Macbook Pro USB ports are faulty in a strangely specific way

_jaz_ wrote:

Hi guys! I'm hoping you're able to help as I haven't found this specific problem documented anywhere.

Completely randomly, overnight, my USB ports stopped working properly. I have four ports, the macbook also started only charging in the top right port instead of all four. This was about two months ago.

Out of all of my USB devices, all stopped being recognised except two. These two USBs only worked in the top left port, instead of all four. When any other device is plugged in, nothing comes up in System Information, Disk Utility or Finder.

Since getting this issue I have tried updating my mac, I didn't update right before this issue started happening. I've tried all of the USB devices with other machines and they work for sure.

I've tried resetting the SMC and NVRAM. I'm not sure what this would do but the problem hasn't been solved. Has anyone experienced this before? I hope somebody can help. I don't think I can get it to an Apple store, I'd really like to fix this at home myself somehow.

These are my specs:

15-inch, 2016 Macbook Pro

Monterey (v 12.7.4)

2.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor

Memory - 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3

Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB

Revive or restore is not available on the 2016

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

you can do the clean install of macOS by erase the entire physical drive and reinstall from Recovery.

or Internet Recovery (Option Command R) How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

In or out of warranty you can get a free over the counter 'Apple Service Diagnostics' test /assessment

Make an appointment for a "hardware issue"

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Outside the USA

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support