing to freeze or lock-up - probably because of the number of times the mouse was clicked on shortcuts and executables before something happened.
The ports are now completely "dead"- no recognition of anything inserted once the computer is up and running.
There appears to be a thermal component involved, since I was able to get the devices recognized and working for up to a minute when booting the computer with the devices in the ports after it had been off for several hours after I did the default state recovery. The flash drive and mouse were recognized, drivers loaded message, but they then went to "unplugged" before I could get the cursor moving. I was able to access the flash drive, since I did it as soon as the driver loaded, but then it disappeared ("un-plugged" itself in the driver loaded message box). I can also get them recognized from this COLD boot state when I immediately plug them in once Windows 7 (64) loads, but they quickly disappear. If I wait a few minutes before re-booting, they flash during the Windows boot, but drop-out before it completes. If I wait 3-4 hours to re-boot, they flash (are recognized) for about a minute (Windows completely loads), but then they drop out.
I tried all of the suggestions on this board (and others) before doing a Recovery to Factory Default state. I have tried it with the original version 1.20 Bios, and with the version 1.50 Bios update. All driver updates have been downloaded and installed. The laptop does occasionally lock-up at the Toshiba screen during boot, and is verrrry slow in some operations (2 hours to do the recovery discs). The only other noticeable problem (at this time) is an occasional drop-out of wireless (Atheros AR9285) connectivity, which I have been blaming on the router since it is sporadic and infrequent (not consistent with the thermal argument). These problems are all after the Factory Default State recovery operation, so my assumption is that they are hardware based.
Any suggestions for a solution? This is a standard spec Satellite C655-S5049 that I was considering adding another 2GB memory to, but now I am unsure of its' future. A laptop cooler that runs from a USB port seems counter-productive.
I am technically capable, so you can be much briefer in your response than I have been in trying to fully detail the problems. This isn't the NVidia chip, but it does bring back memories of laptops past.
Thanks for any help,
G

Answer 1

I AM HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM WITH THE SAME MODEL. I GOT THE SERVICE
MANUAL AND I'M THINKING TO OPEN IT AND SEE IF THERE'S SOME PHYSICAL BAD CONNECTION
INSIDE. BUT LIKE YOU SAID.  IT'S ONLY THREE MONTHS OLD.!!! I DON'T WANT TO RUIN THE WARRANTEE.
BUT THIS IS VERY FRUSTATING. I WANDER IF TOSHIBA DOES THIS ON PURPUSE.!!! KEEP IN TOUCH AND
IF YOU NEED THE SERVICE MANUAL CONTACT ME AT [email protected]
      THANK YOU.!!!!