Flash drives not recognised with front USB ports

[Gerry]

A teacher is having problems with their Kingston 1GB Datatraveller (only 1 month old). Sometimes it's recognised, most often not though. Stick it in a rear port, perfectly ok. My own unbranded flash drive works fine no matter which port it's in. I tried an extension cable from the rear, no luck with that either, though my own worked fine through it. The teacher says a few students also have same difficulties with various makes of flash drives.

Anyone know of any reason(s) why this would happen? My current theory is crappy motherboard, maybe even power supply.

Thanks.

[Sirbendy]

what manufacturer? I get this with our Dells quite a bit.

I put it down to flexing connections on the front board..some drives will flex it more than others due to width etc..

[Gerry]

Our PC's are manufactured by Stone.

[antoeknee]

USB can be a pain like this we've one staff laptop where certain makes of stick just aren't detected.

I've a laptop at home where a usb mouse will only be detected on one of the 5 ports, other devices work on every port. Tried a different mouse and same issue.